Sunday Morning

~ Live & Learn

Holy silence is spacious and inviting. You can drink it down. We offer it to ourselves when we work, rest, meditate, bike, read. When we hike by ourselves, we hear a silence still pristine with crunching leaves and birdsong…During congregational silences, in meditation rooms or halls, in prison cells and meeting rooms, in silent confession at church, all these screwed-up people like us, with tangled lives and minds, find their hearts opening through quiet focus. In unfolding, we are enfolded, and there is a melding of spirits, a melding of times, eternal, yesterday morning, the now, the ancient, even as we meet beneath a digital clock on the wall, flipping its numbers keeping ordinary time in all that timelessness.

~ Anne Lamott, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy

Notes: Quote – Thank you Make Believe Boutique. Photo: Franziska Korries (via Newthom)

28 thoughts on “Sunday Morning”

      1. Awwww, thanks. I’m such a fan of Stafford.

        You Reading This, Be Ready
        by William Stafford

        Starting here, what do you want to remember?
        How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
        What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
        sound from outside fills the air?

        Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
        than the breathing respect that you carry
        wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
        for time to show you some better thoughts?

        When you turn around, starting here, lift this
        new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
        all that you want from this day. The interval you spent
        reading or hearing this, keep it for life—

        What can anyone give you greater than now,
        starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

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  4. … In unfolding we are enfolded …. Love Anne Lamott and her words.
    May your Sunday be like this, Dave 💛
    I’ll be driving north to Kripalu after teaching this morning. Looking forward to the congregational silence … and having fun too. Its all about balance and understanding what our body, mind and spirit need.

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  5. Oh yes! wonderful message for this morning…Holy silence is spacious and inviting.

    And, then! Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
    than the breathing respect that you carry
    wherever you go right now?

    You’re the kind of “preacher” I love!

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  8. “When we hike by ourselves, we hear a silence still pristine with crunching leaves and birdsong…” NOT OFTEN THE CASE! Most people I see out walking have music plugged into their ears and they aren’t even aware of the beauty around them. A real shame. I like music, but ….

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        1. Oh, and we so appreciate TRUTH here above all….

          In a world such as ours, where mediocrity and confusion reign, where leaders mislead us and governments deceive us, the need for greatness is particularly critical. What is greatness, we may well ask? … But we return to the question, “What is greatness?”

          ….. “Nothing great is accomplished in the world save through a heroic fidelity to some truth which a man who says ‘I’ sees, and to which he, himself, a human person, must fulfill; of which, perhaps, he alone is aware and for which he lays down his life.” This sentence includes four factors that greatness requires: truth….

          ~ Donald DeMarco, from “What Greatness Requires” in The Wanderer (May 19, 2018)

          http://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/featured-today/what-greatness-requires/

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  9. Perfect for a Sunday morning, David. Thank you for sharing.
    I get my meditation on usually, when walking Zeke. I love when we stop and there is utter silence. Not a sound, no traffic, no birds, no buzz. It usually only lasts for a short moment but is so peaceful…

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  10. AMEN to this. To me Sundays = church. There I find solace, peace, comfort, strength but also joy, singing, discussions. Then a more or less ‘quiet’ rest of the day, often with a gathering of inner strength for the week to come.
    Aaah, walks with a pet – I’m missing that too! I find some sort of meditation when I let my thoughts run free. It can be doing a menial task, or working/enjoying (in) the garden, taking photos, writing – even reading lets me form thoughts of comfort/pain/seeking solutions…. I know I lead a privileged life and I’m thankful for it. I just don’t know how it was possible before to work and raise a family and look after pets and and and ….

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