“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water…If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably, earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”
--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
... So, what are your desires?
Showing posts with label Contemplations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contemplations. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Bag Lady
Lately I feel like my life is lived in bags.
Shopping Bags, Travel Bags, Plastic Bags...
Each bag has been transporting one area of my life to another-
Here is a present,
Here's your required appetizer,
Here's my dance shoes,
Here's my costume,
Here's my make-up...
Here I am in a bag...
One day I'll be transported in a body bag and forgotten beneath the Earth's surface.
Transitory Bag Lady.
Shopping Bags, Travel Bags, Plastic Bags...
Each bag has been transporting one area of my life to another-
Here is a present,
Here's your required appetizer,
Here's my dance shoes,
Here's my costume,
Here's my make-up...
Here I am in a bag...
One day I'll be transported in a body bag and forgotten beneath the Earth's surface.
Transitory Bag Lady.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Warrior Princess #1
“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”-Joan of Arc
Monday, July 16, 2007
I'm in LA today...
"This is the foreign land
With the Spray-on Tan
...And it all feels 'fine'"
-The Shins
My wandering mind:
****************************************************
The land of smokey grayness
Not from fog or magic or steam
A mute button over the colors of the earth
So you'd better look more pretty
more shiny
more something...
who are you today, pretty one?
what will you say and how will you smile tonight?
I dub thee "Botox Squeeky Red Nose BOBO"
*****************************************************
I can recall the names of wounds by exits off the freeways.
Drive on
Further
Move away
Further
The prickles of the 210
The crushing of the 110
The lost dream and lingering false hopes of the 134.
And then there's "home"
Off the Azusa blvd exit.
The only exit of peace.
And the only one I should drive on past.
***********************************************
People are exhausted here.
There's no color, so you have to provide it.
There's no escaping traffic, so you sit in glazed eyed numbness
Or you pull off and wait, in your car, til you can go home and rest.
Put off rest another hour.
MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!
There's still some things I love about here.
I have crazy fun times.
But there's little place to land,
and no one can stay put in one place long enough to land with.
The mantra of this town is:
"What do you do? & How can I use you?"
I just want to make them all a cup of hot chocolate and tell them they are still beautiful.
I want to curl them up in a blanket by the licking flame fire and let them be at peace.
You are you. Let God fill in the colors.
*********************************************************************************
I saw a rainbow in the clouds on the trip up over a long stretch of nowhere.
A promising banner, that nowhere is still somewhere in the heart of it's Creator.
I am still somewhere.
He makes everything beautiful.
With the Spray-on Tan
...And it all feels 'fine'"
-The Shins
My wandering mind:
****************************************************
The land of smokey grayness
Not from fog or magic or steam
A mute button over the colors of the earth
So you'd better look more pretty
more shiny
more something...
who are you today, pretty one?
what will you say and how will you smile tonight?
I dub thee "Botox Squeeky Red Nose BOBO"
*****************************************************
I can recall the names of wounds by exits off the freeways.
Drive on
Further
Move away
Further
The prickles of the 210
The crushing of the 110
The lost dream and lingering false hopes of the 134.
And then there's "home"
Off the Azusa blvd exit.
The only exit of peace.
And the only one I should drive on past.
***********************************************
People are exhausted here.
There's no color, so you have to provide it.
There's no escaping traffic, so you sit in glazed eyed numbness
Or you pull off and wait, in your car, til you can go home and rest.
Put off rest another hour.
MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!
There's still some things I love about here.
I have crazy fun times.
But there's little place to land,
and no one can stay put in one place long enough to land with.
The mantra of this town is:
"What do you do? & How can I use you?"
I just want to make them all a cup of hot chocolate and tell them they are still beautiful.
I want to curl them up in a blanket by the licking flame fire and let them be at peace.
You are you. Let God fill in the colors.
*********************************************************************************
I saw a rainbow in the clouds on the trip up over a long stretch of nowhere.
A promising banner, that nowhere is still somewhere in the heart of it's Creator.
I am still somewhere.
He makes everything beautiful.
