April 30 - Happy Feet

Author: Bridget Tierney                     Location: Chicago-land

The Waking (1953)

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

April 29 - Hospitality, a poem, a relfection

Author: Pam Rumancik
Location: Earth

Hospitality

Breathing in the sweet air of welcome~
hospitality, friendship.
Acceptance of an outstretched hand~
warm eyes, quiet smile~
Fills & refreshes the weary heart~
bouys the spirit,
quickens the step,
strengthens the persevering soul;
to move again in the world
transformed, renewed,
made whole,
made Holy.

PMR

April 28 - Thoughts on Eastertide: Aubrey

Author: Aubrey 
Music: Nice Dream by Radiohead - performed by Mara Carlyle and Matthew Herbert
Location: Chicago

My thoughts in Eastertide and my pursuit of God in the world.

April 27 - Working together we can change

Author: Karen Mooney

Location: Lutheran School of Theology - Chicago (Hyde Park)

During and anti-racism training I spent the lunch hour responding with this drawing. This is hard, chilling, anger making, weird and wonderful work. What could we do if we set our minds to changing ourselves.

Never underestimate the power of a small group of people to change the world. Indeed they are the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

April 26 - Roosevelt High School Memorial

Author: Student at Roosevelt High School, Chicago

A person makes a mark in our lives.
Defined by concrete and sorrow this gathering of light made a loud statement into the night.
I WAS HERE. I MATTERED.

Apparently he had been one of those rare individuals who actually believed in high school students - trusted them - talked to them - helped them be better people - listened to them - watched out for them.



The gates of heaven open wide, let angels sing another prayer for a soul surely at heaven's gate.

April 25 - Separate earth and water

Author: Karen Mooney

Genesis 1:9-10
And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.


As a fish swims is it aware of the water around it?
Is a wave really separate from the ocean that it come forth from?
How do I breath this sweet clean air; never stop to wonder that all of this is possible?
Earth from sea - Land from water.
How did you know what was needed - did you simply move forward knowing it would be obvious what to do only when the time was ripe?
       What am I that you are mindful of me?
       What am I that I am mindful of you?

April 24 - Joy beyond Joy

Author: Unknown (poem Mooney)
Location: Unknown
Found: Facebook conversation (go social media)

If I could laugh with abandon would the world ever again seem small or tired or colorless.
With a face filled with joy could my prayer be only to ask for my needs alone.
Could God's love ever seem so small - even in the face of barren dry ground.
Would I feel alone? Do not the outstretched hands, chest boldly forward, feet planted firmly show the very essence of my place, here.

It is my heart that needs rejoicing.
It is my mouth that needs to remember this smile.
It is my life that must spring forth.

God in this world how do you find me open to you so that I might be open to this cacophony of glee.
 - KEM 4/2012

April 23 - Youth respond

Authors: the Youth Group of COS
Location: 530 W Fullerton, Chicago

Matthew 5:14-15
¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
NSRV

Effort and Acceptance

April 22 - Hospitality

Author: Betsy Peterson
Location: Middle East


Betsy writes:
Meeting those living in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Though we knew no Arabic, she was confident in her English. Despite not always recognizing the English she used, we had a beautiful conversation based on a more ancient language - the language of hospitality.

April 21 - Icon

Author: Betsy Peterson
Location: Chicago

Mixed media of an angel with forget-me-nots and hawthorn framing a 5x7 photo of a fabulous icon we saw in the old city section of Jerusalem. The icon shows the 3 visitors who come to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 18:1-15) At their feet is Isaac who plays with the lamb/ram that was sacrificed instead of himself. According to legend, the blood of the lamb fell on the earth and up sprang the first palm tree.

Genesis 18:1-15

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

April 18 - Nature is impossible

Author: Mary Diamond
Location: Midwest

Goddess Face

MINDFUL by Mary Oliver
New and Selected Poems
Volume Two

Every day I see
or hear something
that more or less

kills me with delight,
that leaves me like a needle

in the haystack of light
It is what I was born for - to look, to listen,

to lose myself inside this soft world
- to instruct myself over and over

in joy, and acclamation.
Nor am I talking about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant
- but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar, I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise with such teachings as these
- the untrimmable light

of the world, the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass.

