Human beings are not totally stupid. No matter how much we bomb and murder to destroy it, religion lives and has lived, certainly since we find red ochre used as the sign of eternal life tens of thousands of years ago…since the carving of fertility virgins, or the vision of the Holy Spirit, since the dance of Shiva began, since it was declared: “There is but one God and His name is Allah, Eloi, Brahm, the Tao, Life.” All is mystery and to recognize mystery is simply to recognize your stupidity, your ignorance, your ego—and above all, that you are alive and something is still expected of you.
William Boast
On This Day…
St. Clotilda (474-545): wife of Clovis, king of the Franks, mother of Clodmir, Childebert and Clotaire!
The hawk plumped and fluffed its tail in a puddle made by the sprinklers. Then it shook itself and hopped to one side, a little into the sprinkler spray and fluffed again. Then it looked at and through us and around us.
After an eternal moment, an iPod, ear-phoned man with a dog walked across the street. The dog saw the hawk. The hawk flew away. The man beheld nothing.
The hawk—a burning bush. I carried that hawk and the feeling of attentive eternity through the rest of the work day, as God sparkled in every person I met and some even brought pearls…while the “stuff” was background.
I don’t have to wait until I discover God-portals hidden in the back of a wardrobe in a room I’m not supposed to enter. God-portals are everywhere. At every moment there are openings to direct experience of the fathomless Spirit that is beyond the Vedas….
Behold!
Ben Leichtling
On This Day…
Anniversary of the Christuman Ordination of Ben Leichtling
Thomas Hardy born 1840 in England, died 1928: novelist, poet
Works: Jude the Obscure, Far From the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native
Quotes: “It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.” “Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.”
