Advent

By the Rev. James A. Weathersby,

In the Christian tradition, the Liturgical season of Advent ("coming" in Latin) consists of the four Sundays prior to Christmas (Christ-Mass, Celebration of Christ). Charles Dickens in his book A Christmas Carol, has the three Spirits of Christmas as Past, Present, and Future. Advent began those themes for celebrating Christ: Christ has come, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. Each Sunday in the Advent Season has a theme to prepare the hearts and minds of those observing Christmas: Hope (Elpis in Greek), Peace (Irene), Joy (Chara or Xara), and Love (Agape). The heart, mind, and spirit of each person observing Christmas are invited to renew their beliefs and practices by remembering Jesus Christ. The challenge of Advent is to remember and celebrate Christ throughout the years among our families and communities. Advent is a yearly observance for a lifetime of remembered experiences as people of faith.

The most beautiful component of Advent is the openness and reception for anyone and everyone. There is no distinction between those who attend regularly and those who come only at Christmas and Easter with their children or grandchildren. The emphasis is to come and celebrate as individuals in community, in various countries, on the same planet. The gifts we share with those we love, models and mimics the Gift from God to the World; Jesus Christ is the Divine Gift for humanity. That Divine love is to invite human love, for ourselves and all peoples everywhere. God Bless us, everyone, for all time. Pax

The Rev. James A. Weathersby M.Div., BCC was born in Chicago, product of a dedicated single mother and the Public-School system. He is a genetic Baptist and a historic Democrat; spirituality in his veins for generations. His family valued Education and the Black church; there are four generations of ministers in his family, serving as Pastors of congregations and Chaplains in Institutions. His Bachelors of Arts came from Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois from the Reformed Churches of America tradition. His Masters of Divinity Degree (specialty in Pastoral Care and Counseling) came from the southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville Kentucky, from the Southern Baptist tradition. His professional career as a Chaplain includes serving populations in Hospitals, Hospice, both Men’s and Women’s Corrections (Death Row Chaplain) in several Midwestern states. His time in Maine has included Chaplaincy at a Youth Development Center, Pastor to an island congregation and lately, Chaplain (II) of the State Forensic and civil Psychiatric Center. He has been honored to be married for 27 years and enjoy writing, yoga, and reading.

Gifts, painting by Valerie A. Clemons.

Destiny

By Ilari Oba Adeola Fearon,

When we stand on the shores of destinyRefined by Divine understandingThe history of who we areWho we’ve beenWhere we’ve traveledRises rooted from ancestral soilWatered, nurtured, fertilizedOur every reaching tendrilHeld eager for sustenance

With honor we danceUpon this sacred earthOur ears hear the drumOf our becomingOur hearts are liftedAs offeringDivine wineCourses through our veinsOur heads lightWith knowingAs droplets of incantationCommune into every poreThe marrow is in trance

We greet the dayOn summoned symphonyRelease these your prophesied childrenTo walk furtherThan they’ve journeyed beforeTo speak wordsWhere truth glistens with meaningTo heal infusedWith the sanctity of graceTo sing sovereigntyAs true belongingTo feed multitudesThe bread that seeds unendinglyTo wash othersAs full offerings of gratitude

Adeola is an artist, sacred activist and life coach who practices Yoruba Traditional Spirituality. She is the author of Soul Whisperings…Messages to Activate Compassion, Chair of the United Religions Initiative North America Leadership Council, and Ambassador for the Charlotte Red Bench Garden, an interfaith Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative. uri.org Adeola serves as a catalyst to empower, restore dignity and raise consciousness by revealing our common connections. As a servant leader, she has a legacy of advocacy in interfaith understanding, humanitarianism, cultural preservation, arts education, behavioral, and mental health.

Adeola has served Charlotte, North Carolina, where she lives, through Leadership Charlotte, Mecklenburg Ministries, Arts & Science Council, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Communities in Schools, Center for Community Transitions, Charlotte Literary Festival, Mecklenburg County Domestic Violence Advisory Board and various local community groups.

Poem and shoreline photograph © 2019 Ilari Oba Adeola Fearon

This One Magnificent Creation

By Lisa Steele-Maley,

In the quiet dark of morning,I move through the houseAs though I am the only oneIn this still sleeping world.

Walking by the window,I am caught in the light of the full moon.I bask in its radiant glow and, perhaps, it basks in me.For a long minute, we merge and then dissolve.