April 17 - It's all in the numbers

Author: Karen Mooney
Location: West Shore UU Church

Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe - Galileo

The vary act of observing creation allows us to marvel at our creator. A spiral found on the shores of nature or in a flower point to a mathematical sequence called Fibonacci's sequence. (If you take the last two numbers and add them together you will get his sequence: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13.... If you draw this out the beauty of nature begins to show itself.) Mathematics and physics and chemistry all show a creation with some set of laws.





 
Where do we find God in our world?
Where don't we see God - the creator - shinning through the creation we live within.

God created everything by number, weight and measure. - Sir Isaac Newton

April 16 - Reminding us of blooming beauty

Author: Pam Rumancik
Location: West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church

Waves God ran through the yard today.

picking up the blue of eternity 

the yellow of a golden rule

I caught her smiling at me

with such a mischievous wink

I couldn't help but laugh.

pmr 2012

April 15 - Separate Sky and Earth

Author: Karen Mooney
Location: Bedford, Ohio


So began my longing O Lord.
This separation of earth from the all of the sky.
This separation from you.

Thus began the place of knowing
                                            I am not the sky.
Thus began the time to yearn for the closeness of you,
to yearn for that solid moment of breath given to dust.
For that moment of creation.

But that is days and days and days away.

So remind me God what it feels like to create,
                     to say separate
       knowing it will be painful,
knowing it is the only way to something new
and to rejoice saying it is good.

KEM - 4/2012

April 14 - What is this about?

Authors:
Lee Long,
Pam Rumancik,
Benny Long (9)



It is impossible to know what response a question will bring forward.



She said - Let's go outside and draw on the sidewalk

He looked incredulous

She said - Come on it will be fun. I have an art project.

He said - What project?

She said - We are drawing where we see God in the world today.

He scrunched his face and said - What is going on here? God isn't in the world and everyone know what he looks like.

She said - Ah but not everyone see's the same thing when they say God. Some people see nature, some people see a man, some people even see a woman... can you imagine. What do you think God looks like?

He said - Like a man but I guess I would like to draw.

Outside they knelt with chalk and he began drawing a tree - the sun - a rainbow.

God takes many different "faces" after all, and in the world today we are reminded of these in the service we give, the lives we led and the earth on which we make our way.

April 13 - Blooms in Ohio

Author: Lee Long

Rumi - The Miracle We Are

Did you hear that winter’s over? 

The basil and the carnations cannot control their laughter. 

The nightingale, back from his
wandering, has been made singing master over the birds. 

The trees reach out their
congratulations. The soul goes dancing through the king’s doorway. 

Anemones blush because they have seen the rose naked.

Spring, the only fair judge, walks in the courtroom, and several December thieves steal away, 

Last year’s miracles will soon be forgotten. 

New creatures whirl in from non- existence, galaxies scattered around their feet. 

Have you met them? 

Do you hear the bud of Jesus crooning in the cradle? 

A single narcissus flower has been appointed Inspector

of Kingdoms. A feast is set. Listen: the wind is pouring wine! 

Love used to hide inside images: no more! The orchard hangs out its lanterns. 

The dead come stumbling by in shrouds. Nothing can stay bound or be  imprisoned. 

You say, “End this poem here, and wait for what’s next.” 

I will. 

Poems are rough notations for the music we are.

April 12 - Youth

Thursday April 12th

Chicago Metra stop
near Foster and Cicero.

Sue Dunmore recognizes heaven in the eyes of our youth and their strength, honor, and determination in the face of complex challenges.

God's Face in the World

On a white board in a local hospital Chaplain Resident Pam Rumancik reflects that she sees God in what we do for each other, how we live the innocence and joy of youth, the beauty of nature, and the hand of God "reaching" toward us in love.  In the words of Spanish sixteenth century mystic Teresa of Avila:

Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands,
              with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

In the Beginning

Author: Karen Mooney
Location: Lincoln Square - Chicago

Where is God in the world? First God exists in light. In all the light that we see and feel. God exists in all the light that ever was or ever will be. God exists in all of the potential light and the light that I have failed to see with my heart, mind or eyes yet - God exists in all of THAT.

Genesis 1:1-5
(The Message translated by Eugene Peterson)

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

God spoke: "Light!"
      And light appeared.
   God saw that light was good
      and separated light from dark.
   God named the light Day,
      he named the dark Night.
   It was evening, it was morning—
   Day One.