A fierce wind is blowing inside me,
a solar wind that puts tails on comets
and also the tails of fish and their oceans,
a vast forest breathing, underground river,
something unfurling like a bell long buried
coming empty of clay and bones, almost ready
to let go its sonorous secret, music
rising in me, sung by gatherings of peasants,
a great song passed on through long generations,
a liturgy of hours and minutes and eyes and hands,
of births and deaths and daily bread and small acts of mercy,
the strange harmony of everything tangled together,
the noise of tongues of flame all murmuring together
so I can’t tell what any are saying, though they’re all
speaking great wisdom, I know, or at least
I would know, if I knew any of this, but all of it
happens in me without my even suspecting,
like my microbiome at work, spirits of another world,
as I pray the words, and long for the words,
and only occasionally let in the silence in which,
faintly but really, the smallest feathers of all this
echo and call and leave room for me, and a great Knowing
sighs, and holds me, and the sigh is a fierce wind,
and I breathe it in, without even knowing.
As I pray I know this, and give thanks
and do my best to be quiet and let it happen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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As the new moon
bends its ear to the trees
something in me awakens:
Beloved, I have not listened
to you today, and yet
all day long
you have been listening
to me.




_______________
Weather Report

The forecast
is not the real thing.
Pay attention.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You are made for joining,
purposefully incomplete.

As you lace your fingers
we are kept warm.
When you smile your toothy smile
things are brought together.

Whenever I zip you today
remind me:

to let my incompleteness
be my gift,

to let my affection
keep warm this world,

to join the others, embracing,
holding the world together.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              No one can enter a strong man’s house
              and plunder his property
              without first tying up the strong man;
               then indeed the house can be plundered.
                                   —Mark 3.27


The world may seem in the thrall
of a gangster whose henchmen haunt us,
each in our own troubled house,
scaring us into obedient selfishness.
But Jesus the burglar has broken in
to his place and tied up the boss:
grace defeats fear. Gracefully. Like 007.
That whole little kingdom is busted.

And in my own house—
sure, the enforcer lurks, or tries to.
But he too is bound up by love.
I don’t have to fear him.
He sits in my kitchen, cuffed,
tied down, squirming. I smile at him.

Friend, we’re free;
we just have to learn
to trust that.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Kneeling on crappy dirt
I dig a hole and make a nest
of good soil, take a marigold
from its seedling tray,
loosen its roots a little,
and nestle it in its new living place.
       We choose what we nurture.

I mean it to brighten my street,
but it takes root in me, too.
        What we do grows in us.

Every day I kneel on soil—
rich or poor, it’s dirt—
and remember:
       this is a place for my ashes.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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               He entered the synagogue,
              and a man was there who had a withered hand.
              They watched him to see
              whether he would cure him on the sabbath,
              so that they might accuse him.
              And he said to the man who had the withered hand,
              “Come forward.”
                                                 —Mark 3.1-3

He always goes straight for the place where it hurts.

He walks into the synagogue of your soul
and sees what is withered.
              (Notice…)

He also sees the fear—
the ruler, the controller, watching, defensive.
              (Notice…)

He says, “Come forward.”
There is questioning, anxiety.
              (Notice…)

Then what happens?
              (Notice…)

Give thanks,
and trust.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Across the yard nestled in the grass
in the shade of a tree
you see a light.
You investigate.
It’s just sunlight on a drop of dew
on the tip of the grass,
found by the sun through a hole in the shade.

The blade of grass is you.
The dew is whatever happens to you.
Whatever it is,
if you bear it in the light of grace,
it shines.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You are doing a hard thing.
Few people imagine what you’re going through.
It may appear heroic, or it may not look like much—
a personal struggle, or caring for someone,
or grieving, or maybe just aging—
but it takes heart and strength and patience.
There is much you have had to surrender.
It is sometimes exhausting, sometimes lonely.
But you are not alone. You are accompanied,
held in the bosom of the One who also walks this road,
who bears the prayers of all who have come this way,
for they are one with you.
Unseen, you are fed by the Spirit,
sustained by an energy of love,
the power of a hope that is greater than you,
a heart who treasures you, who lifts you, who includes you,
who believes in you.
You are doing a hard thing.
But it is the Infinite One in you who is working the hardest.
Let yourself be carried.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath,
              to save life or to kill?
                                  —Mark 3.4

In all our discerning
what is right or lawful or acceptable,
it comes down to this:
the choice to be kind or to be unkind.
The “right” thing to do is always kind;
cruelty is never right.
I am wary that what may feel like “justice” to me
is actually revenge; I renounce it.
I may choose not to shield someone
from an uncomfortable truth about them,
but I must do it with kindness, as if it were myself.
I may oppose someone,
or hold them accountable for their actions,
or let them endure unwelcome consequences,
but do so without malice or resentment.
I may stand up to an oppressor,
but do it with compassion.
My kindness may cause another anxiety,
but I will not be cruel to make someone happy.
If kindness to one creates suffering for another,
I seek to be kind also to the one who suffers.
If I seek to be kind but end up doing harm,
I am also kind to myself, bearing forgiveness.
The goal is not to be right but to be loving.
Life is complicated; kindness is not.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             “Here am I; send me!”
                            —Isaiah 6.8

But where?
Help me discern clearly, God.
Neither to gallivant off in every direction
as if I’m supposed to heal every hurt;
nor to shrink back because the need is so great,
but to listen for where you are calling me,
and to go there.

To say ”Here am I,” must include all of me,
not just parts. What calls to the whole of me?
What seems most harmonious?
What neither dulls nor depletes me,
but (even if it scares me)
energizes and enlivens me?
Where do I sense your energy moving,
that I may move in harmony with it?
Not what I want,
but where your Spirit blows.

Breath prayer:
                             Loving me … send me

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