The moonbeam calls me to rememberRemember the light, inner and outerReflected and radiant, hidden and revealed.Remember that we are one.

Boundaries dissolve into the shadows.There is no me and there is no other.There is only this one magnificent CreationOf which I am blessed to be a part.

A heavy cloud floats up from below.As it moves across the shining moon,The bright light dims and disappears.I am left standing in the dark once again.

This time, I remember the oneness.I remember in my body and in my heart,for this moment and every other,I am never the only one.I am One with All That Is.

After growing up in small towns of New England and Wisconsin, Lisa developed a strong connection to the affirming rhythms of the natural world while working in the mountains and coasts of Alaska and Washington. She currently lives in an aging farmhouse on the coast of Maine with her husband, two teenage sons, and a handful of animals. Lisa was ordained an Interfaith Minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME) in June of 2019. She is the author of, Without A Map: A Caregiver’s Journey through the Wilderness of Heart and Mind. Lisa shares reflections regularly at lisa.steelemaley.io

Moon photo by Duncan Steele-Maley

Falling Leaves

By Rev. Mary Gelfand,

When I was a girl, growing up in Florida, I longed for seasonal change. Somehow palms and citrus trees did not have the same affect on my soul. Every fall, my aunt, who lived in northern Alabama, would gather a couple of handfuls of brightly colored leaves from her yard, iron them between 2 pieces of waxed paper and send them to me. By the time these gifts reached me, their color had begun to fade, but I cherished them, both for their beauty and the love they represented.

Now, living in Maine, I am reminded of these gifts as I scuff through the accumulated red and yellow leaves in my yard. Trees and leaves have always fascinated me. The fading red leaf in my hand has 3 main veins extending from it’s stem and dozens of smaller ones, bringing moisture and nutrition to the growing green leaf in the spring and summer, and now gradually draining the same resources back into the heart of the mother tree.

It is windy today, and drops of gold and scarlet grace are dancing with the wind as they begin their descent into the bosom of Mother Earth. I marvel at the depth of the artist’s palette trees use in preparing to shed their leaves. I can think of no other living thing than so beautifully prepares for and releases a piece of its soul to fall to the earth and begin the process of dissolving.

Autumn is a challenging time for me—all of the personal tragedies I’ve experienced are rooted in this season. Each fall I sink again into periods of depression and intense sadness, which are not lessened by my ability to anticipate them.

I envy the trees their ability to so joyfully and beautifully release that which they loved deeply and supported intensely. I want the trees to teach me how they manage this miracle year after year—how I too can approach the season of loss and sadness with beauty and joy.

Rev. Dr. Mary Gelfand is an ordained Interfaith Minister, a gifted teacher, and Wiccan High Priestess. She teaches and writes on the topics of feminist spirituality, Tarot, and Earth-centered spiritual paths. She resides in Wells with her husband Mark, two cats, and a forest full of birds, chipmunks, and other mysteries of life. You can see more of her writings at weavingthestars.blogspot.com.

A Compass to Guide Us

By Robert Atkinson,

In this age, the right of every one of us to search for truth on our own and investigate reality for ourselves is the most fundamental of all human rights; exercising this right can bring us the greatest of benefits. Our inherent urge to understand reality expands and fulfills our consciousness, which is what enables us to transform ourselves and society.

Ervin Laszlo says we need a good compass to guide us that can set standards and direct our steps. These are found in our existing cultural and spiritual heritage, he says:

The great ideals of the world religions…embody perennial values…and should be reaffirmed… There is, for example, the Christian vision of universal brotherhood governed by man’s love for a God of all men and for his fellow human beings. There is Judaism’s historical vision of an elected people in whom all the families of the earth are to be blessed. Islam has a universal vision of an ultimate community of God, man, nature, and society. The essential goal of the Baha’i Faith is to achieve a vision that is world embracing and could lead to the unity of mankind and the establishment of a world civilization based on peace and justice. Hinduism envisions matter as but the outward manifestation of spirit and urges attunement to cosmic harmony through the varied paths of yoga. Buddhism, too, perceives all reality as interdependent, and teaches man to achieve union with it through rejection of the drives and desires of a separate ego. Confucianism finds supreme harmony in disciplined and ordered human relationships, and Taoism finds such harmony in nature and naturalness. The African tribal religions conceive of a great community of the living and the dead, to which each person belongs unless he willfully creates imbalances between the seen and unseen forces in and around himself.”

