Words of Life

I am in the process of discovering what direction I will be going in with my doctoral dissertation. It has to do with words. Healing words, peaceful words, truthful words. Words that support, that uplift, that inspire, that reveal. Words that appreciate, that give hope, and strength, and the courage to continue. Words make up our stories, weaving a web of life, connecting us together and filling us with delight and with new life.

God's word is revealed by how it flows. Different cultures and peoples have distinctive words, for life is diverse, and growing up in New York City is different than growing up in Banjul. Just as water must flow in order to be the origin of life, a stream can support the growth of lilies and a river can grow a cypress. However, a small stream joins the river and the river the ocean, and all things can gain life through this cycle.

Suppose we are a reservoir that stores these words. Are you keeping the words inside, or are they flowing out for the sake of others? The size of your reservoir doesn't matter; even a small one can overflow with truth, beauty and goodness. As water flows out of you, it will provide water for others. Perhaps it will evaporate and form clouds and give rainfall to all things; this circulation takes place everywhere, benefiting everyone.

In this way, words can sustain the life of all things. What words are we raining down on others? What is the quality of the words that feed our heads and our hearts? This value is what I want to emphasize, to unfold in my work, with my own words. If we were created with the Word, surely we can be re-created with the word.

In this time of spring, when the gentle rains can ease the transition from winter, in like manner gentle words can ease our suffering and soften the ground so that our original beauty can be reflected in the flowers that blossom. I'm hoping that my dissertation will weave a web of healing that just might reflect enough light to create a rainbow!

Splashing in the stream of life

to create a place
a mind like a river
and a heart like a well

God in our waters creates

rainbows
and sparkles
and sprays

of fat droplets
of love

I have a friend, a sister, who opens my heart to tears. What a wonderful gift she has given me--helping me flow in the stream of life and dive beneath the surface of reality. When it is difficult to see one's self reflected in the waters because of the rapids, having someone's arms wrapped around you like a life jacket is surely a blessing.

Blackwater National Refuge

Beauty is a product of the purpose and direction of the connection. As I drove out of the park, I had to stop one last time. The sun was setting, and there on the water, even reflecting on the soil bank itself, were the last vestiges of its rays, turning everything golden. In this one last kiss before sleeping, the sun offered me the reality of that dream of life and love.

Moving On

I believe in resolving differences, in getting painful incidents out of the way, clearing up misunderstandings and moving on. I have learned that the pain of the initial conversation is much less than carrying the burden of a difficult relationship for days or even months. Isn't that the way it happens?

I have also learned that if, after my initial, "What you have done or said is causing me pain", I receive a response of, "Well, you have hurt me too", that the best course of action is to remain quiet. This gives the other the opportunity to express their own unvoiced pain and let go of their burden. Often the compassion I find in listening to their pain is impetus enough to let go of my own.

Hope happens (building a Big Bang)

My neighbor reminded me that there was a difference between hope and expectancy. I've been writing about chaos — that it is not the absence of order, but the canvas of creativity in life's evolutionary flow. I can hope to create a masterpiece through my efforts, or I can expect that a masterpiece will be revealed, leaving me with little or no responsibility.

That hope is like an emptiness in me. It is a space that I make for something created to fill. An expectancy is a space already filled, possibly with good things, often with assumptions. Hope is a space in my heart I make for others to grow within, or an emptiness that I allow inside my being that recognizes the emergence of something that is bigger than me.

Like Michelangelo's "La Pieta," whose form emerged from the solid block of marble he was sculpting, creativity that emanates from the heart will unveil the order and flow of the universe. Others will find harmony or peace from the order, or inspiration and excitement from the flow of energy. In my life, my hope is to be able to create things, events, relations that others can join in — for a moment, a month or a lifetime.

Expectation comes from the head, from thoughts and mullings that are based not only on empirical data, but also on our subjective desires and imaginings. This may leave out the possibility of creating within an enlightened whole. Our brain doesn't say to our stomach, "I expect you to pull your weight, to digest food and move along the energy gained to the other organs of the body, so that I won't have to do any more or less than I am doing right now."

Our brain hopes that the stomach will continue to do its job, but when there is a problem, the brain is the first to let us know, and to find other ways to cope and help. Each system works in harmony with the whole, as does each organ, each cell, each molecule and each atom, continually creating order from chaos. Each, in effect, lives and reflects a pattern that includes itself and others.

Since the beginning of this year I've noticed that chaos has been a constant companion of mine — emptiness and chaos. Considering the Big Bang, it's the perfect combination for creativity to happen!

(Originally published at www.religionandspirituality.com on March 15, 2007)