It’s been quite a week hasn’t it? For my British friends in particular, the coronation of King Charles III took centre stage and provided all of us with an incredible spectacle. I watched it with a mixture of delight and despair. I loved the pomp and ceremony and the strong affirmation of Christian faith while emphasizing the need to embrace people of all faiths and all cultures. I loved that Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic were all incorporated into the service, but like so many I grieve the impact of conquest and colonialism initiated by Kings and Queens of the past that devastated peoples and cultures, around the world including the Welsh, Irish and Scottish cultures. As I listened to the Welsh prayer, I remembered talking to a Welsh theologian in the mid 1990s who still struggled with how the English sought to annihilate his culture and customs.
The British Monarchy was not alone in its history of colonial conquest and genocide of Indigenous people. In many parts of the world the figure of the barbaric savage wandering the landscape aimlessly in search of food was manufactured to facilitate the theft of tribal lands. Here in the U.S. there was a deliberate policy to destroy the wild gardens native peoples cultivated, and slaughter the great herds of the plains they relied on for food. This made it easier to force Indigenous peoples onto reservations, often hundreds of miles away from their ancestral homelands. Even in Australia, I grew up with movies about the “savage” Indians who killed the white settlers.
My Meditation Monday: The Spiritual Practice of Changing Perspectives this week talked about the need to change the way we look at the world around us. It seemed very appropriate after watching the coronation. I talk about the need for more awe and wonder in our lives, which is a great place to start as it draws us out of ourselves and toward others and inspires pro-social behavior like generosity and compassion. We live in a changing world and need to change our perspectives on so many things in order to move forward in a way that will bring light and life and love into all we see and do.
Over the weekend 2 posts appeared on Godspace that I was too busy gardening and watching the coronation, to publicize. The first was the beautiful Taize style worship at St Andrews Episcopal Church. The second was a repost of another Mother’s Day focused article: Honouring Our Mothers which provides a number of creative ways to honour our mothers living or dead. I created a photo album for my Mum’s 90th birthday which I still love to look at on her birthday every year.
Freerange Friday last week was a guest post written by Hailey Scandrette. Reaching for Connections is a must read as I think we see in her comment “I truly believe that pursuing connection is a radical practice that grounds us in our own humanity in ways that can shift how we see ourselves and how we show up to the world around us. “
Our most popular post last week was Biblical Maternal Images of God in which I weave liturgy and scripture together. I produced the video several years ago, and love watching it each year. It makes me feel I am embraced by the God who is both mother and father to us.
May you too keep your eyes and ears open this week to the ways that God would challenge your perspectives on the world. Let me end with a prayer that might help with this.
Breathe in the peace of God,
Let it take root in the depths of your soul.
May your spirit grow and blossom,
And give fruit in its season.
Fruit to nourish the life of others,
And bring light wherever you go.
Many blessings
Christine Sine
New resource! At Godspace, environmental issues and creation care are two things we are passionate about. This document is designed to help you celebrate Earth Day by making a positive impact on the environment. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of environmental issues facing our planet, but by taking small, simple steps, we can all make a difference! Click here to download today.
by June Friesen
As I was pondering this idea of teacher appreciation many things came to my mind. I thought of the many teachers I had over my lifetime and those who are still teaching me new things in my life. For most of us the first teachers and possibly the most influential were and are parents and extended family. Pictured above is my kindergarten and first grade teacher. I am the little girl with the doll almost as big as I was. This woman made a deep impression on my life not only in her teaching but her love and patience with all of us little ones. There were many other teachers that helped prepare me for my journey through life in school from kindergarten through several years of college. Sadly I have to admit that many probably did not receive the appreciation at the time that was benefitting from their teaching because education was more of a requirement than something one necessarily always appreciated.
Jesus was the greatest teacher that ever lived on this earth. He came to teach humanity about how to live together in peace and unity, and also taught that all people were important to Him including the children, adults, the sick and the sorrowful. He was known to intervene when people tried to keep certain people, even children, away from Him.
Matthew 19: 13-15 One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: “Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.” After laying hands on them, he left.
I have always loved the picture that this brings into my mind. Take a moment and maybe even close your eyes and picture Jesus sitting on the hillside and the children gathering around Him, pushing in and trying to get closer than their sibling or their friend. Consider if you would how it might have felt to the child as He touched them, as He blessed them. For many years I had infants through five year olds in my home and having them surrounded by a peaceful environment was so key for them. In another Scripture Paul in his writing pays respect to Timothy’s mother and grandmother by their names for the way they had taught Timothy as he grew up.