Our common spiritual heritage consists of perennial ideals based on universal human values that can guide our steps into a sustainable future. In our search for truth, with our consciousness expanded, we come to a remarkable realization. We find the essence of ourselves that unites us with all creation, all beings, and divinity itself.

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., developmental psychology, is the author of nine books, including the 2017 Nautilus Book Award winner The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness, from which this excerpt is taken; Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul’s Story (2012); The Gift of Stories (1995); and, Year of Living Deeply: A Memoir of 1969 (2019). He is an internationally recognized authority in the techniques of life story interviewing, personal mythmaking, and soul-making, professor emeritus at the University of Southern Maine, board member of the Abbey of Hope, a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, and director of StoryCommons. www.robertatkinson.net.

Samhain

By the Rev. Mark Gallup,

Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) is the ancient Celtic festival celebrating the end of the harvest season and the turning of the year. It was also the Celtic New Year. Samhain was a time when “the veil between the worlds” of the living and the dead was believed to be very thin and is the basis for our Halloween. Old friends and ancestors were often said to be encountered on Samhain, and the ancient Celts left offerings and often set a place at table for them. At the very least, the ancient Celts remembered and commemorated those who had passed.

The 1977 song Old Friends by singer-songwriter Mary McCaslin reminds us to likewise remember our deceased friends and ancestors.

Lately word’s been coming back to me.There’s a few I will no longer see.Their faces will we see no more along the road.There’ll be a few less hands to hold.

But for the ones whose turn is ended,Though they started so much the same;In the hearts of those befriendedBurns a candle with a silver flame.

Remember old friends we’ve made along the way.The gifts they’ve given stay with us every day.*

It came to mind recently when I came upon a picture of my fiftieth high school class reunion. At that time ten out of my class of sixty nine had died. Since the photo was taken, two more have moved on. But the friendship which they all gave me was and is truly a gift.

This Samhain take time to remember those in your life that are no longer there to hold your hand along the road. And light a candle Samhain eve to symbolize the silver flame that still burns in your heart in remembrance of the gifts and the friendship they gave to you.

Calen Gaeaf Llawen! Happy Samhain!

*Old Friends © 1977 Mary McCaslin

The Rev. Mark Gallup is a Pagan high priest, interfaith minister, spiritual seeker, mystic, and diviner of the Natural World. Mark has been a practicing Pagan for over thirty years. He is a graduate of the College of Wicca and Old Lore as well as being trained in Feri. Mark was ordained in 2013 as an interfaith minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. Along with his wife, Mary Gelfand, he leads Earth-centered spiritual events and serves as an elder for White Pine Programs in York, ME.

The Color of Fall

Photograph by Arthur Fink.

 

Arthur Fink is best known as a photographer of dance, and, indeed, he’s been the photographer in residence at the Bates Dance Festival since 2005. He also teaches workshops on “Photography as a Spiritual Practice”, “Photographing From Within”, and “Seeing Dance Like a Photographer”. Arthur recently visited the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau, and is now organizing many of his images from that powerful experience.

Find information on his works at arthurfinkphoto.com

ENOUGH

by Rev. Mair Honan.

Sometimes,one gullflying slowly,low overheadis enough.Enough reasonto love this mystery.

Sometimes,the long shadowsgrowing acrossthe late afternoon grassis enough.Enough reasonto stop worrying.

Certainly,in the deep dark,the real night skyalive with energy beyond countis far and enough reasonto kneel.

Rev. Mair Honan, a graduate of Bangor Theological Seminary, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She is co-founder and retired pastor of Grace-Street Ministry in Portland, Maine. She is the author of, Walking in the Realm of Miracles, a series of reflections on street ministry. Her two rascal granddaughters are a major joy in her life. Writing poetry is a deep love and some of her work can be found on her blog, allone.home.blog.

Seagull image by Mark Timberlake

The Jewish High Holy Days

by Chaplain Joel Grossman.

