A Tangible God

  
   My alarm was set for 5:15am. I woke up at 4:45am. There was a group  meditation planned for this morning.  Sunrise today was 5:30. I was afraid if I went back to bed I would wake up my husband, not wake up in time or both so I stayed up and waited.

   It was a sunrise meditation that a mandala group was doing all around the world. We would start at sunrise where ever we lived, light a candle and connect our inner light to those in our group and to those no longer with us.

   Rain clouds snuck into Chicago during the night. The sky was thick and grey  at sunrise. Since I had time, I began to think. (Sometimes that's a dangerous thing.) Our inner light would shine even though the sun did not.

   I had to believe that the sun was rising even though I couldn't see it behind the clouds. It dawned on me that it was a metaphor for prayer and our relationship with God. We pray to God even if we can't see God. We trust God is there, but sometimes we would like a tangible God. I began to look for a tangible God.

   Just like the sun, I realized bits of God break through during the day - when we hear a bird sing, when we see a rainbow or smell the spring rain. There are bits of God in our crazy families and in our workplace too. We just have to look for them. Those are the tangible bits of God we can hold onto when our life is cloudy and we don't know if the sun will ever shine again.

May the light in you shine for all to see...

Honoring the Dead - the veil is thin this time of year.

It seems the veil between the worlds begins to thin starting in late October. It stays thin right through the Christmas and New Year holidays. This is the time when we honor and miss the presence of our loved ones so much. It is an almost universal longing for connection to the the dead that swells the energy and thins the veil.

If one sits quietly and listens carefully sometimes a feeling of connection can be felt. There may or may not be words. Sometimes it's just a feeling that fills you with so much love that you know your loved one is present. Overwhelming grief builds a wall of separation. Let your guard down, let your grief ease. Let your loved one speak to you. They still exist, just not on earth.

There are signs from loved ones too. Perhaps that feather you found on the seat of your car is a message. A butterfly that floats by just as you are talking about a loved one can also be a sign. Later on if you relay the butterfly story, you may find another butterfly on a card, in a book, or on the Internet that verifies the connection. A common sign is the phone ringing and no one is on the other side. Well, there is someone, but they don't have a caller ID number. Songs that mean something special to you or your loved one are other great connections. Houdini didn't need a medium to contact his mother; she was always with him. He was just too busy listening to others and he missed her signs to him.

How do your loved ones contact you?

Where God Dwells

Where does God dwell in our lives? A Spiritual Director or Spiritual Companion, as they are sometimes called, can help us to notice.

God is always active in our lives, but do we pay attention to God's presence?

Too often, the myriad of demands from the outside world overshadow the demands of our interior world. The soul longs to be free. God longs for our souls.

The soul is shy, at first. For many people, it must be coaxed out into the open. Parker J. Palmer describes the soul as a "wild animal." In his book, A Hidden Wholeness - The Journey Towards an Undivided Life, Palmer says, " Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in tough places."  He reminds us wild animals hide in dense underbrush and if you want to see a wild animal you must be patient and quiet. That is why prayer and meditation are good for the soul. It helps us to be patient and quiet.

Prayer and meditation can take on many forms. Prayer is conversation with God. A walk in nature praising God is prayer. Complaining to God about an irritable boss and wondering what to do about it is prayer. Saying the Our Father is prayer. All are acceptable to God as long as you are present to the conversation.

Meditation in the Christian faith is a focusing technique.
One empties the mind to focus on an aspect of God, on a Bible passage, on a poem or reading that takes us closer to God through use of the imagination. Unlike most meditation that calls for an emptying of the mind, Christian meditation calls us to use all of our senses and imagination to delve into the depths of God’s message to us.

Sit and be still for a few moments now. Allow your soul to appear. Get to know it and yourself a little better.

Blessings and light,
Joan