2 Timothy 1:3-7 3-4 Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion. 5-7 That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
Many, if not all of us, have had many teachers throughout our lives. It usually begins within our family units and parents, moving on to school and then society and university. However, there are so many people who are in our life pathway who teach us things as friends, medical personnel, or workers at a store who help us. As I was considering this I remembered some specific teachers that had a great influence upon my life. Usually it was because of how they treated me, how they encouraged me in my learning experience, and because they actually took time to help me understand something I struggled with understanding.
While my teachers all through elementary school, high school, and college were instrumental in me gaining wisdom to navigate in life as well as a career, what I learned at home has helped me in so many ways. Some of the skills I learned were gardening, cooking, and preserving vegetables and fruits. Recently I had many tomatoes, cucumbers, mangos etc. in my kitchen stash. Below are some photos of things that I love to make. One is cranberry salsa, a recipe I discovered in a newspaper here in Phoenix years ago. It is a family favorite but also a favorite requested when invited to Christmas parties. I learned these skills first at home but also in school as when I was in 7th grade through 10th grade I was able to take a course called Home Economics. I learned so many things there as well.
Over the years I have also been active in teaching others skills that they may not have learned in their growing up. Sometimes it has been when someone has actually been living with us. Years ago I had some young teens from Jamaica in our youth group. They begged for a cooking class so once a week in the even we gathered in the church basement for hands on cooking class.
So today – who are the teachers in your life that you are grateful for? What are the things you are able to do because of teachers in your life – either in the home, school or workplace?
And as I close today I also want to challenge us in our spiritual walk. It is important to be open to those who are able to help us in a relationship with God. We can do that by having one on one relationships where a book of the Bible is studied. Or it can be a group study. And even if you are not close to everyone – guess what – zoom is a great opportunity to bless people over many miles. I have a great zoom group that I was invited to join at the beginning of Covid. I have only met one person and that was only two months ago but it has been a great nurturing and teaching experience for me.
And one last fun thing for me – I have learned how to embrace other cultures and even wear their clothing. I am involved with many refugees from Africa, and they have gifted me clothes which I wear proudly. They have taught me so much in so many areas of life.
So who are some special people who have taught you things over your life time? Do they know how much you appreciate their influence in/on your life? Maybe today is the day to tell them ‘thank you.’
by Christine Sine
By the simple act of altering the position of one’s head a different kind of world may appear
(Robert Macfarlane Landmarks 241)
A few years ago, I decided to have what I called “A Year of Seeing Differently. I had no idea how true this would be or how much of an impact this concept would have on me. “Read life differently” became so important to me that it became a way of life rather than just a season.
I had fun looking in different ways at all kinds of things from leaves to scenery to give me that different perspective I often need that is little more than a tilt of my head away.
Of course I could try standing on my head, lying on the ground or looking through the lens of a camera, or looking through my fingers or even just moving around a tree. All of these actions give me a different perspective, an important perspective that when combined together slowly give me a full understanding of what I am looking at. I have not tried standing on my head yet to get a different perspective of Jesus, but I have spent the last few years looking at him through different lenses too.
More than anything, that year taught me to look at life through the lens of awe and wonder which led to the writing of The Gift of Wonder, which I still think is the best book I have written.
Writing The Gift of Wonder changed me and my spiritual perceptions in ways I never anticipated. It all started with the awe and wonder walks Tom and I instituted after reading about the impact of awe and wonder depletion on our lives. Take notice, take notice, take notice was the core of what I read – take notice of the small things, the big things, the different things , the things that break our hearts and the things that give us goosebumps. That was what I picked up as I researched awe and wonder, and then I applied it to my life.
Noticing Begets Noticing
Wow – what a year. Noticing begat noticing begat noticing. Once I opened my eyes, awe and wonder became a new way to see the world and new spiritual lens through which to view everything. It doesn’t mean I naively saw only good things around me, but it meant I could look with awe and wonder at those who suffer as well as those who rejoice. There is so much resilience in suffering people. There is kindness and compassion, there is generosity that overwhelms me. When I look with the eyes of awe and wonder I am inspired to respond.
Here on Godspace I began the year with the blog series “for love of the world God did foolish things’ – so many foolish things that God has done – from creating humankind from soil, and giving us free will knowing that one day we would mess it all up, to putting into action a plan for our redemption that depended on a baby born to an unwed mother. That baby, Jesus, then ended up being crucified by the religious and political leaders of the day. How foolish can you get?
If that wasn’t enough to rattle my cage and encourage me to see differently, I started to take more notice of the political landscape and the stories that broke my heart. Gun violence, political chaos, hurricanes, fires and migrant caravans all pulled my heart apart. Yet they also inspired me as I gazed with awe and wonder at first responders risking their lives for people they never knew, and watched the resilience in the midst of desperation of people who have lost everything.