The Jewish High Holy Days are 10 day period, comprised of Rosh Hashanah, “head of the year”, to Yom Kippur, “day of atonement.” This year the holiday is from Sunday evening, 9/29, to Wednesday evening, 10/9. The only words in the Torah about Rosh Hashanah (that name is actually not mentioned) is in Leviticus 23:23 - 23:25: “in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a solemn rest for you, a sacred convocation commemorated with the blast of the ram’s horn. You shall not work at any of your ordinary labor, and you shall bring a fire offering to the Lord.” Regarding a "fire offering,” when the Temple was destroyed and the people were exiled to Babylonia, not having the Temple at which fire offerings were made, prayer became the substitute. Regarding the “blast of the ram’s horn,” that is the “shofar”, which is blown daily in the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, and during the High Holiday services. During the month before Rosh Hashanah, preparation is made with study, reflection and saying of the 27th Psalm daily.

The High Holy Days are a time of personal spiritual reflection and a time of communal gathering. For many Jews, it’s the one time of the year they go to synagogue. It is a period of renewing our relationship to G!d* and to fellow humans. During this period we ask for G!d’s forgiveness for things gone astray in our relationship with G!d, but we also need to ask others for forgiveness for issues with them.

It is said that on Rosh Hashanah the writing in the “book of judgment” starts, and on Yom Kippur the book is sealed. During this period, three things can help in making our case: repentance, prayer, and doing good deeds, particularly giving to charity.

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*Observant Jews do not spell out this name for the Divine, knowing the paper or electronic writing will be discarded at some point. Typically it’s written as G-d, but I like G!d better.

Rev. Joel Grossman is one of the founders of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME), and was the Director of ChIME’s Massachusetts campus. He has been a hospice chaplain for over fifteen years. Joel has been a president of his local synagogue, Ahavas Achim, in Newburyport, MA, and has led Kabbalah and Jewish meditation sessions there. He is the leader of the “Spiritual Breakfast Club.”

Image of shofar by Olve Utne

Mabon—Autumnal Equinox—Harvest Home

by Mary Gelfand,

Come ye thankful people, come. Raise the song of Harvest Home.All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.”

—English Christian harvest festival hymn written in 1844 by Henry Alford

The concept of Harvest Home feels a little irrelevant in 21^st century American life.  As a mostly urban nation, a significant percentage of us don’t understand the logistics and timing connected with planting, nurturing, and harvesting food.  Yet our survival depends upon this ancient, organic process.

Life was different for our ancestors in both Western Europe and the northern US.  The indigenous peoples of both continents had a deep, visceral connection with the cycles of planting and harvesting and understood that survival—on both an individual and a collective level—depended on a successful harvest each year.

The pre-Christian Celtic peoples celebrated 3 harvest festivals, each tied to a point in the solar calendar.  Mabon--the Autumnal Equinox—was the second of these festivals, celebrating the harvest of fruits and vegetables.  It was cider-making time!

The intense physical labor of harvest is made more challenging by the noticeable reduction in the hours of daylight as the year hastens toward its dark phase.  On September 23, date of the autumnal equinox this year, we will have 2.5 hours less daylight than we did a mere 6 weeks earlier.

As our days grow shorter, and our nights longer, it is a time to reflect on our personal harvest.  Perhaps in the spring you planted actual and metaphorical seeds.  Perhaps, in the illumination and energy of high summer, those seeds blossomed and set fruit.  Now, as the sun moves further south, it is time to reap the fruits of our labor.  What is ready to harvest?  What needs another season to be fully mature?  What seeds simply failed to flourish, for whatever reason? What seeds will you set aside for planting next spring?

Mabon is a time to honor the intention and energy you set into motion last spring—to rejoice in the bounty of your harvest, and release those seeds that will return to Mother Earth.

Rev. Dr. Mary Gelfand is an ordained Interfaith Minister, a gifted teacher, and Wiccan High Priestess. She teaches and writes on the topics of feminist spirituality, Tarot, and Earth-centered spiritual paths. She resides in Wells with her husband Mark, two cats, and a forest full of birds, chipmunks, and other mysteries of life. You can see more of her writings at  weavingthestars.blogspot.com.

Apples image by Capri23auto

Alleluia

Alleluia (also spelled Halleluia or Hallelujah) is a word/sound expressing the feeling of praise, gratitude and rejoicing. What are you grateful for today?

Click on the link for the youtube video Alleluia from the album Instrument of Love by Todd Glacy.

