sacred places and desecrated places."
- Wendell Berry
"Each day is a holy day"
- Quaker Tradition
All of creation is sanctified as the light resides in
the Divine DNA in all things and creatures.
- Adapted Richard Rohr, OFM
The Inspiration :
* Spoiler Alert -
In a scene from the recent movie "Oppenheimer" General Leslie Groves
asks Oppenheimer, who was instrumental in the development of
the first atomic bomb, what were the chances when testing
the first atomic bomb that the bomb would destroy planet earth.
Oppenheimer responds "Almost zero." The general
retorts "Can't we make that 'zero ' ?
Oppenheimer could not assure that possibility.
Under the code name "Trinity" (an interesting choice)
the world's first nuclear explosion was tested July 16, 1945.
Everything was suddenly changed forever.
 |
| Trinity - Los Alamos, New Mexico July 16, 1945 |
* Summer of 2008
The seeker was told he needed a CABG (Coronary Arterial Bypass
Graft - Double Heart By-pass surgery .) He asked
the surgeon how many patients had the surgeon performed this surgery on
and how many were lost during the surgery . The surgeon said about 1,000 heart
surgeries and maybe lost one on the table. The seeker asked ,"So are you overdue for another
loss ?" And just like that the seeker darted without hesitation to the local retreat house
where at the 1130 service and the complete congregation blessed him with
the sacrament of healing. On his exit Obe Wan Tom grabbed the seeker's
arm pulling the pilgrim down t hear the
whispering message , "You know I heard that this really works."
Everything was suddenly changed forever.
 |
| Open Heart Surgery - CABG |
" No thing stays the same."
- Zen Saying
"To Everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn , turn, turn
and a time to every purpose under heaven"
- Turn, Turn, Turn, P. Seeger (adapted Ecclesiates 3: 1- 8 )
"At the day of Judgment , we shall not be asked what
we have read , but what we have done.
(How we lived , loved and served)"
- Thomas A'Kempis
"If you are not sowing seeds of love, then what's the point?"
The Writing:
Paradox and The Metanoia
Pilgrims ride that train to the ineffable hopeful holiness
Believing that their possessions and
Holding a golden ticket should suffice.
That one seeker damaged his heart by
Grasping for the brass ring one too many times.
Paralyzed , he was lowered through the roof
By the trusted consecrated companions
To be in the presence of the great teacher
Who gifted him complete mercy without enmity.
Filled with doubt the seeker pondered ,
"Was it the healing or the redemption that was
The great miracle? Does it matter?"
Recollections of Homer's trope of spiritual quest
Fueled further fundamental rumination,
"Did Ulysses know that killing the cyclops
That he and his companions would be trapped
In a darkest of dark caves for eternity?"
A roll of the dice,
As the seeker's chest was cracked open like a lobster
A most magnificent metanoia manifests itself.
The sanctifying spark slowly rekindled
The seeds of compassion and generosity
Waiting to be sowed .
- JF Sobecki
-------------
The Poems and Such:
"Poetry is a gateway into intuitive consciousness. It knocks on the doors
of the heart and the heart opens"
- Mirabai Starr
" To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.'
- Wm. Blake
Evidence
Truly , we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come , from delight or the' scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance , always ,from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep compan , always ,with those who
say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.
- Mary Oliver
One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their losses no disaster.
Lose something every day .Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names , and wherein was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last , of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones, And , vaster,
some realms I owned , two rivers, a continent.
I miss them , but it wasn't a disaster.
..... Even losing you ( the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not to hard to master
though it may look like ( Write it!) disaster.
- Elizabeth Bishop
_________________-_
The Music:
Maundy Thursday Tenebrae: Palestrina