The event that most impacted me that year was Ford vs Kavanaugh. It compelled me to look at the story of Mary and Joseph with fresh eyes, revealing new layers of the gospel story and new depths of awe and wonder for this incredible couple and the incredible journey they embarked on, literally changing the world as a result.
Seeing Differently As A Way of Life.
My year of seeing differently became a lifetime of seeing differently. COVID reinforced that need. All I did was resolve to keep noticing and keep going on awe and wonder walks. That of course means I needed to slow down long enough to do so. I need constant reminders however. A more recent article Why You Need to Protect Your Sense of Wonder – Especially Now. the author suggests:
Awe’s benefits extend beyond stress relief, however. Research has shown that experiencing something bigger than us helps us transcend our frame of reference by expanding our mental models and stimulating new ways of thinking. This can increase creativity and innovation, and facilitate scientific thinking and ethical decision making.
It also helps us build relationships. Though feeling awe frequently happens in solitude, it draws us out of ourselves and toward others and inspires pro-social behavior like generosity and compassion. Some scientists theorize that it has evolved to aid group cohesion and provide survival advantages. For work groups experiences of awe can lead to increased collaboration, team building, and social connection.
Wow, awe and wonder here we come! Something good did come out of COVID. We started to notice the world around us in new ways. Awe and wonder is not just a form of observation either. It means noticing emotions and our responses to them. It means not turning our backs because we feel overwhelmed but allowing the spirit of God to work through us in response to what we have noticed be it by the simple act of picking up a rock that caught our attention or by getting involved with the homeless or the victims of fire.
Awe and wonder has the capacity to change us and to change the world. I know it has done that for me, will you allow it to do it for you too?
Read life differently.
Read with love and not with hate,
with compassion and not with judgment,
with generosity and not with scarcity.
See your cup,
not half full,
not half empty
but overflowing with goodness and light and life.
Read life differently.
Look for the wonder of uniqueness,
not the exclusion of sameness.
Embrace don’t reject.
Forgive don’t condemn.
Seek Jesus in all things.
Work diligently to know,
he who is the way, the truth, the life.
Follow his footsteps,
in the way that leads to eternal life.
Amen.
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taizé. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Thank you for praying with us at St Andrews Episcopal Church!
“L’ajuda Em Vindra” (I Lift up my Eyes to the Hills); “Kristus Din Ande” (Jesus, Your Spirit in Us)
Music copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
“This is my Father’s World”
Alternate arrangement by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY) Public domain lyrics by Maltbie Davenport Babcock, 1901.
“Children of the Heavenly Father” (simple folk arrangement)
Traditional Swedish folk hymn; Arrangement by Kester Limner and Andy Myers in honor of Naomi.
Service readings:
John 14:1-14
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“Through You”, a meditation by Steve Garnaas-Holmes. Unfoldinglight.net
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“The contemplative experience originates from this totally new kind of awareness of the fact that we are most truly ourselves when we lose ourselves. We become ourselves when we find ourselves in Christ. . . Contemplative prayer is a deep interior activity in the very roots of our being in response to God who has the initiative and yet draws us into certain very subtle forms of obedient initiative on our own side.” — Thomas Merton, “Contemplation in a World of Action”
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“Let us now imagine that this castle, as I have said, contains many mansions, some above, others below, others at each side; and in the center and midst of them all is the chiefest mansion where the most secret things pass between God and the soul.” — Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle”
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Excerpt “The Calling”, Mirabai Starr, from the Introduction to her translation of Teresa of Avila’s “The Interior Castle”
Originally posted here on May 2, 2015 as part of a series on the mothering heart of God.
With Mother’s day just over a week away here in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, it is a good time to think about how we honour our mothers at this season. I know that it is a little late for for those of you in the U.K. where mothering Sunday is on the 4th Sunday of Lent. Ephesians 6:2-3 says: “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” It is never too late to honour our mothers and maybe a late celebration is more special than one when everyone else is celebrating.
There are many creative ways to honour our mothers at this season. Making them something special is one of those ways. I think that all of us value something much more when it has been made specifically for us with love and care than we do when something is bought.
Here are a couple I came across in the last few days that I really enjoyed. Most of them are very simple.
Here is a great and simple way to make stepping stones using a cake pan rather than expensive molds. As I looked at this I thought of the broken china my mother loved that I wish I had collected and incorporated into stepping stones – maybe for my own sacred space.
To personalize a stepping stone for your mother (and this is for kids of all ages) use these instructions.
One very special creative project I did for my mother’s 90th birthday was to create a memory book. In my case it was a photo album, but a scrap book of special memories would be just as special and is something that kids love to help put together. Something like this is not only special for our mothers, but also for those who create it.