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Rev. Todd Glacy is an Enlightenment Advocate, Empowerment Educator, and Instigator of Joy. Through his ministry of Sacred Sound and Living he travels the country as a guest speaker, musician, and workshop facilitator, sharing his many talents and gifts and inspiring people to connect with the deepest most spiritual parts of themselves in order to live lives of passion, purpose and well-being. www.sacredsoundandliving.com

Photo of Todd at Arches National Park by Sue Vittner.

The Most Powerful Attractive Force in the Universe

by Robert Atkinson,

Of the four forces of nature identified by physics (gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and the electro-magnetic force), it is not surprising that attractive forces appear overall stronger than repulsive forces. Nor is it surprising that seeking a theory of everything that would unify these four fundamental forces of nature has now become the Holy Grail of modern physics. This is the quest that leads us back to nonduality, that place where all things are understood as balanced parts of a greater whole.

Love, the most powerful attractive force in the entire universe, is the primary principle of a divine order. It was Empedocles, in ancient Greece, who suggested that the four primal elements—earth, air, fire, and water—are at the whim of the two opposing cosmic forces, Love and Strife. The attracting force of Love or the averting force of Strife dictates all change in the universe. He proposed alternating cosmic cycles of Love (or harmony) and Strife (or discord), in which unity and multiplicity alternate in cycles.

These alternating cycles operate in the affairs of humanity, as well. At times a natural balance may occur between the two forces; at other times it seems a true struggle ensues between them. A significant difference, however, is that in the cycle involving the primal elements it is the law of balance that is primary, while in the cycle involving our own collective evolution it is the law of perpetual progress that is primary, with love ultimately winning out over discord. Even these alternating cycles are expressions of a greater wholeness, a oneness that most characterizes the entire Creation, and that is the essence of nonduality.

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., developmental psychology, is the author of nine books, including the 2017 Nautilus Book Award winner The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness, from which this excerpt is taken; Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul’s Story (2012); The Gift of Stories (1995); and, Year of Living Deeply: A Memoir of 1969 (2019). He is an internationally recognized authority in the techniques of life story interviewing, personal mythmaking, and soul-making, professor emeritus at the University of Southern Maine, board member of the Abbey of Hope, a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, and director of StoryCommons.  www.robertatkinson.net.

Gate photo by Robert Atkinson.

Ordinarily, Miracles

by the Rev. James A. Weathersby,

Isaiah 58:9b-14 Psalm 103:1-8 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17

In the Christian Liturgical Calendar, there are many “high holy” days like those of other faith practices. These dates are usually in celebration of the faithful actions of believing men and women of God, whose service was more distinct, unique, or martyred. There is another season on the Christian calendar, called “Ordinary Time.” This is the longest period, between Pentecost (acknowledging the coming of the Holy Spirit) and Advent (celebrating the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ). Ordinary time seems an in-between the special-events time, where nothing significant occurs in the life of the Christian Church. However, let’s look elsewhere.

Psalm 103 begins, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Vs.1-2). The Psalms were meant for worship services, classroom instruction, private devotions and public outcries to God. The writers of the Psalms are kings and nobility, working class and poet laureates. The Holy Bible is a product of the Hebrew culture and utilizes their language structure, imagery and chauvinisms, endemic to any peoples. Real people wrote the Bible, for real people to read and hopefully grasp the invitation to know the same God.

The designation, Ordinary Time, could be a down time, nothing significant to recognize, no people to pattern after. Nothing really…until we read slowly Psalms 103: 1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Don’t forget the benefits of God. This Psalm reminds the reader that God is worthy of praise (recognition, acclaim, approval) for those experiences of our past, that should inspire our thanks, our appreciation, our acknowledgment—all the time. Ordinarily, miracles bring out our sincerest vocalizations (Hallelujah). Ordinary time is a pause in between the high holy days, to relish what has already occurred in our lives. Miracles upon miracles. Life is a miracle, what greater reason for expressing our appreciation to God?



