Tourists we are, most of us,
even the locals,
who walk out to the sea
and maybe dip in up to our ankles,
let the mystery finger our little bones,
or maybe we dive deep
and let the unseen breathe us in,
or sail far, under the sound only
of wind and unknowing.
Still, what do we know
of this vastness that birthed us?
How can we begin to say a word
of the great undersea mountains
and rivers, the creatures there
larger and darker than our dreams,
how can we pretend, but only
bring home a shell, a little sand dollar,
hollow and curious,
barely whispering of the real life
whose actual skeleton it was,
little grey thing on the dresser?
Every prayer, every conversation
is a postcard from the real place,
a memory of the time
we dipped our feet
in the immense, murmuring water,
            the silence wave after wave
                         reaching out for us.

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

August 21, 2019

She comes, as always, eyes on the ground,
feet her frame, dust her distance.
The cause, surely, within her,
out of sight as sky.

He sees what is bent, what is caged,
sees what is tall and straight and strong in her.
Sees what is free in her,
what is noble and beautiful.
Abraham and Sarah.
Lays his hand on the lock,
sets it open.

Now: to see faces.
Heaven is eye to eye.
Horizon given. Distance possible.
To bear a load, to watch a bird,
to see more than one thing at a time.
What she stands for.
Once bent, now sent, she sings.

This is not a faith that wishes,
but that frees.

         And ought not this woman,
         a daughter of Abraham
         whom Satan bound for eighteen long years,
         be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”
                  — Luke 13.16

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

August 20, 2019

A flock of birds, my questions rise,
a twisted path in a tangled jungle,
whispering may and might and not answers,
every tree a priest of my unknowing.

In the temple, fog.

Easy to resent this religion of obscurity,
the keen temptation of wisdom,
deification of the dumb.

But however vast the mountain view
it is partial, small in the universe.

This I know:
what I know is nothing, imagined.
When I know
I presume, and forget you.

Rather this cloud of honest mystery
shrouding me
standing
on this very real
mountain,

rather the longing,
given,
yours as much as mine,

this hand I hold
in the dark.

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

August 19, 2019

God, I thought: this is too hard.
I throw myself at it.
I drag myself through it.
It is more than I can do.
It is hard; I doubt I have what it takes.

And then you said,
no, it is not hard. It is impossible.
You cannot do it.
You don’t have that power.

But I do, and I give it to you.
I breathe my power through you.
You need not “dig deep” to find it.
It’s right there, flowing through you.
It’s there when you don’t feel it.
It’s there when you feel you’re a failure.

As long as you think it’s hard,
it will be hard.
But when you realize it’s impossible
then you know it’s not yours to do, but mine.
Stop trying to do it. Let me do the hard work.
You just come along.

I am doing the hard thing in your life.
Stay with me while I do it,
because without you, even for me,
it’s impossible.

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

August 16, 2019

         Some of our ancestors suffered mocking and flogging,
         and even chains and imprisonment….
         Yet all these, heroes of the faith, did not receive what was promised….
         Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
         …let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
         …looking to Jesus, who endured such hostility against himself from sinners,
         so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.
                  —from Hebrews 11.36 – 12.3

Like artisans building a cathedral,
we are engaged in work that outlives us.
The building of justice will take generations;
knowing this, we do not grow weary or lose heart.
Sustained by those who have come before,
who endured so that we may be brought this far,
we carry on, against all odds, against all opposition.
We are not intimidated by the thought
that we will not achieve our goal in our lifetime.
Of course not. This is not for us,
but for our children’s children’s children.
Our little triumphs and failures are ennobled,
not by our successes, but by the immense grace
of the work to which we devote ourselves.
Discouragement, despair and even death do not trouble us,
for our lives are insignificant in the shadow of this work,
which bestows its blessings to the ends of the earth,
and to generations far beyond us.
Friends, take courage. God is in this;
this is where, though you are small, you become immortal.

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

August 15, 2019

God, cleanse me.
There is so much fear, so much fear.
I don’t learn because I don’t look.
I don’t look because I’m afraid.
I don’t see who people are, hear what they’re saying,
and hear what they’re not saying.
Something like scales cover my eyes.
I want to see.
I want to see myself, God.
I want to notice my fears so I can face them
and allow them to be healed.
Help me to believe in this,
to believe in myself, to believe in your grace.
Give me courage to look, and wisdom to see.
With the eyes of my heart enlightened,
may I go slow enough to see clearly, eyes open, all day;
to pray always: to listen without ceasing.
Open my eyes, Beloved, to see you here.

Open my eyes…
Open my ears …
Open my heart…

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

August 14, 2019

I said,
God, you don’t know what it’s like to be human.
You aren’t limited by forces you can’t overcome
but always have to watch out for.
You don’t have to dance with mortality,
never have to navigate vulnerability,
never even have to think about gravity.
You don’t know what it’s like to have to try so hard.
The danger. The impossibility. The not quite belonging.
We
don’t know what it’s like
to not even have to know what it’s like.

God said,
Hm.
Stay with that.
Maybe now
you know something
about
white
privilege.

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

August 13, 2019

 “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?
         No, I tell you, but rather division!”
                  —Luke 12.51

Not us-versus-them. Not good people on one side
and everybody else on the other. Not you against neighbors.

But you, distinct from what others want of you.
You, not what will please them.

The real you, true and unmodified,
standing for what you know and care for,

regardless of how others balk and resist and criticize
and cajole and manipulate and persecute and crucify.

Beware: those whose hearts are unwhole
will try to draw you in to complete them;

but you cannot be them for them. This is the great division.
You must be yourself, and let their incompleteness go,

without ceasing to love them. Let them press against you
even as you stand for them.

Jesus prays for strength for you to stand as self,
to stand without pleasing, without apologizing.

Stand with hope and trust, though you be alone—
for, standing alone, you find your true companions,

bound not by opinion but by the Whole, What Is,
given, not made, the Body of Christ.

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

August 12, 2019

         We are strangers and foreigners on the earth…
         seeking a homeland… a better country…
                  —Hebrews 11.13, 14, 16

Tongues corrupt and tangled,
lungs not made for this air,
we know it feels wrong.

Language of white supremacy,
habits of greed and violence,
our own tribe is betrayal.

How dare those foreigners
show us the map of our lostness.
Immigrants in our own house.

Pilgrim, marry your longing.
This world you were meant to change.
That heaven you seek is in the wrong people.

Find them, your other home there.
Seek that heaven, and bring your children,
all of us.

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

August 9, 2019

         Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit
                  —Luke 12.35

God is not sitting idly by
         watching our self-destruction.

God is at work in every moment,
the same dance of electrons
and embrace of gravity
vibrating with love,
creating and creating,
grace in the very being of it.

In every moment
God is mending what is
from the depths of what is.

Tragic or magic, momentous or mundane,
every moment is a choice
to join in harmony
or sit idly by.
Be ready.

The light of the lamp
of your heart, lit,
enlightens the world
and guides us in this darkness.

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

August 8, 2019