I didn’t read my Bible today. I sprawled out on our aging deck and kicked off my shoes. The skin of my belly inadvertently made contact with the sun-warmed wood underneath. I can see why lizards do this, I thought. I heard the leaves rustle overhead as the breeze swept through my hair a dog barked a bird warbled I became aware of the white noise from the highway nearby.
If the Word became flesh & our flesh bears the Divine image, maybe my body, too, is a holy text worth reading.
I didn’t go to church today. I met up with a friend. Where can I meet the Divine Feminine more powerfully than in the presence and stories of women? I’ve been meeting with women lately, one by one. We sit across a table with coffee or tea or nothing at all & I drink it all in. We talk about parenting & poetry & our journeys of becoming, bearing witness to each other’s ordinary, sacred stories.
If Church is communing with the saints, maybe intentional presence to other holy beings is Church, too.
I tried to pray today, but it came out all wrong at first. The old ways don’t connect me to the Holy anymore. I fumbled to find the right words to address You. In exasperation, I cried out, “Who ARE You??”
I couldn’t seem to shed the male imagery that accompanies my prayers. I tried, “God, our Mother” and everything shifted. Instead of praying to a male authority “out there” & feeling consumed with anxiety about what He wanted me to do, my spirit settled & turned inward. I could feel Her in my chest. “What must I do?” became “What shall WE do?”
I relaxed in the deep inner knowing that our healing is collective, bound up with one another. If prayer is attentive presence to & with the Divine, maybe an ordinary awake aware life is prayer, too.
I didn’t take communion today. I stopped by our favorite spot for takeout & sat at the dining table with my love. We talked about climate change & social justice & poverty & the politics of it all. If communion is breaking bread & remembrance that leads to repentance, maybe this, too, is communion.
I didn’t do so many things today, but I was fully with my body the sunshine & the breeze my friend my love & the Divine presence in us all.
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