The Rev. James A. Weathersby M.Div., BCC was born in Chicago, product of a dedicated single mother and the Public-School system. He is a genetic Baptist and a historic Democrat; spirituality in his veins for generations. His family valued Education and the Black church; there are four generations of ministers in his family, serving as Pastors of congregations and Chaplains in Institutions. His Bachelors of Arts came from Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois from the Reformed Churches of America tradition. His Masters of Divinity Degree (specialty in Pastoral Care and Counseling) came from the southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville Kentucky, from the Southern Baptist tradition. His professional career as a Chaplain includes serving populations in Hospitals, Hospice, both Men’s and Women’s Corrections (Death Row Chaplain) in several Midwestern states. His time in Maine has included Chaplaincy at a Youth Development Center, Pastor to an island congregation and lately, Chaplain (II) of the State Forensic and civil Psychiatric Center. He has been honored to be married for 27 years and enjoy writing, yoga, and reading.

Beauty in the Ordinary, painting by Valerie A. Clemons.

The Handkerchief

by Lori Whittemore,

I was recently in Dayton Ohio, deployed to provide spiritual care on behalf of the American Red Cross. The first day I was tasked with walking around the Oregon District where the mass shooting took place. Offering comfort to those who were visiting the make shift memorials that were set up where the people had fallen. The historic district has quaint, brick buildings with restaurants, shops, and tattoo parlors. Most were closed with noticeable bullet holes through many of the windows. Red Crossers, volunteer mental health providers, various community churches all were out and about doing the same. Many, many city residents came to look at the area. And families of those who were shot and/or killed were there bringing flowers from funerals and bringing pictures to place on the memorials.

As I paused at the largest of the memorials, a woman asked me if I knew the ministers who had been here the day after the shooting. I told her I did not. She handed me a handkerchief. She said that her son had been shot and in her public display of grief the day after his funeral, a minister had handed her his handkerchief. She took it and after pouring her grief into it, had cleaned it and wanted to return it in case another needed it. I told her I would take it and check in with my peers and see if it was theirs. It wasn’t. So I now have a white handkerchief.

I witnessed so much generosity during my time in Dayton: Compassion for those who lost loved ones or had been shot or injured. Grief for those left behind. Fear by those who expressed fear of ever going out in public—anywhere. Generosity of folks donating time and money and ears and hearts to those affected by this horrible, outrageous act. Anguish and despair for the things that can’t be fixed or repaired and that we aren’t addressing to prevent this from happening again.

After I returned home and unpacked, I found the handkerchief again and I realized the double meaning it holds for me. I will keep it for when I am sent again to the next mass casualty. I will offer it in comfort to the people pouring out their grief. I also looked at it as a white flag of surrender. When do we give up to the fact that this is not how civilized society is supposed to be? As my colleague Bob Atkinson said in a previous reflection, “We were not made for this.” I hold on to this white flag of surrender, to the possibility of transformation for a society that is drowning in tears. We are not meant for this!

Lori Whittemore a spiritual care volunteer for the American Red Cross and Maine Behavioral Health, as well as the founder and director of Abbey of Hope and Clinical Pastoral Training Center of Southern Maine (CPTCSM). Through CPTCSM she trains chaplains and pastoral care givers with today’s varied religious and spiritual landscape in mind. Rev. Whittemore approaches interfaith ministry from her Christian background and training as well as her interfaith education at Chaplaincy Institute of Maine.

Falling Water

by Jacob Watson,

Welcome. In the quiet of the very early morning, I hear the falling rain hit the roof and clatter in the gutter. The darkness makes the rain seem big, powerful, a force to be reckoned with, a reminder that the day already has a presence.

Find a way now to just let everything drop into silence, including your being. Let go; let silence happen as you simply sit here, simply breathing, in and out, in and out. Every breath is a silent raindrop, falling a thousand feet from the gray sky above…

Experience yourself breathe from the inside out. Let the fresh air come in and travel through your body, and wake your physical self. All your parts feel the breath of fresh air: your nose and mouth, throat and lungs, then down to your toes and back up again.

Imagine you are standing under a waterfall. The water pours down and washes your feelings out. The strong water is insistent, finds its way into all the hidden places, and scours out any feeling, cleaning and shining as it goes. Let your feelings pour from you.

What is uncovered can feel exposed and fragile. And it is; yet after all the layers have been washed away, something pure remains, some quality of essence, something that can be reduced no further. See how you might honor your essence today.

May you allow this day to wash over you, so that whatever is not necessary falls away, leaving you clean, freshened, and pure.

Your gift today is falling water.

Jacob Watson is the founding Abbot of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. He received the Huston Smith Lifetime Achievement Award for Interfaith Education. Select Morning Blessing Gift meditations from his book Enso Morning are available as audio recordings on the meditation app Insight Timer. He provides individual students with Spiritual Companionship. For more information and to contact Jacob: www.revjacobwatson.com.

