all saints

LINDA HOGAN

All Saints Day! How this ended up to be my birthday is a mystery but I always feel its blessings and Grace.

Many have come before me, creating the path I now follow. The saints of my ancestors are all around. My great grandmothers – I have memories of these women. Memories like short movies. I remember their homes. One lived in a grand Southern home with a huge kitchen complete with marble slabs to make candy and living rooms decorated with a tall grandfather clock that looked like a skyscraper. I remember lying in front of that clock, looking up and listening to the constant tick of time. The other lived in a cottage-style home with a big front porch that filled with students from nearby acting schools and a kitchen highlighted with the bright colors of Fiesta-ware. 

I see them in my life today, in my love for chocolate and in my own kitchen filled with the colorful dishes and mugs of the fiesta style.

My grandmothers and grandfathers, each of whom I knew if only for a couple years. I remember being taught to respect them and listen as they spoke. They showed me how people live with abundance and scarcity. They nurtured me as a child and honored my work as an Episcopal priest.

I remember their homes. One set of grandparents had the newest technology for their time. I would crawl throughout their house and lie in front of their closet door – watching the light turn on and turn off, turn on and turn off, as I opened and closed the door. The other grandparents lived in a home filled with the smell of corn and apple fritters. There were card games and ice cream trucks. I would lay in bed at night and watch my grandmother as she brushed her long hair over and over, her silhouette outlined by the moon’s light.

It is important to be still and remember. Many Saints have gone before us and now in this life, we forge ahead. Someday we will be the ancestors who others will remember as they move forward on this same path, extended.

A great thing to keep in mind on All Saints Day and throughout the year.

Boo!

 

The things that frighten us just want to be held.

 

Quote: Mark Nepo
Image: Huda Nur

 

from Gratefulness.org

Silence

Silence can be a plan
rigorously executed
the blueprint to a life
It is a presence
it has a history a form
Do not confuse it
with any kind of absence.

It was an old theme even for me:
Language cannot do everything.

Adrienne Rich, Cartographies of Silence, 3 and 7 [extracts]

 

thank you, Karl Duff– MindfulBalance

the gift of laughter

I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter; it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong.

 

Laughter can renew like a short nap in the afternoon or a refreshing journey outside after a long day.

My mother and I have always had a way of sharing a burst of laughter that might touch us so deeply it can bring soul-washing tears. Under stress, feeling pain or the burden of grief, we can find ourselves noticing something silly one of us may have said. In a snap, we are moved into Grace-filled and stress-releasing laughter. And in those moments, we know laughter’s divine gift.

No one can plan this type of laughter. It is spontaneous and comes from a deep place in each of us. It is healing and brings people together.

At this time in our world, I pray we share much of this type of laughter- amongst ourselves and beyond our neighborhoods.

We are in need of its healing and its ability to unite.

Quote: W.E.B. Du Bois
PHOTO: Eye for Ebony

 

found in Gratefulness.org

widen the lens

The universe is wider than our views of it.

Quote: Henry David Thoreau

 

from Gratefulness.org

%d bloggers like this: