Music and more healing mind, body, soul 3/21/20 thru today, 3/27/20

"At the Cross (Love Ran Red)" by Chris Tomlin : "There's a place where mercy reigns And never dies. There's a place where streams of grace Flow deep and wide Where all the love I've ever found Comes like a flood Comes flowing down: At the cross, At the cross I surrender my life I'm in awe of You I'm in awe of You Where Your love ran red And my sin washed white I owe all to You" listen here

"Bowl of Light" by Trevor Hall listen here for fuller story, click here - Ken shared at yoga 3/10/20

Cupcake from birthday Celebration for my Communion this morning, with tart Cherry juice 

Discernment: "Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2

 from "You're Missing" by Bruce Springsteen

Fiddleheads for ashwagandha, broccoli, cardamom seed powder, dark chocolate, eggs... ;)

For such a time as this listen here

"God, help me see things the way you see them." ~ Donnie Williams, Lifepointe 3/22/2020

Humphrey from Jamaica a Godsend in the laundry room on Saturday

"If We’re Honest" by Francesca Battistelli - listen here

"Jesus, Friend of Sinners" by Casting Crowns

 listen here

"King of My Heart" listen to Erin Bittner (Lifepointe Church) here

Lauren Daigle - "Love Like This"

"Million Reasons/Someone Like You" Lady Gaga and Adele listen here God is THE one that gives us a "hundred million reasons" and His is that one good one to stay "Lord show me the way..."

 

"...Never mind, I'll find someone like you I wish Nothing but the best for you, too "Don't forget me" I beg "I'll remember" ... but sometimes it hurts instead. We all Need "that one good one" Now

"Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

"Peace Be Still" by Hope Darst
"Quarantine" yoga is so very helpful now

Touched By An Angel version of "For Such a Time as This" is very powerful. See "Y" below.

 

Virtual yoga with Ken, Virtually, every chance I get.

“When a poet's mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experience; the ordinary man's experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary. The latter falls in love...
"...in the mind of the poet these eXperiences are always forming new wholes.” ― T.S. Eliot "
You're asking me to give it all up..." Yes. It is not always easy to do the thing God asks of us... I am so afraid... I know..." listen to the Biblical connection to the song "For Such a Time As This" here 
Zain : "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me." Psalm 119:49-50

Mid-March, 2020

"Adam salvages a a bit of wood ... A tree is a passage between earth and sky... He gives it to Leigh anyway, as a going-away present..." p. 53 The Overstory by Richard Powers

"But this will never end - What we have. Right? p. 493, and at least once previously

"Commands: Look, listen, taste, touch, feel, say, join." p. 493 The Overstory by Richard Powers

"Do not hope or despair or predict or be caught surprised. Never capitulate, but divide, multiply, transform, conjoin, do, and endure as you have all the long day of life." p. 500 p. 53 The Overstory

 Art by Joanne Fink

"For there is hope of a tree, if it goes down, that it will sprout again and that its tender branches will not cease... " p. 485 

Greatest thing: even when he can't get near, even when he can't remember how they go, he can climb, and they will hold him high above the ground and let him look out over the arc of the Earth ... the birds, though, Give themselves as Gifts." p. 491

"His heart is as good and as worthy as wood." p. 491 The Overstory by Richard Powers

"If one of us falls off the edge, the other is going with... but this will never end - what we have. Right?" p. 381 and previously. I love how The Overstory wraps and weaves, repeats and overlays

"Joy Comes with the Morning A Psalm of David. Psalm 30:5 qtd. in The Overstory

"Life has a way of talking to the future. It's called memory...genes. To solve the future, we [?] must save the past." p. 453 "Love is a tree with branches in forever, with roots in eternity and a trunk nowhere at all." ~ Rumi qtd. on p. 381 "Let the field be joyful, all that is there in: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice." Psalm 96:12 qtd. in The Overstory

Martha recommended, and there were other "signs" from library dropbox to Maryam's purchase...

"Not this. Come with. Fear Nothing." p. 128 The Overstory by Richard Powers

"On this mountain, in such weather / Why stay here any longer? Three trees wave to me with urgent arms." p. 367 and p. 484 The Overstory by Richard Powers

"Plant-blind. Adam's Curse. We only see things that look like us." p. 114 The Overstory

Quotes the Bible a number of times, plus Rumi

"Red thread once tied them together, the shared work of trying to care and see more...

"She tugs on the thread. It's still taut... She wants to rush him a message of absolute forgiveness." p. 490

"Though the root grows old in earth / and the stock dies in the ground, at the scent / of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs. / But man, man wastes away and dies / and gives up the ghost, and where is he?  p. 485

"Ultra fine line between numbness and awe." p. 124 The Overstory by Richard Powers 

"View crack open his chest." p. 264 Vision: the topic, the gift, the glory, the joy, the theme of 2020

"What it has been saying to him for decades now, ever since the speaker died. [p.381] He has never known what to do with them, Words of everything and nothing. Words that he has never fully grasped. Wounds that won’t heal. What we have will never end. Right? What we have will never end." p. 483 The Overstory by Richard Powers 

"Xenia [Greek] - guest friendship - a command to take care of traveling strangers, to pen your door to whoever is out there, because anyone passing by, far from home, might be God..." p. 498

Yggdrasil, the World Tree, with its roots in the underworld and crown in the world above." p. 260

"You have been spared from death to do a most important thing." Olivia and then Adam heard this (p. 495) "You Have Five Trees in Paradise" also twice mentioned in The Overstory more here

Zoopraxiscope (p. 11 of The Overstory) was a primitive version of a motion picture device which worked by showing a sequence of still photographs in rapid succession. 

New day, month, job, life weaves on....

"All that is asked of us now is that we spin the crumpled threads and weave..." p. 13 Wintersong by Madeline L'Engle

video here

Cambrium : in plants, is a tissue layer that provides partially undifferentiated cells for plant growth. It is found in the area between xylem and phloem. It forms parallel rows of cells, which result in secondary tissues.p. 136 The Overstory by Richard Powers

Do the Work by Steven Pressfield and Draw Near to God... I felt the urge/need to weave this week...

"Ezekiel 36:25-27 "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

  click here for beautiful blog post "The Long Miracle" and here for more by Jilly Hill on Instagram @draw_nearto_god

"Family branches lopped off that she must recover and revive. Dying has given her new eyes." p. 163 The Overstory by Richard Powers
"God" is the only word I can possibly put here in this place in this particular post. I've been wondering for days how to finish" this one... reading, listening, weaving, struggling, wrestling with God like Jacob (Genesis 32:24) trying to find meaning, purpose, strength with which to both help others and to be at peace, filled with love to overflowing and therefore pour out love for all others "simply" by being the me I was meant to be. I found this video by Tim Mackie to be quite helpful. and just now... while at YouTube to grab the link, noticed: "Grace Will Lead Me Home" by David Dunn so I clicked on it and listened. Beautiful, and then... I usually have autoplay clicked to off, but apparently not his morning because the next song played on, ever more beautiful is God's weaving... "Great Are you Lord" by Casting Crowns, I'm sure I first heard this song at Lifepointe Church. xo God Bless, indeed!

"Happiness to know oneself in a manner not entirely arbitrary and accidental, but as someone who has grown out of a past, as an Heir, flow, and fruit." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche min 7:40 of this video

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." ~ John Muir qtd. p. 129 The Overstory by Richard Powers
" Just tell me. Say what you want, and I'll do it... Just a sign... Just say what you want of me." p.163

"Life long pursuit 'to give happiness by creating beauty.' image [below] represents the quiet strength of a person who actually does the work, regardless of glamour or crowds or the resistance. The drawing is also a reminder that there's an artist within each of us, and we must encourage that artist to do the work, to make something that matters, regardless of anything else that is going on. In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent shared this thought, 'Blessed is he who has found his work.' " source

"Man with Hoe"  by Vincent Van Gogh - a week or more since I started this blog post, and this morning, while walking Misty, this image came to mind as I listened to The Overstory and a fairly significant section about Johnny Appleseed, his hoe, his mission, his land... "The trees have vanished and the town forgets. But not the land." p. 162

"Nietzsche and Psychology: How to Become Who You Are" article

"Opinion of others left her ready to suffer the most agonizing of deaths... hungry... a hunger more wonderful than any meal." p. 128 The Overstory recommended by both Martha and Janice

Plant-blind. Adam's curse. We only see things that look like us," p. 114 Pleach : entwine or interlace (tree branches) to form a hedge or provide cover for an outdoor walkway.