Photo of Yosemite Falls by Jacob Watson.

Look Within

by Rev. Myra Robinson,

Look up, Look downLook both waysBefore you cross the road

As long as you’re lookingYou are presentGoing forward or hanging backLoses its appeal

MindfulnessIs looking with yourThird eyeYour mind’s eye

BelievingIn that visionMakes it reality

ManifestingSacred creatingWith open eyesOpen mind

SeeingFor the first timeThe beautyYou have made

Myra Robinson is a ChIME (2016) ordained Interfaith Chaplain, and an entrepreneur. Her company, AffirMantra^TM (which donates 10% of net profits to local charities), is a platform from which she offers “Workshops, Weddings, and Wonder” (think inspired creations: such as clergy stoles, and other artistic expressions), as well as bookings as a public speaker, officiant, group facilitator, teacher, musician, singer, and various clergy services. Rev. Myra currently lends her voice and musicianship to the Portland New Church Interfaith Community and strives to bring an element of Sacred Sound into every endeavor, for the spiritual nurturance and healing of the Earth and all living beings. Go to www.affirmantra.com or Rev. Myra’s AffirMantras on Facebook for more information.

Eye image by Free-Photos

Dodging Icebergs in the Desert: The Ubiquity of Grace

by Pastor Jeff Logan,

On a good day, the work of the pastors at Grace-Street Ministry can feel like an exercise in futility, something like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. And now, to add to the chaos and the difficult emotions, we’re trying to manage the angry questions about why the recently arrived asylum seekers are receiving such an outpouring of love and concern from across the local area while they, the homeless, are being consigned to a future shelter as far from the city center as possible. At the core of that question and that angst is the unanswerable question: why, as Americans, do we believe that there are two classes of those who need help—the deserving and the undeserving poor?

If you are a follower of Jesus, you know that he made no distinction between the deserving and the undeserving poor, between those who deserve a hand up and those who should fumble in the dark grasping at bootstraps. He loved all the people who struggled on the margins, no matter the circumstances that led them to their difficult place. And it’s this love that is the answer to our despair, because no matter how dark things get, there is always the light of love that illuminates the horizon with each new day. And with this realization, we can see past the darkness and see the light that lurks on the edges of things—the generosity of friend to friend when they share what little they have; the love of couples who may have had a screaming argument ten minutes ago, but now are sitting quietly and holding hands; the miracle of people passed out in the courtyard one week, and then anchoring an art opening in Portland the next; the remarkable journey of a writer who is honing his craft in adult education classes with new Americans just learning English, and finding, with them, that we all have stories to tell.

There is always light, if you just look in the right direction. And for those of us who attempt, as best we can, to walk in the sandals of that Galilean peasant, we have a special compass that can lead us to the horizon of a new dawn—come hard to starboard and dodge the looming iceberg.  We have places to go.

Pastor Jeff Logan was ordained by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine in 2015. He has been working as a co-pastor with Grace-Street Ministry since his ordination, and was hired as the new Executive Director in November of 2018. For more information on Grace-Street Ministry, please visit our webpage, gracestreetministry.blogspot.com, or contact Jeff directly by email at gracestreetministry@gmail.com. Donations of Dunkin' Donuts cards, socks, or money are always gratefully received.

Lammas

by the Rev. Mark Gallup,

Harvest time has arrived! It is time to celebrate the first fruits of the harvest, the reaping of the grain. My Celtic ancestors celebrated Lammas by baking bread from the freshly reaped wheat and barley and offering it to the spirits of the land, the Fey. Later the bread was gifted to the church and placed upon the altar at the “Loaf Mass” which is where the name Lammas comes from.

Baking bread is a metaphor for creating a life and offering it to the world. We all bring our own ingredients to the baking and blend them together in a personal recipe. For many of us the recipe is always the same with no variation.

At Beltane we gave birth to new ways of thinking and acting. Rather than following the same old recipe, at Lammas we can harvest the rewards of Beltane and incorporate them into the baking of the loaf that is our life. What new ways can you add to the recipe that you live by?

For bread to rise it must be leavened, and there are many different leavening agents: yeast, baking powder, or sour dough. What do you use to leaven your life? Do you use gratitude and compassion, resulting in a sweet savory life loaf as your gift to the world? Or do you leaven with fear and doubt resulting in a flat dry offering?

