Archive for the 'Nature & Spirit' Category
“Everything inside our bodies that is sensitive and alive is spirit. And we are sensitive in our bodies from head to toe. When body and spirit separate, which we call dying, we are still ourselves, and we are still alive.” (Heavenly Secrets #5883, Emanual Swedenborg)
We are all born and we all will die. And in between we eat and sleep, work and play, dress ourselves, drive in cars, pay bills, mow our lawns, raise children, marry, divorce, fill out paperwork, earn degrees, are hired and fired, on and on… And in the midst of all the physical events our spirits are growing. Our spirits are being shaped. We learn and explore, we open up, we shut down, we experience grief, we experience healing, and hopefully through the many ups and downs of our internal experience we learn to love.
Our human nature and our divine nature are inherently intertwined.
I am pondering today what is happening in my spirit, as I enter into the details and dramas of the day. How is my spirit being shaped and molded? And how perhaps is my spirit expressing itself in this human reality that I am living?
We truly are spiritual beings having a human experience and what a fabulous spiritual playground this earth is! What will today hold?
June 17 2010 | Eternal Life and Nature & Spirit | No Comments »
I know that summer will not officially arrive for a couple more weeks, but here in Pennsylvania it “feels” very much here. The sun is hot, the air is muggy, and night doesn’t come until close to nine o’clock at night. The kids in our Sunday School are beginning to take on the restlessness of school’s end, summer is just around the corner.
I love summertime. I love the green, walking in wet grass with bare feet, the warmth of the sun on my face, and the smell of sun tan lotion. Summertime is a lush season of fullness.
And Swedenborg describes as much as he discusses the spiritual significance of this season. He writes that summer signifies “a state of fullness of the church (Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Love and Wisdom #73.)” Summer is the time of fruition, or completion. No more planting, no more planning, no more waiting. Whatever lay dormant under the earth germinating in winter, whatever was planted in spring will soon be here in it’s completeness. This time of “fullness” also can correspond to the stage of adulthood, the time in our cycle of regeneration when we have become who we are to be, and are fully “being it.” While we certainly are always growing and learning, we can think of the approaching summer’s spiritual significance as a time in our cycle of growth where what we are most called to do is just rest in the reality of who we are and live that to the fullest.
This is my meditation right now as I feel the sun on my face. May we all bask in the joy of who we are right now, the fullness of our own journey with God. For there is much to be grateful for.
June 07 2008 | Nature & Spirit | No Comments »
What inspires us to Spring cleaning? There is something about the newness of an open window welcoming in a warm breeze that inspires me to clean. The new warmth somehow makes the sun brighter and brings to light cobwebs that had before been safely hidden through the winter.
It’s always a wonder what I find.
Spring is such a time of newness, and newness calls us to begin with a clean start. One of my favorite philosophers Anne Shirley, the literary character from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, wisely said “Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
Spring feels like just such a time, when anything is possible.
April 10 2008 | Nature & Spirit | No Comments »
It is the season of crocuses in the snow, one of the best images I can think of of the resiliency of life. New life is coming through, no matter how cold the earth may appear. Soon the warm days of bare feet in the grass will be here! New warmth. New birth. New opportunities. New adventures. Winter doesn’t last forever.
Are there parts of your life that feel like a perpetual winter? If so, look for the crocuses in the snow. They will be coming. I guarantee it.
March 20 2008 | Nature & Spirit | No Comments »
