Belief and The Great Intercession

"Make your prayer your life 

and your life your payer."

- Pope John XXIII

"If the only prayer you ever 

in your life is, thank you, it 

will be enough."

- Meitser Eckhart

"Being present to and grateful 

for all the wonder around 

and in you -- is prayer."

- Unknown

Inspiration/The Writing :

Aspiration is an unusual yet common condition . Hoping , 

wishing, dreaming or praying for something to 

magically or mystically transpire with a 

positive outcome is often what weary 

passengers on the planet call "hope".

Frequently some meditate or contemplate 

on a rescue or deliverance, healing , 

or achievement that might be beneficial for their well being.

However, when this personal practice is directed for the benefit 

of another or group who may be experiencing a 

current or potential difficult tragic circumstance -

Resulting with intercessions. 

How many times this hobo seeker contemplated ,

"Have I been like the paralytic lowered into the presence

of the great teacher by the love of his friends"?

Then just like that - out of the blue 

that unexpected transcedental wind

flipped the script.

How is it that random comets seem to eventually 

discover in the great almost unending expanse  

an intersection with a landing point?

How was it then that intermittent queues

of owners of lonely hearts meander their way

right into the middle of the seeker's 

own circuitous voyage across the universe ?

Neighbors , family members and strangers on the road

reverently began to reach out for hope , 

compassion and healing 

as they accidentally traversed paths 

with this pilgrim, challenging 

and humbling him .

These souls seeking consolation trusting

and believing that a prodigal's prayers

just might connect with some higher authority,

some light or unknowable source 

for relief.

"Pray for ..." they requested respectfully .

Restless nights became the status quo...

He dreamed , he thought, as that inner voice

cried out in the darkness,

"Why me?'

"Why not " was an immediate answer.

"But, why --- me !? "

" Remember " a mystical voice warmly chided.

"I don't understand.." the pilgrim wept.

"It is your turn."

- JF Sobecki

(see Coda below)

--------------------------------

Words: Poetry and Such (for your Inspiration)

I'm Going to Start Living Like a Mystic

Today I am pulling on a wool green sweater

and walking across the park in a dusky snowfall.

The trees stand like twenty-seven prophets in

a field

each at a station in a pilgrimage--silent, pondering.

Blue flakes of light falling across their bodies

are the ciphers of a secret , an occultation.

I will examine their leaves as pages in a text

and consider the bookish pigeons, students of

winter.

I will kneel on the track of a vanquished squirrel

and stare into the blank pond for the figure of Sophia.

I shall begin scouring the sky for signs

as if my whole future are constellated upon it.

I will walk home alone with the deep alone,

a disciple of shadows , in praise of the mysteries.

- Edward Hirsch

------

Music : for your listening pleasure and reflection

click on "links" below each picture for video and sound

Morning Glory - Tim Buckley

https://youtu.be/MgNxopvE3ro?si=ob-bm2mbXf08JICy

Turn!Turn! Turn! - Judy Collins and Pete Seeger

https://youtu.be/n0xzyhoeu1Y?si=8zOSEZC_eOVM0JU4

The Light that has Lighted The World - G. Harrison

https://youtu.be/GbVQov4MuKQ?si=7Bjw4uISbSqn0jLd

Questions for The Angels - Paul Simon ( w B.Frisell)

https://youtu.be/3zcZhgczTF0?si=7VbrDE6Wo2CtH1i6

"40" (Sing a New Song) - U2

https://youtu.be/5ba4RqOY0Ck?si=jza6IL_76kI6eR29

CODA: Now something from the lighter side

Sometimes one can find a dose of wisdom in the most unlikely places---

Ted Lasso - "Believe"

https://youtu.be/olPLvuvMcSE?si=mF9kd0_VsV0EMkUV

( for Sarah B )

AMDG

Copyright 2025 JF Sobecki LLC All Rights Reserved

A Septuagenarian Seeker's Sanctuary

"For all the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not

return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater , so shall my word

be that that goes out from my mouth ; it shall not return to me

empty , but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall

succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

- IS 55:10-11

"Imagine the earth devoid of human life, inhabited by only plants and animals. 

Will it still have a past and a future . Could we still speak of time in a meaningful way?

The question "What time is it? or "What is the date today?" - if anybody

were to ask it ---would be quite meaningless. The oak tree and the eagle would

 be bemused by such a question....they would answer 

"Well of course , it is now . The time is now. What else is there?"

- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

We call the current moment - "present" as it is a gift"

- Unknown

Inspiration:

It might be more interesting to say how an inspiration

came in the gift of an angel speaking softly in a dream.

Things do not always happen when and how we expect, right?

Sad to say that no midnight or dawn illumination caused this

particular spark. Rather, as the years begin to add up

it was at a moment of contemplation of the journey - 

people I have met and friends I have made, 

places I have been , events in storms or with calm prevailing

winds , how and  when mercy washed me down. It seems 

as this pilgrim ages those moments of soul filled sanctuary 

the heart is filled with the present and all that has prepared 

me for the now as I settle into mindfulness. 

Ah, sanctified solace..

The Writing:

A Septuagenarian Seeker's Sanctuary 

Ominous clouds squeeze out the rain

nourishing every aspect of creation.

Streams flow into to rivers,

the rivers spill into the sea only to have

this world of water release itself forming

new clouds. Trees release their last leaves

where the mystical wind of an unknown source

carries seeds across the landscape where 

seedlings slowly sprout reaching to heaven.

Silverstein's tree becomes shade and comfort

to resting robins and squirrels or eventually cutdown 

carefully crafting it into a scribner's pencil or writing desk.

The remaining stump comforts that boy who

once delighted in climbing limb to limb,

now a tired old man needing

a place to rest. While remnants of the forest family

are carefully carved into a boat launching

pilgrims out into the deep of the unknown sea.

- JF Sobecki

-------

Poetry and such:

(A thanks to the Irish poets)

(On the possibility of a divine presence in all creation)

"I do not need to believe. I know."

- Carl Jung

This is the time to be slow - John O'Donohoe

https://youtu.be/VOi9ifapO7E?si=n8FoiUpNN5VArRo2

When You Are Old -WB Yeats (read by Cillian Murphy)

https://youtu.be/dEHjBPS21A8?si=iht0cMTsIG5PZlwC

For a New Beginning - John O' Donohue

https://youtu.be/mIsAETqj9w4?si=PdDoBdHwerLYjrSw

and one American poet

Song of Myself - Walt Whitman (Read by John Doherty)

https://youtu.be/hPLHVQpm1JA?si=_sQEwqf3n_t2KGGs

Music: 

For your listening and inspiration.

click on the link below each feature

Be Here Now - G. Harrison

 

https://youtu.be/oSYmD6kHdKo?si=w5CBx20zz_f19lSG

Hello in There - John Prine

https://youtu.be/RfwGkplB_sY?si=vQoP7JGFozpdJMP8

Who Knows Were the Time Goes - J. Collins

https://youtu.be/M4loOplI_tA?si=8PZulEV0RlyWU_aZ

The Circle Game - T. Rush ( J. Mitchell)

https://youtu.be/dURdp9tXa6k?si=RfTJmcyb3lyWrLZ6

Coda:

Something extra for your listening pleasure and contemplation:

( How and when do you savor being in the now- 

letting go , being authentic and present to the magnificence?)

"For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business"

- T.S. Eliot 

The Adventure of Being Alive - Joseph Campbell

https://youtu.be/ZIbeotfWiJg?si=XQPGJLrV0Q-aLjOA

Old - P. Simon 

https://youtu.be/tKsjty-yT6U?si=v2Gi9mEXwxWmJ632

Have a grace filled Thanksgiving

AMDG

Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC

The Kritajna ( Gratitude) Letter

 

"You sanctify all you are grateful for"

- Anthony DeMello

"Keep your attitude of gratitude and take no

thing for granted "

- Henri Nouwen

                                                                  The Harvest Moon

"If the only prayer you said was 'thank you' , that would be enough ."

    - Meister Eckhart

The Inspiration :

Sometimes just sitting in the still silence savoring the sanctifying serenity

of the morning breaking like the very first dawn the waking spirit

is secretly and slowly baptized.

Suddenly a seed begins to flourish within. 

A request by a new friend fuels that flame of gratitude where 

encounters with earthly angels, saints and places surface 

re- illuminating  the scoundrel pilgrim with gratitude.

The soft spoken voice of a local yogi suggests that this mindfulness

of the power of gratefulness is a holy grace. Ego fades as 

humility is restored as the evidence of 

the divine unconditional love is revealed.

 

 The Speech That Broke The Internet

"Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow"

 https://youtu.be/wHRdQVnR3XA?si=WG0hFwF5zfPCt4ji

-----------

The Writing:

The Kritajna Letter

Dear Friends,

The great basilica of the universe nurtures and nourishes

all aspects of creation . Every thing and every creature

has purpose and that purpose is to celebrate the authenticity

of just being as all is meant to be. Interdependence is purpose.