Friday, June 1, 2007
You are NOT a TV.
I woke up thinking about THIS...
We are not entertainment for one another.
I think in a TV culture we forget that rather quickly.
We meet up with people expecting them to entertain us, or, to entertain them rather than engage in genuine community.
To engage in the present moment means you're going to get dirty. Love is messy. Love is even sometimes BORING! (::gasp::)
So what do we do with that? How do we genuinely say, "Hi, brother/sister/PERSON! I am hear to love you. I am here to LISTEN. But don't feel pressured to entertain me."
I think it starts with embracing the silence in a room and the lulls in conversations instead of running away from them.
I think it really starts by looking them in the eye rather than spacing out.
I think it really REALLY means we start re-imagining how we perceive the word "entertainment" and finding the balance between authenticity, without the burden of overdoing it and delving into an intensity that is too hard to maintain.
I think that when we truly love each other, moment by moment, we will find joy.
We are not entertainment for one another.
I think in a TV culture we forget that rather quickly.
We meet up with people expecting them to entertain us, or, to entertain them rather than engage in genuine community.
To engage in the present moment means you're going to get dirty. Love is messy. Love is even sometimes BORING! (::gasp::)
So what do we do with that? How do we genuinely say, "Hi, brother/sister/PERSON! I am hear to love you. I am here to LISTEN. But don't feel pressured to entertain me."
I think it starts with embracing the silence in a room and the lulls in conversations instead of running away from them.
I think it really starts by looking them in the eye rather than spacing out.
I think it really REALLY means we start re-imagining how we perceive the word "entertainment" and finding the balance between authenticity, without the burden of overdoing it and delving into an intensity that is too hard to maintain.
I think that when we truly love each other, moment by moment, we will find joy.
Living in the Present Moment (Partial Repost)
I am in the middle of a move, which means goodbye reality, hello every form of escape within my grasp. I'm not very good at detaching. Whether it's envisioning how to decorate my new space and make my artistic "mark", or nostalgically recalling (and sometimes regretting) the past and all these objects associated with memories, I am realizing how much bondage I am under. Seriously, do I need all these objects, these temporal things distracting me from embracing the joy of the present moment? I don't think so. And joy has been hard to find. Tears have been easier. I HATE the idea of moving. I LOVE being in the woods and are starting attach the "all-isms" you attach with a love you are moving away from- it was "always this way", I "never" did this, this "always" brought out this emotion... and, the most dangerous of them all, "I was THIS while I was here"...
Places, things, memories, imagination: these are not WHO I am. There is no place for love in an unreality.
I am reposting something I came across this morning that was a great re-focusing tool. I hope you will check it out:
http://www.ichoseyou.com/college.html
Here's a selection from it:
A sign outside a pub reads "Free beer tomorrow!" The next day the sign will be there. Do you remember hearing the phrase: "Time is flying!" Indeed, time passes relentlessly; some times we wish we had a remote control to stop or to fast-forward it.
The ancient Romans used to say: "Carpe diem", seize the day, meaning: "Don't waste it, enjoy it." In Renaissance Florence, late 1400's, a poem, loosely translated, went like this: "Oh how beautiful the time of youth is, and yet it runs away from us; he who wants to be happy, be happy because there may not be a tomorrow." "He who wants to be happy." is the refrain that goes through all the poem. Certainly this is not a Christian vision of life.
In the light of Sacred Scripture, time is seen in a quite different perspective.
In the New Testament there are numerous exhortations to live in the present: "So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Mt 6,34); Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4,6); "Unload all your worries on to him, since he is looking after you (1 Pt 5,7).
...Christians in Europe who lived during World War II, when there were continual bombings and were not sure if they would be alive in the next moment, concentrated on the moment they had available at the present to love God and their neighbors.
Chiara Lubich was one of those Christians who experienced this reality when she wrote: "The Lord taught us to live the present moment in various ways. In the Gospel for instance, it is evident that we should live the present moment, because we are told to ask the Father for bread only for "this day". "Give us this day our daily bread" and we learn that "today has troubles enough of it own" (Mt. 6:34); and we are warned: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God" (Lk. 9:62)." As a follower of Jesus Christ, we don't look back, rather with our hearts fixed in Eternity and our feet on the ground we look at this moment and we are challenged: " Your Kingdom come!"
