Dear Friends,
We hope that you are safe and well.
Today's Meditation comes to us from Carrie Newcomer who reflects on welcoming spring into our hearts and blessing us with the inspiration "that I can hold the both/and of our current world with tender regard."
We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Ron and Jean
MEDITATION 609: Carrie Newcomer reflects "Nothing Lasts Forever, Including Winter...
Nothing Last Forever, Including Winter
Pruning Apple Trees In The Beautiful Not Yet
Carrie Newcomer
Mar 2
Life links to life. Something stirs in us. Just the sound of the word “March” rouses us! Nothing lasts forever; including winter. March days are the times when things become possible again. - Marv & Nancy Hiles The Almanac of the Soul
Yesterday I joined several women to help out with spring gardening at our mutual friend’s organic farm. The air was clear and fresh and there was such a sense of joyousness in the air. I was touched by the beauty of that rolling Indiana, and knowing that this bit of good green earth has been so lovingly cared for, mulched and nurtured for years. If you were to dig down into the ground you would find that the dirt is fertile and loamy, it smells of complex elements, last years mulch and earthworms. It is as dark and rich as Belgium chocolate. It takes time, knowledge and faithfulness to transform Indiana clay into such an astounding garden. This farm is so full of life that I can imagine that if I stuck my hoe upright in the ground, it might just sprout branches and leaves, and in the fall be covered with trowels ripe for the picking. It was joyous to spend time pruning apple trees and mulching garlic with cherished friends covered with straw on such a glorious day.
It has been a long winter. The ravages of Omicron have rolled like a great wave across the country for months, hospitals are only now barely coming up for air. There is the grief of war in Europe, something I never imagined I see in my lifetime, a specter of the forever tragedy of WWII, with intimations of nuclear threat dangling at the end of every sentence. Many of us feel weary of continued stress and uncertainty, the division in our political landscape and discouraged. We can sense the frayed edges in ourselves and in those we love.
But nothing lasts forever, including winter. And so I hold in balance all that is with all that I hope might be for this world. I hold close the power of faithfully doing what I can with intention and love in balance with holding what I personally cannot change. And so here I am (and here we are) in March, venturing out as the air warms the daylight hours increase. I am climbing into wide apple tree, looking for a good foothold, I am rubbing my hands on rough bark, surprised and awed by the perfect line of small holes created by a feathered and ambitious sapsucker. Leaning out with my pruning sheers I feel the satisfaction of trimming back what steals away the energy of the tree, clearing what is not really needed so that each branch can breathe and soon blossom. This reminds me to be mindful of what steals my own energy, and how clearing out the chaff creates an open space, and paring down what is no longer needed creates a place where air and light can expand. On days like these, there is joy, which is different than happiness. There is a deep sigh of satisfaction, which is different than getting everything you want. I can feel the unraveled threads being lovingly tucked back in. And I find that I can hold the both/and of our current world with tender regard. These are hard times no doubt. And yet, these are the days when we are living out the end of winter and leaning into March. And now, when my friend’s farm is trembling with new life and new growth, I can smile and connect with all that is unbridled and joyous, abiding in the chocolate brown earth of possibility. And find that I can hold what is hard as stone a little more lightly because of it.
So today, may you breathe out the end of winter, and breathe in the new possibility of spring. May you honor your grief and concern, and find courage in the ever renewing process of new life and new hope. Spring is doing what spring has always done…signaling for us to remember and lean in and feel the tingling of the beautiful not yet.
-Carrie
Question - Have you felt a shift with the coming of spring? What signals and signs have you noticed in the world? What signals and signs have you noticed in your heart?