(a repost from April 2013)

Seek the One who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth…  -Amos 5: 8

 

Seeker,

If you think meekness

is weakness,

try being meek for a week!

 

Imagine the dark cold of night

that patiently awaits

the warm possibilities of morning.

 

Now visualize a deep, spreading glow,

defining, in sharp relief,

the edge of the world.

 

Slowly at first, almost imperceptibly,

Earth noiselessly

rolls over into the glare.

 

In silent, awesome majesty,

the blinding ball breeches the horizon

instantly transforming the world,

 

gracefully overwhelming us and everything

(good, bad and indifferent)

with gentle radiance.

 

This quiet, predictable power,

a daily benediction of outpouring light,

causes shadows to stretch and yawn, before retreating.

 

Thus, in radiant splendor,

the sacrament of a new day,

every day announces itself.

 

As it is every day

with our “meek Maker”,

so may it be this day with all God’s children.

 

Gentleness is participation in God’s way of doing things that is at once gentle and firm,

sustaining all creation with its enormous diversity, yet without effort.  -Thomas Keating

If only we reflected love’s light,

to illuminate dark matters and places,

and evaporate the haze of hatred.

 

If only we placed

the bright lives of our children

before personal gains and goals.

 

If only we put the needs of God’s kin

ahead of our own

fears and insecurities.

 

If only we re-placed

the need to win,

with the desire to care.

 

Then, at last,

we might regain reverence

for the fragile bounty of God’s planet

 

If we could but bend and bow,

touch earth and bless it,

as every day we are blessed by beauty.

 

Only the truly gentle can know

how God’s Realm

encompasses everyone and everything:

 

rocks and trees, surf and sand,

the good green earth

and every one of her miraculous creatures.

 

This given day,

may you bring love’s gentle force

to bear upon the world within your reach.

 

May you find

your way

back down to earth:

 

stooping to grace the ground; slowing  to notice nature;

bending to give thanks for earth—

her seasons and her sufferings.

 

And bless too the salt of the earth—

tillers of the soil

and guardians of nature’s diversity.

 

So how will you reverence your inheritance today?

 

joe