In reading the lives of the Saints, Chiara realized that we could imitate them in the way they did the will of God in the present moment. Here is what some of them said: Catherine of Siena: "The fatigue of the past is no longer ours, because its time has gone; what is to come we do not possess, because we are not sure if its time will ever come."
Another saint from the third century was Anthony the abbot. His biography said: "He took no account of the time which had passed, but day by day, as if beginning his life as a monk for the first time, he made great efforts to advance, constantly repeating to himself Saint Paul's words: 'I forget the past and strain ahead for what is still to come' (Phil. 3:13-14).
St. Therese' of the Little Flower is another expert on how to live the present moment. She said:
"Let's take advantage of every single moment of our suffering, let's us see each instant as if there were no other. An instant is a treasure…""My life is a flash of lightning, an hour that passes, a moment that fast escapes me and is gone. My God, you know that to love you on earth I have nothing but today." Do you love Jesus in the present moment or are you distracted and thinking that someday you are going to start loving Him? "Free beer tomorrow!"
Places, things, memories, imagination: these are not WHO I am. There is no place for love in an unreality.
I am reposting something I came across this morning that was a great re-focusing tool. I hope you will check it out:
http://www.ichoseyou.com/college.html
Here's a selection from it:
A sign outside a pub reads "Free beer tomorrow!" The next day the sign will be there. Do you remember hearing the phrase: "Time is flying!" Indeed, time passes relentlessly; some times we wish we had a remote control to stop or to fast-forward it.
The ancient Romans used to say: "Carpe diem", seize the day, meaning: "Don't waste it, enjoy it." In Renaissance Florence, late 1400's, a poem, loosely translated, went like this: "Oh how beautiful the time of youth is, and yet it runs away from us; he who wants to be happy, be happy because there may not be a tomorrow." "He who wants to be happy." is the refrain that goes through all the poem. Certainly this is not a Christian vision of life.
In the light of Sacred Scripture, time is seen in a quite different perspective.
In the New Testament there are numerous exhortations to live in the present: "So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Mt 6,34); Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4,6); "Unload all your worries on to him, since he is looking after you (1 Pt 5,7).
...Christians in Europe who lived during World War II, when there were continual bombings and were not sure if they would be alive in the next moment, concentrated on the moment they had available at the present to love God and their neighbors.
Chiara Lubich was one of those Christians who experienced this reality when she wrote: "The Lord taught us to live the present moment in various ways. In the Gospel for instance, it is evident that we should live the present moment, because we are told to ask the Father for bread only for "this day". "Give us this day our daily bread" and we learn that "today has troubles enough of it own" (Mt. 6:34); and we are warned: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God" (Lk. 9:62)." As a follower of Jesus Christ, we don't look back, rather with our hearts fixed in Eternity and our feet on the ground we look at this moment and we are challenged: " Your Kingdom come!"
In reading the lives of the Saints, Chiara realized that we could imitate them in the way they did the will of God in the present moment. Here is what some of them said: Catherine of Siena: "The fatigue of the past is no longer ours, because its time has gone; what is to come we do not possess, because we are not sure if its time will ever come."
Another saint from the third century was Anthony the abbot. His biography said: "He took no account of the time which had passed, but day by day, as if beginning his life as a monk for the first time, he made great efforts to advance, constantly repeating to himself Saint Paul's words: 'I forget the past and strain ahead for what is still to come' (Phil. 3:13-14).
St. Therese' of the Little Flower is another expert on how to live the present moment. She said:
"Let's take advantage of every single moment of our suffering, let's us see each instant as if there were no other. An instant is a treasure…""My life is a flash of lightning, an hour that passes, a moment that fast escapes me and is gone. My God, you know that to love you on earth I have nothing but today." Do you love Jesus in the present moment or are you distracted and thinking that someday you are going to start loving Him? "Free beer tomorrow!"
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