May the bread that is your life always be savory! May the recipe always improve! And may you leaven your bread with intention and love!

The Rev. Mark Gallup is a Pagan high priest, interfaith minister, spiritual seeker, mystic, and diviner of the Natural World. Mark has been a practicing Pagan for over thirty years. He is a graduate of the College of Wicca and Old Lore as well as being trained in Feri. Mark was ordained in 2013 as an interfaith minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. Along with his wife, Mary Gelfand, he leads Earth-centered spiritual events and serves as an elder for White Pine Programs in York, ME.

Remembering the Mystery & Wonder

by Lindy Gifford,

I grew up Unitarian Universalist. By high school I had stopped attending church—in buildings—and for many years, nature was my only church. When our two daughters were small, we joined the Midcoast Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Damariscotta, Maine, and I have been a member ever since.

Unitarian Universalism draws wisdom from many sources, including scripture, science, poetry, humanist thinkers, and personal experience. I am sustained by all of the six sources of Unitarian Universalism, but the one that speaks most to me personally is the first:

The direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life."

For much of my life, this sense of something mysterious and wonderful has come over me most often through my own experience. On hikes and canoes, on walks with a beloved dog, looking into the eyes of our newborn daughters. It has always been gorgeous, very hard to describe, strangely familiar, and elusive. Like the memory of a lost paradise. But always it births “a renewal of the spirit” in me.

The more I pay attention to life and the miracle it truly is, the more I understand that paradise was never in fact lost—just forgotten. And it is not somewhere else, but all around us, all the time, right here, right now. Not just in peak experiences and not just in nature. Not just in a newborn’s eyes, but in everyone’s eyes, could we but see it. We only need to remember—remember what we actually already know. And I believe that each of us must come to that in our own way, by our own path.

The full text and a podcast of Remembering the Mystery and Wonder are featured in the July/August Quest Monthly, a publication of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, “a Unitarian Universalist Congregation Without Walls.”

Lindy Gifford lives on, and learns from, the Damariscotta River. She is the mother of two smart, independent daughters and has been successfully married for 38 years. She has worked as an archeologist, photographer, artist, and graphic designer and was ordained an interfaith chaplain in 2015 by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME). She is Reflectionary editor, the author of Doodle-ography Journal doodle-ography.com, and soul proprietor of manifestidentity.com, helping people publish books and websites.

Photograph of sunset on Pemaquid Beach by Lindy GiffordPhotograph of Lindy on the Damariscotta River by Angie Arndt

Fearless Compassion

by Lori Whittemore,

Pema Chodron is an ordained American Tibetan nun, author, and teacher. In The Pocket Pema Chodron, she writes about daring to have no enemies.

Whether it’s ourselves, our lovers, bosses, children, or the political situation, its more daring and real to not shut anyone out of our hearts and not make the other into our enemy. "

I’m not sure I can even imagine that right now in the current political context. With such vitriolic fear mongering being proffered from the highest authorities in the land, I find it hard not to see enemies everywhere. After all, we are being sold that people of different color or culture are our enemies. That they are taking our jobs, or our security. And for those who find that concept appalling, there is the temptation to therefore make enemies of those who are selling these racist and untruthful ideas.

But hate doesn’t conquer hate, only love does that. Those fateful words of Martin Luther King, Jr. are so poignant right now. It is the charge for those on the spiritual path to cultivate peace and love such that we are not perpetuating hatefulness in our midst. Being centered prepares each of us for the sacred task of living in a state of fearless compassion and therefore transforms the greater world by transforming ourselves through love.

I invite you to keep the words fearless compassion with you this week, when you are challenged by people and situations that anger you. You are courage that replaces fear. You are peace that replaces chaos. You are the love that replaces hate. You are the fearless compassion that dares to have no enemies!

Lori Whittemore is the founder and director of Abbey of Hope interfaith cooperation circle and of Clinical Pastoral Training Center of Southern Maine (CPTCSM), the training arm of the Abbey. Through CPTCSM she trains chaplains and pastoral care givers with today’s varied religious and spiritual landscape in mind. Rev. Whittemore approaches interfaith ministry from her Christian background and training as well as her interfaith education at Chaplaincy Institute of Maine.