Just like the clay in the potter’s hand,
           so are you in my hand.
                           —Jeremiah 18.6

There are those who hope to get through life unaffected,
untouched.
But I say: life, affect me. God, touch me.
Let this life and all its pains and beauties shape me.
For whatever genius you place
in the wrenching hands of fate and all that befalls me,
you also work your art in me;
and it is only in the dance between hand and clay
that the masterpiece is born.
I’d rather be shaped by life than by my own little self.
So, yes, I will let beauty shape gratitude and wonder in me,
and suffering shape patience and gentleness,
and failure shape humility and perseverance,
and pain shape sensitivity to the heart,
and even loss, oh, the firm hand of loss pressing on the clay,
shape love and more loveliness, and attention to this day.
I will be shaped, molded and remade a thousand times,
because all the Artist ever means is to perfect me,
I who have always been, ever from the beginning,
dust of the earth you have gathered up,
shaped with loving hands, and breathed your life into.
Shape me, God, create me again, and keep breathing new life into me.

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

Everflowing Love,
Infinite Compassion and Delight,
rain on me.
Sheets of water, roll, Jordan, roll.
Wash me clean and new.
Rinse away what rinses away.
Rain deep into me.
Rain gently and long.
Soak in,
so my deep roots are bathed in you,
so my little streams run with clear, fresh love
and rivulets of joy.
Let all my creatures rejoice
and find delight in the waters of your grace.
Let your grace sink in deep
and turn things green,
living things thriving, flowering, bearing fruit.
Let me be your verdant garden,
your teeming forest
whose deep roots know how to hold your water
long after the rain is gone.
Rain on me, loving God,
rain down, rain down.

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

For the bewildering mystery of being alive
     I am grateful!
For this amazing communion of saints that is
     my body, how it all works—thank you!
     (Even when it is awkward, or ill: gratitude!)
For this stupendous planet, cornucopia of life,
     teeming with beauty and strangeness,
     wrapping me in its flow of giving and receiving: thanks!
For the people who have helped shape me,
     given me gifts, walked the road with me—
     even unknowing, even by accident—gratitude!
For what I can do, and the faith to do it, thank you!
For light (so splendid!) and sound (how wonderful!)
     for how gravity works no matter what (wow!),
     for the sense of touch (and humor): thank you!
For music in the world and in my heard, gratitude!
For all my struggles (for if I am wrestling, I do so
     with angels)—I am grateful.
For the lives of people I miss, dear ones even now
     on the threshold of death, gratitude.
For the little green frogs in my yard, and
     the great blue heron who wants to eat them: thank you!
For your absolutely consistent grace, your delight in it all,
     your love beyond imagining, I thank you!
I ask only for the gift of undying gratitude,
    in all things—welcome or not, pleasant or hard—
    in all things, in every moment: gratitude.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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

           Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother,
                  wife and children, brothers and sisters,
                  yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
           Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me
                      cannot be my disciple.
                           —Luke 14.26-27


Loving Christ,
give me the grace to join you on the cross
of the suffering of the world.
Borne by your love,
empowered by your Spirit in me,
raised from death by your grace,
held gently in your tenderness,
I walk through the refugee’s desert of hope,
the patient’s waiting room of despair,
the war victim’s ruins.
Give me courage to cease reserving my love
for my family alone:
for the poor, the outcast, the oppressed,
those who suffer are also my flesh and blood.
Give me grace to die to my separateness,
and be raised in oneness with you
and all who suffer and are raised.

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

           Go and sit down at the lowest place.
                           —Luke 14.10

Wisdom speaks not only to an individual at a party,
but to the human species included in Creation.
Humans have assigned ourselves the place of honor,
the crown of Creation, the pinnacle of evolution;
but we are superfluous, a parasite,
contributing nothing to the food chain.
The world was fine and beautiful without us,
praising God in beauty of movement, song and form,
playing, dancing, loving young ones,
communities performing their symphony of harmony—
and they will still after we are gone.
Wisdom invites us to take the lowest place
at the table of Creation, supporting from beneath,
where feet are washed, and fallen crumbs cherished.
What if we were to serve, not conquer? Bless, not rob?
What might it be like for humanity
to be a doorkeeper in the house of God?
What might we find in the lowest place,
closest to the Creator?

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

They’re building a neighborhood next door,
clearing land, moving earth,
extending the street, erecting houses.
I finish my morning prayers on the porch
before they arrive with their crashing and beeping.
But, Hark! The loader’s back-up beep
sounds exactly the same note as my singing bowl.
Of course.
Because I, too, am building a neighborhood—
not of buildings but of prayer:
a place beyond time and space
where souls may find shelter and belonging.
I am clearing ground, uprooting things,
the uneven made level and the crooked made straight.
I am laying foundations, offering space,
making of my heart a welcome home,
so all of us, friend and stranger,
near and far, human and not, are neighbors.
The builders’ work is in this little cul-de-sac,
but mine fills the whole world.

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

Pinch them off,
the faded lovelies,
to make room and energy for more.

The gifts, the successes,
the magic moments,
let them go.

The marigolds of life
will persist.
Glory unfolds infinitely.

Give thanks,
trust deeply,
and deadhead your victories.

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

           When you are invited to a banquet,
           do not sit at the place of honor,
           but go and sit down at the lowest place.
                           —Luke 14.8, 10

In the banquet of life
I seek a place of entitlement,
but the Teacher says, “No,
everything is a gift, beyond your deserving.”

I seek honor among others,
but the Savior says, “No,
do not trade your Belovedness
for anyone’s opinion.”

I seek mastery, the feeling
that I have gotten somewhere,
but the sage says, “No,
begin again. Always a beginner.”

In gratitude, humility and wisdom
is the highest honor.
Either you have it
or you want others to think you do.

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

Beloved,

I notice birds here thinking of migrating. Big change. I believe you too have something new coming on. You may dread it, or can’t wait, or don’t know it’s coming. But I see it. I just want you to know I’ve already gone that way, flown the whole route. Listen: you’re going to make it. We’re going to make it, just fine. Trust me and, when it’s time, fly. I’ll be with you.

Love, God


_____________
Weather Report

Unchanged,
as storms rage, calm prevails,
and temperatures fluctuate,
with scattered flooding, drought
and other unstable external conditions—
while, still, as always,
at the center,
the steadfast Presence
remains unchanging.

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