Bill and Bonney Forbes Labyrinth
Whole
Earth Meditation
by Sister Joan Sauro
“God is in the fierce wind, the season of struggle, and in the bountiful times, when life and goodness overflow within you. In every season of your life, God is with you in every layer.
Most of all, though, God is in the worn, embattled, broken-down layers, because God always loved the poor and the weak. This is where to look for God most in yourself— where you are broken and vulnerable. Where you are scarred and need divine healing.
Look for God where your defense is weakest. At the breach in the wall. The crack in the earth. The ground shifting out of control. Go to the place called barren. Stand in the place called empty. And you will find God there... God always breaks through at your weakest point, where you least resist.”
Earth Teach Me to Remember
Attributed to the Ute Nation
Earth teach me stillness as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth Teach me caring as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage as the tree which stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its life.
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to carrion — put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men. Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields. Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap. Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts. As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.
Andrew Lloyd Webber: Requiem, “Pie Jesu.” Although the text, “Merciful Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest” is from the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead, the beauty of this setting transcends that purpose, making it an especially consoling composition. https://tinyurl.com/fumkah9s
Virgil Thomson (arranger): My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. Thomson’s arrangement of Isaac Watts’ hymn beautifully conveys the comfort that so many find in the 23rd psalm. https://tinyurl.com/mw7zmt72
Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah, “He watching over Israel.” Drawn from the opening of Psalm 121, the brief text assures us that though we may grieve or languish God, who watches over Israel, neither slumbers nor sleeps. https://tinyurl.com/yhvf95wh
Johannes Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, “Selig sind, die da Leid tragen.” Brahms’s setting of verses from Matthew 5 and Psalm 126 is meant to reassure listeners that their sadness will be followed by joy: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
https://tinyurl.com/av9xb546
Contemplative Practice
A contemplative practice is any act, habitually entered into with your whole heart, as a way of awakening, deepening, and sustaining a contemplative experience of the inherent holiness of the present moment. Your practice might be some form of meditation, such as sitting motionless in silence, attentive and awake to the abyss-like nature of each breath. Your practice might be simple, heartfelt prayer, slowly reading the scriptures, gardening, baking bread, writing or reading poetry, drawing or painting, or perhaps running or taking long, slow walks to no place in particular. Your practice may be to be alone, really alone, without any addictive props and diversions. Or your practice may be that of being with that person in whose presence you are called to a deeper place. The critical factor is not so much what the practice is in its externals as the extent to which the practice incarnates an utterly sincere stance of awakening and surrendering to the Godly nature of the present moment.
James Finley
The World I Live In
by Mary Oliver
I have refused to live locked in the orderly house of reasons and proofs. The world I live in and believe in is wider than that. And anyway, what’s wrong with Maybe? You wouldn’t believe what once or twice I have seen. I’ll just tell you this: only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one.
From To Bless the Space Between Us
By John O’Donohue
There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself, though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing.
Prayer Walks with Jane Ireland
Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).
Prayer walking is a spiritual tool to bless the land upon which we walk to provide for and benefit its inhabitants and to honor God. Join Jane Ireland and others as you are interested and able for one or more prayer walking loops encompassing town and city centers and across our landscape. Scripture passages, selected by Jane, will accompany you on your journey.
Prayer Walk Loops: Encompass
• Quantity - 8 prayer walks: new beginning (includes one family walk)
• Frequency - Every 5th day: grace, Tuesday, Oct 1 thru Tuesday, Nov 5
• Time - 3:00 pm: a number signifying divine completion
• Distance - 2 walks around the venue
Encircle the venue once, then encircle once the immediate city blocks.
Prayer walking is a spiritual tool to bless the land upon which we walk to provide for and benefit its inhabitants and to honor God. We are praying peace and righteousness over our cities, towns, county, state, and federal government.
For more information visit - https://tinyurl.com/3y6s8rau
Prayer Walk 6 - Town of Superior
Saturday, October 26 at 3 pm
Location: Meet in parking lot of Superior Town Hall, 124 E Coal Creek Dr, Superior
Prayer Walk 7 - Chautauqua
Thursday, October 31 at 3 pm
Location: Meet in the Chautauqua parking lot below Chautauqua Auditorium, 12th St, Boulder Prayer for the state of Colorado
Prayer Walk 8 - Flagstaff Summit
Tuesday, November 5 at 3 pm
Location: Meet at Flagstaff Summit, Flagstaff Dr, Boulder Prayer for Washington DC: United States Supreme Court Building, Capitol, and White House
When I Am Among the Trees
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches. And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”