Quercus ilx encinas: evergreen live oak tree p. 101
"Rabbit Hole Jump In"  here
Shibboleth: p. 96 The Overstory "Faith is the true shibboleth" The West Wing S2Episode 8
"There's work to do star work but earthbound all the same." p. 10 The Overstory
"Ultra fine line between numbness and awe." p. 124 The Overstory

 Instagram blog post "The Transition Path" 

Vision - I knew as soon as I saw this this morning, I was going to need to tie it in with "P" above and this entire experience of overlapping, interconnectedness, including a 4 year old named "Eden" I met last night at the restaurant, and the mention of "The first worst crime, but a fortunate windfall. Blessed be the time that apple was taken." p. 162 after Olivia in The Overstory died for 70 secs, had a Vision, revived, realizes she is praying, and "they hum... You have been spared from death to do a most important thing." This thread is throughout, but I'd not noticed it until this morning, so I decided to let it weave itself through this blog post, especially since I titled it more than a week ago...

"What is it that you really want to make?" p. 20 "What frightens most people will one day turn to wonder..." p. 130 The Overstory

Xylem : the vascular tissue in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem. p. 15 The Overstory

"Your soul expands a bit until the ways of man reveal themselves to be no more than a costume party you'd be well advised not to take at face value." p. 84 The Overstory

Zoöpraxiscope p. 11 an early device for displaying moving images and is considered an important predecessor of the movie projector.

God's Joyful Surprise by Sue Monk Kidd

"Awake, O sleeper ... and Christ shall give you light." Ephesians 5:14 qtd. p. 22

Behold, I have set before thee an open door." Revelation 3:8 qtd. p. 5

Coming home to myself ... Centered in God alone... wider and fuller." p. 62

"Do I make plans like a worldly man, ready to say yes and no at once?" 2 Corinthians 1:17 

"Enter into an ongoing, encompassing communion with God in the midst of my life." pp 65-66

"From the center we see with a single vision everything in the light of God." p. 62

"Hunger in my life... hunger that smoldered deep inside [for] years..." p. 47 Jesus "hungered" Matthew 21:18

"In quietness and confidence shall by your strength." Isaiah 30:15 qtd. p. 98

"Jigsaw puzzle... of my life and bring focus and meaning to a life fractured." p.48

"Keeping our finger in the space." p.61

"Leave-arrive, end-begin, shed-emerge" p. 70

"Muffled hunger in my life... hunger that had smoldered deep inside..." p. 47

"Nicholas of Cusa... 'God is he whose center is everywhere and circumference is nowhere." p. 121 "Our lives touch and mingle with God's. A shared space, a center." p. 60

"Perhaps that was the fragile mystery going on inside me, too. breaking into s new way of experiencing God's presence, overcoming the darkness inside." p. 68

"Question asking itself in my mind: Can you alter your life without surface games, opening yourself to a new and deeper level of experience with God, not knowing where it might lead?" p. 67

Respond to God's gift of salvation... be a Response to more of God's grace, allow...experience to continue." p.69

"Silent dance revolving around Him, alive with the music of His love." p. 61

"To be centered, quite plainly, is to be single-hearted... from the center we see with a single vision everything in the light of God. This was certainly how Jesus lived His life. All His moments flowed from His single-heartedness, from His intimacy with God that was His core. [The Kingdom!] p. 62

"Ultimately the direction our feet take that means the most." p. 64
"Voice of God calling out to us, summoning us to a new creative experience with Him." p. 75

"What He wants is the deep and secret space in our heart Where we abide in Him and He in us." p. 28

eXperiencing in the depths of our soul, he breath-taking intimacy of God's presence..."
"You could start with the library." p. 42 :)
"Zeal, the fervent in Spirit, serve the Lord." Romans 12:11