Some time from now
(I will not get to choose)
people who have known me or not
(not of my choosing)
will lower my dust
into a hole in the ground,
or scatter it in a beautiful place.
It is they who will choose
the scattering of my dust.

But while I am breathing
I will choose the scattering
of what is not dust.

_________________
Weather Report

Passing,
as a mass of air moves through the area,
and we will breathe it,
not some other air,
until it passes.
Various fronts will collide
but none develop into anything
but the present.

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

October 28, 2019

The color of fire, the color of heat,
the color of work in the hands of
the blacksmith, the glassblower,
the stoker, the welder.
Gentle oven, afterburner,
soft and silent center of a sun,
color of things being consumed,
baked, changed.
Then how could I not be?

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

October 25, 2019

         The tax collector, standing far off,
         would not even look up to heaven,
         but was beating his breast and saying,
         “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
                           —Luke 18.13
         

The knifest wound,
the weightest load,
the nightest dark
we haul around in us
is our shame,
the awfullest place in us,
the unmost part of us,
our deepest subtraction.

Ashamed before God,
unable to be a being
worthy of God’s shine and delight,
a little part of us
always
cowers.

Dare to bring that parenthesis
out of your secrets,
open this grave,
step out of your hidden terror,
shed even the invisible costumes
only you know you wear.
Stand nude before God,

and listen and hear:

Yes, my Beloved. Yes.
Yes to you, all of you.
Every beauty of you
and every bruise.
You are not my Apology.
You are my Beloved.
Yes.

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

October 25, 2019

In this tough world
to find the way of kindness
is all that matters.

But one must be tough
to shield a way of kindness
for those whose world
is bereft of it.

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

October 23, 2019

         The Pharisee, standing alone, prayed,
         “God, I thank you that I am not like other people:
         thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
         I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”
                  —Luke 18.11

Wow. What a hypocrite.
What an egotistical, arrogant, judgmental person.

God, I thank you that I am not like him—
Oh… wait.… Crap.

God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

I confess to you all the people I want to be better than.
But I am not.

It is your goodness, not mine, I live by.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

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

October 22, 2019

Geese process up the aisle of the sky
as if sent.

All these flagrant leaves shine
as if they’re worth something.
Trees fling them
as if they’re doing the right thing.

I walk among them, breathing,
as if caught up in something
in the upper levels of heaven
unknown to me
but unfolding before my eyes.

Walk, they say,
as if you are aflame with beauty.
Live, they say,
as if you are holy.

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

October 21, 2019

God, help me today
to love with gusto,
to forgive with courage,
to look for your grace,
to seek presence, not comfort,
to be grateful in all things,
to receive you in whatever form you come to me.

Help me today to be who you create me to be,
not what others desire,
to trust you in what is difficult,
to let your love flow through me
without impediment or hesitation,
to be present in this life,
not hankering after one I imagine.

I surrender myself to your love thriving in me,
love that unites me with all your Beloved,
with all Creation, with you:
for even though I am not fully aware
I am fully yours,
and I give you my thanks;
I give you my life.
Amen.

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

October 18, 2019

The reason you ache
is the Beloved has to drag you
kicking and screaming into heaven,
while you keep your death grip on the sharp rocks.
The reason you feel empty
is you’ve spent yourself on excuses.
The reason you’re tired is it’s hard work
to run away.

Aw, forget it.
Just give in
and let the Beloved
pick you right up
and carry you off like a prize,
like a sleeping child.

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

October 17, 2019

         “Though I have no fear of God
         and no respect for anyone,
         yet because this widow keeps bothering me,
         I will grant her justice.”
                                    —Luke 18.4-5

The judge never does change his mind.
He will never be her advocate.
He’s just trying to get off easy.

My sin is like that judge.
I may be forgiven, my guilt washed away,
but my sin isn’t going to change.

My ego is still in office.
My self-centeredness hasn’t given up.
My racism hasn’t ben unseated.

Imagine the widow is a black woman
pleading that her children not be shot.
She’ll have to ask more than once.

God has to hammer away at my racism,
over and over, and wear me down,
daily remind me of my sin.

It doesn’t go away. My inner judge is corrupt.
Only when I know that do I listen
to a voice that knows better than I what to do.

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

October 16, 2019

         The judge said to himself,
         “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,
         yet because this widow keeps bothering me,
         I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out
         by continually coming.”
                  —Luke 18.4-5

Our gender and power stereotypes told us to assume
the judge is God, which would make us the poor widow.
But wait. Who judges? Who cares neither for God or people?
That would be us. And who continually demands
that we do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God?

Sorry, we don’t get the high ground here, denying our privilege,
pretending we’re faithfully imploring God
with our persistent quest for justice.
We’re the ones deaf to the cries of the poor.

God comes in the voice of the vulnerable, the easily ignored,
while we in our arrogance easily ignore.

How disconcerting that in this story
the ball is in our court, not God’s!
The demand has been made, over and over.

Jesus warns us: God can outlast us.
But when God comes, will God find us listening?

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

October 15, 2019