labyrinth walking

This message came in November, as I sat on a chair outside this labyrinth.People were walking slowly around the path as I meditated.We were at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in N.C.It is too good not to share what I heard.

"My love, all of you on the chairs,My love,you holding the labyrinth,My love, the chairs, the birds,My love....

Long have I waited for you to love Me back-fully, completely.Be Mine here and now and tomorrow.That is all I ask and all will follow.
In this sacred space My hands cup and hold all of you.Can you not feel My presence and love?I am here-you have found Me.Walk with Me now ,here in this place and tomorrow.
This is the fullness of your time and Mine,intersected-together.Love Me, nothing else matters."

In the Woods

It is hard to describe how wonderful a snowfall is to a snow deprived former New Yorker.My childhood memories are richly dotted with snow scenes, snow forts, and sledding.
In Georgia,where we live now,it is such a long time between snow storms.

I watched a you-tube video yesterday with adults sledding down a big hill somewhere up North and the laughter as they played was wonderful to hear.And then the storm of February 12,2010 came and I enjoyed every minute of being in the woods behind our house as the snow gently fell.It's magic,it's Narnia,it is all peace and silence and beauty.

I took alot of pictures and the one above is not the prettiest but there is a story.The tan leaves of the beech don't fall to the ground when autumn comes ;they hang on.As I was standing a few feet away from this tree , one of the branches started to sway back and forth.There was no wind, no bird had landed or taken off, no snow was falling in clumps from other trees yet.Not one other branch of that tree moved.And as I watched, I knew what it was and as I type this ,I am getting chills.It was my angel letting me know that she was with me in this incredible beauty.

The spirit world is subtle and you have to be still and watching.The snow is melting now but I know what I know and I won't soon forget the snow of February 12,2010.

snow

"He hurls down hailstones like crumbs.
The waters are frozen at His touch;
he sends forth his word and it melts them:
at the breath of his mouth the waters flow." Ps 147

snow

Come, let us worship God who holds the world and its wonders in his creating hand.

The Graden of Saint-Paul Hospital

The painting above is a Van Gogh.I have found a great website with all his works and I print the ones that I like and put them in a binder;looking at them always lifts my spirits.My daughter says,"That's what art is supposed to do,Mom." Well, I guess so.

I wasn't exposed to much art growing up and it is a pleasure to have the time now to see what I missed.I like to sit with a painting from the website and let it tell me a story.While I write the story,it usually moves me in some way.And it reveals things that are just below the surface of my mind that need to be released.It's a mysterious process.

I just love the one above,it is telling a story that I just need to write.The title of the painting is "The Garden of St-Paul Hospital".This is where Van Gogh was to spend time at the end of his life when his mind was breaking.How could someone whose colors are so alive, have been so unhinged?

A consensus has formed that Van Goh was proably bi-polar and that a certain medicine he took to control seizures also caused yellow spots to appear before his eyes.Perhaps the wonderful yellow that he recreated in his paintings.

It is tragic that he left us by his own hand.What other wonders did he have drifting around inside his soul that he could have shared? Maybe the colors and forms of his work,the beauty of it, was passed to another artist, and the wonder found its way into the world at a table in a small hut in Peru.

I like to imagine Vincent on this bench, under those crooked, strange trees.Perhaps a warm June breeze touches his face and for a moment he is at peace.

The hospital and ,I assume ,the garden are still there and I want very much to go and sit in the quiet and write.

who awaits our rain ?

Every other month, I meet with five friends and we pray and seek His leadings.We met last week and this word was given to me to speak aloud;"Encourage someone;it is a small thing, but it matters."

This has been buzzing around in my head for days now."Encouragement".'My mind drifts back to my childhood and how bereft it was of anything like that.My sister and I were expected to get good grades,be home on time, do the dishes etc.The "atta boys" and the "warm fuzzies" were padlocked in a steel trunk in the basement.Interest in my self esteem was neither high nor low but non-existent.Maybe it was the Depression or the trip in steerage from Scotland or the poverty that made it so hard for anyone in my family to praise or express positive feelings.But, there was a day that I remember.

A girl had moved in down the street when I was around ten or eleven.I can neither see her face nor remember her name.She must have been only visiting because she was gone after a short while.We got to know each other and one warm summer evening , we were chatting on the sidewalk on Bedford Avenue,when she said, "You know what,I like you".What?

I was wearing brown penny loafers and crew socks that day.I know because I was staring at them after she spoke.I had neither the facility nor the words to answer her.This was rain falling on a parched desert.As I walked home at dusk ,I believe that her words slowly seeped into my psyche on the plus side of the ledger.I wish I knew her name.

For Lent, I am going to work on this leading .Between now and then, I am going to pray that I will recognize opportunties to encourage.And now ,I would like to ask
you to tell me when you have received encouragement and what the result has been?