Who is this that has conjured and created this magnificent 

essence of existence ?

How has the interconnectedness of everything evolved?

We have had no say in how we or anything as come to be.

Some ancient poetic prophet proposed that "there is a purpose

for every-thing under heaven."

Inspired, this imperfect pilgrim initiates 

an unrestricted list of all that has graced him.

This "grateful inventory" summons visions

and soul-filled recollections .

The ever beautiful yellowing orange fired red leaves begin

to drift with the help of the breath of the divine

from their seasonal stations blanketing

the earth below waiting patiently to be re-nourished .

Birds' songs cease as they make way in murmuration

to warmer shelters from the forthcoming coldness.

Streams flow, oceans wave , stars pave the way for 

seeking sailors. No thing exists for its own self.

The sentient beings, souls with bodies, seem to intersect,

creating  a majestic mystical mandala,

an intricate billion piece jig saw puzzle. 

An enlightened one once wrote that within the great expanse

of the universe that lines running from millions

of points to seemingly other unrelated points intersect

not by accident but by some greater hand.

A holy one explains that it is the divine DNA  that

resides and connects at different times

and occasions within the aggregate of the universe.

Like a flower bursting through the autumn ground

a question quietly blossoms,

"How does all in the universe experience my gratitude , my humility?"

- 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

"Poetry is an Act of Peace . Peace goes into the making of a poet

as flour goes into the making of bread."

- Pablo Neruda

Gratitude - Mary Oliver

What did you notice?

The dew-snail;
the low-flying sparrow;
the bat, on the wind, in the dark;
big-chested geese, in the V of sleekest performance;
the soft toad, patient in the hot sand;
the sweet-hungry ants;
the uproar of mice in the empty house;
the tin music of the cricket’s body;
the blouse of the goldenrod.

What did you hear?

The thrush greeting the morning;
the little bluebirds in their hot box;
the salty talk of the wren,
then the deep cup of the hour of silence.

When did you admire?

The oaks, letting down their dark and hairy fruit;
the carrot, rising in its elongated waist;
the onion, sheet after sheet, curved inward to the pale green wand;
at the end of summer the brassy dust, the almost liquid beauty of the flowers;
then the ferns, scrawned black by the frost.

What astonished you?

The swallows making their dip and turn over the water.

What would you like to see again?

My dog: her energy and exuberance, her willingness,
her language beyond all nimbleness of tongue,
her recklessness, her loyalty, her sweetness,
her strong legs, her curled black lip, her snap.

What was most tender?

Queen Anne’s lace, with its parsnip root;
the everlasting in its bonnets of wool;
the kinks and turns of the tupelo’s body;
the tall, blank banks of sand;
the clam, clamped down.

What was most wonderful?

The sea, and its wide shoulders;
the sea and its triangles;
the sea lying back on its long athlete’s spine.

What did you think was happening?

The green beast of the hummingbird;
the eye of the pond;
the wet face of the lily;
the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak;
the red tulip of the fox’s mouth;
the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve of the first snow—

so the gods shake us from our sleep.

-------

"Think about how many times I have fallen

Spirits are using me

Larger voices calling

What Have brought you and me

Cannot be forgotten."

- Southern Cross , V=Crosby Stills and Nash

______________

The Music:

(Musical reflections on the inspiration)

Memory Lane - Van Morrison

 

https://youtu.be/gRbsj2HooGw?si=S4xmvRm42Oi0PBhl

Kind and Generous - N. Merchant

https://youtu.be/XS4XlzYsrH8?si=w4m1dSwFuI0tU2Sw

40 - U2

https://youtu.be/5ba4RqOY0Ck?si=v0DX-3-nCQ0czC9q

Some Musical Pieces/Videos for Meditation For Readers:

Right now - this moment ...'what/who are you grateful for?"

One of these Days - N. Young

https://youtu.be/XtRTA4u5QkU?si=sortkZbahDqwuexz

CODA: Something more to consider

Gratitude - David Whyte

"One day I will find the right words , and they will be simple."

- Jack Kerouac

"The most important thing is not why we write but how we write.

Write dangerously , Beckett.." 

- James Joyce ( From the new biopic on S. Beckett " Dance First.")

AMDG

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC

Calvin & Hobbes