Category: Reflections

I am one of these leaves,
falling.

I am one of these trees, letting go
of what once gave life, but now doesn’t.

I am one of these migrating birds,
led great distances to the unseen.

I am one of these wildflowers,
scattering seeds before I die.

I am the little stream
that receives and gives.

I stand in this meadow
dying, becoming new.

__________________
Weather Report

Unceasing,
as momentary patterns
shift, repeat and vary.
Expect the cycle to continue,
with singing in the upper latitudes,
long beyond your dying.
Cooler tonight.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

My child,
Thank you for being you.
I created you for someone to be in love with—
and here you are.
I know sometimes you feel brilliant
and sometimes a total failure,
but you are lovely, and sacred,
and the light of my delight burns in you
no matter what.
Beloved, I pray earnestly that you will be
the beautiful soulI created you to be.
You are my face in your world;
you are my hands, and I love working in them;
you are my eyes, and I love looking through them.
I am with you every breath;
I pray you will let my spirit in,
let me fill you and guide you;
let me be in you.
I pray you will trust what you can’t see
and rarely feel: my infinite love for you.
Oh, Beloved, I am so silly in love with you.
I pray in hope and joy and confidence,
in the name and the spirit of Jesus,
who for you and for me is our image of the other.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

What if you resolved
—without knowing just what it means—
to live this day in holiness?

What if—without knowing
much about it at all—
you let your life be part
of a great, sacred mystery
unfolding around us every moment?

What if—without proof—
every moment is a prayer:
the breakfast table is a sacred altar,
the tying of one’s shoes
is a sacrifice to God,
a conversation is a priestly blessing?

A great hovering Spirit
—without your knowing
just what that is—
would make sure
holiness is attained.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

         A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins,
          worth a penny. Jesus said to his disciples,
          “This poor widow has put in more
          than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”
                     —Mark 12.42-43

There are times, bereft of your worthiness,
widowed of your claim,
you think you have nothing to offer.

She put in two cents,

and two thousand years later
we remember her.

“She has put in all she has,”
Jesus said: what she had,
not what she didn’t have.

Your lack means nothing;
your poverty, to God, is not real.
What you have is precious.

What you have is not “enough,”
for “enough” is measured. No,
it’s perfect.

What gifts are in you?
Even the merest penny
is a blessing.

Give it with love.
In the heart of God
it shines like gold.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

          Jesus began to weep….
          He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
                     —John 11.35, 43

There is a Lazarus in you:
someone who has died,
buried in something thick and heavy,
clenched and ungiving as a grave,
a tomb of regret and disregard, perhaps,
or dangerous hope, or fear or shame.
It has been a long time.
A stone of pain closes the entrance.

This is where Jesus stops
and weeps for the Lazarus in you.


And then to this waiting corpse,
the stench-wrapped remains,
this Lazarus beyond hope in you,
Jesus calls: “Come out!”

Not a command,
but a tearful plea to a lost love
to come back,
to return to the One Who Is Life.

Put your shoulder to the aching stone.
The rest is in other, greater hands.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

I praise the Saints who have graced us:
the Great Saints, Francis and Teresa and the gang;
but especially the Lesser Saints,
those who have humbly, perhaps unknowingly,
shed light in our lives.
I am grateful for the people
who have blessed you—yes, you, dear reader,
who have loved you more than necessary,
who have taught you and forgiven you
and shown you what love is possible.
I give thanks for those who endured silently
and those who showed you how to rise up and shout.
I bless those who didn’t yell at you,
and showed you a new path.
I thank God for the saints whose brokenness,
whose imperfections, faults and failures
showed you what a glorious light can shine
in a cracked lantern.
For all who have helped you know your belovedness
I give thanks, because now you, dear one,
are sanctified, too: chosen as Love’s vessel,
no more deserving or adequate or worthy than others,
but loved, and chosen as Love’s vessel.
May you know with certainty that you can’t know
who you have blessed, but that, like all Saints,
you have.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Monsters come knocking.
Open to them.

It’s dark out there; they’re
glad to step into the light.

Let them in. Feed them candy;
they’ll unmask.

Once you compliment them,
their nearly convincing costumes,

learn their names, see their faces,
they’re not as scary.

Besides, they live here.
They’re your monsters.

Befriend your monsters.
They’re all innocent children,

easily wounded,
looking for home.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

A lone child in the woods cries out.
Seeking you, I am haunted
by the illusion of distance.

My mind chatters on, “Over there!
No, over there!” and drowns out
what my breath murmurs,”Right here. Right here.”

The buried seed still in its casket
is far
from the soil.

Prayer is no effort but the failure of my shell,
so the mighty root hairs
may emerge and do what they know.

Even in my loneliness and despair
the fish of me prays
in the ocean of you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

         Which commandment is the first of all?
         The first is, “You shall love the Holy One your God with all your heart,
         and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
         The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
         There is no other commandment greater than these.
                       —Mark 12. 29-31

God, you know how I put other things first:
to be right, to be safe, to belong.
I confess. I repent.

I already belong to you, eternally, absolutely.
I am safe in you. I need not earn your love,
or prove my worthiness, or have others approve.

I only need to let the love you give me
become all of me: to love you with all of myself,
every little thing I do an act of love,

and to pass that love to others,
always and no matter what,
to never compromise my love with anything else.

Oh, stand for justice, speak the truth,
say the hard things, prohibit abuse,
but only with love, not anything else,

anything else.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

In the stillness
I enter my own heart
and —wonder!—
I find it is your house,
and I am your beloved child
come home at last.

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net