Dear Friends,
We hope that you are safe and well.
Today's Meditation is a poem by Tony Hoagland "Field Guide." Tony lifts up this ordinary, spectacular moment and Ralph Waldo Emerson comments: If the stars came out only one night a century, that night would be considered an astounding spectacle, a wonder of the world,,, all of us would stay up and behold them in breathless awe--and yet, there they are each cloudless night, no less miraculous for being so frequently visible.
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 755: Tony Hoagland "Field Guide" with help from Ralph Waldo Emerson
"FIELD GUIDE," BY TONY HOAGLAND
Once, in the cool blue middle of a lake,
up to my neck in that most precious element of all,
I found a pale-gray, curled-upwards pigeon feather
floating on the tension of the water
at the very instant when a dragonfly,
like a blue-green iridescent bobby pin,
hovered over it, then lit, and rested.
That’s all.
I mention this in the same way
that I fold the corner of a page
in certain library books,
so that the next reader will know
where to look for the good parts.
+ Tony Hoagland
One way to think about a poem like this one is that it celebrates the commonplace, the ordinary moments of life: a dragonfly on a pigeon feather. And that’s all well and good — but Hoagland has another vision in mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that if the stars came out only one night a century, that night would be considered an astounding spectacle, a wonder of the world, and all of us would stay up and behold them in breathless awe — and yet, there they are each cloudless night, no less miraculous for being so frequently visible.
What Hoagland calls “the good parts” are like that: they’re everywhere around us every day, and for that very reason, we tend to overlook them, or find them merely pleasant or charming. But in fact, they are sheer wonders, astonishments, glories to behold. Water really is “that most precious element of all.” A dragonfly really is a marvel, as is a feather, as is the tension on the still surface of a lake. As are you, and me, up to our necks in miracles, every moment of every day. That’s all.
August 15, 2022