Another beautiful creative project for those who may not be into gardening, is to make a mother’s day plaque. As you can imagine there are loads of these on the internet but I particularly love this “mother and me” plaque, but this DIY instruction on making plaques or stepping stones can help you get creative.
Another possibility is a DIY mug – I got my mug at the thrift store for $1.00 It was well worth the investment.
Some of you know that after I lost my mother in 2015, I created a special sacred space in my garden. I planted roses, her favourite flower and one that is often used in memorial gardens. This year I added decorative pots and a water feature. We are all linked to our mothers in special ways that do not end with their deaths. Remembering, rejoicing and grieving can all become part of the creative process.
This is not just a space to remember my own mother but one in which to sit and savour the presence of God and to honour all of those who have so richly blessed and enriched my life.
So as you get ready for mother’s day this coming week how could you honour your mother, living or dead, in a special way?
At Godspace, environmental issues and creation care are two things we are passionate about.
This document is designed to help you celebrate Earth Day by making a positive impact on the environment. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of environmental issues facing our planet, but by taking small, simple steps, we can all make a difference! Click here to download today.
Spring has arrived in California, bringing warm air, sunshine, and vibrant splashes of wildflowers up and down the coast so massive that they can be seen from space. I find myself longing to be outside, longing to chatter like the birds outside my window with my family, friends, and the person behind me in the checkout line who complimented my reusable bag. Yesterday my brother and I decided to set up in the sunshine spreading across our front steps for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. This isn’t something I’ve done very much, most people don’t sit in front of their houses in our neighborhood, and it can feel a bit awkward to know that everyone can observe you as they walk by, but the sun was warm, so I wanted to give it a try. We read for a while and then put our books aside, grabbed a couple of drinks and talked and laughed for over an hour, catching up with each other about our weeks and the books we’ve been reading. As we sat and conversed and enjoyed the fresh air, neighbors walked past on their way home from work or school, getting in their daily jog, or taking their dogs for a walk. People seemed pleased to see us out there, eager to exchange smiles or say hi, one neighbor paused, lifted their glass and called out to us as they passed, “cheers to your stoop sitting!” It struck me how human and precious it is that we long for these little moments when our lives bump up against each other and remind us that we’re not alone, no matter how brief they are. Maybe one reason Spring feels so sweet is because it brings more opportunities for us to connect to the world around us.
Connection has been a big word for me for most of my adult life. Connection to other people, connection to nature, and connection to something larger than myself are all integral to my well-being and understanding of who I’ve been and who I am becoming. My experience of the pandemic and the division caused by the politicization of the questions and challenges it raised about how we care for the most vulnerable in society have further solidified my belief in the crucial roles that both value for and experience of connection play in our capacity for mental health, compassion, and hope. The highs and lows of my own mental health journey are inescapably tied to moments of connection and disconnection in my life. I am most able to move through the world with hope, vulnerability, and awareness of those around me, and when I have a keen sense of the reality of our interdependence and experience regular moments of meaningful connection with other humans and the planet we live on. This interplay and its simultaneous simplicity and complexity fascinate me.
A few years ago I began building a collection of fiction stories exploring connection and disconnection and their impact on one’s mental health, understanding of self, and beliefs about the world. I drew from my own experience throughout the first half of my 20s, times when I felt isolated and depressed and believed that the problem was in my worth and not in my brain chemistry, times when I’ve relied on adhering to the safe, self-protective roles in my relationships instead of meeting people with curiosity and vulnerability, times when I didn’t trust my feelings enough to share them, causing distance between myself and others when I most needed support and understanding. However, the barriers to reaching out are very real. It is difficult to prioritize creating space for meaningful connection and practicing vulnerability when there is work to do and bills to pay. And when we’ve been feeling stressed, unsafe and lonely for a while (whether due to trauma, mental illness, or a global pandemic) our brains actually learn to perceive connection as a threat. It is really difficult to push through those barriers and ask for the connection you need… and it is so worth it. I truly believe that pursuing connection is a radical practice that grounds us in our own humanity in ways that can shift how we see ourselves and how we show up to the world around us. My hope for my collection is to celebrate the impact that relatively small, everyday moments of vulnerability and connection can have on our sense of well-being and to encourage readers to keep seeking connection, especially when it feels most challenging.
Ironically, the process of writing is a largely solitary one, until my book is released into the world, I have a relatively isolated relationship with it. As its release draws near, I find myself struggling with anxieties about practicing the vulnerability I aim to represent in its pages. The publication process has been bumpier and more difficult than I’d imagined, I’ve had to delay several times and even un-release the book once. I’ve worried people will judge me for not knowing exactly what I’m doing as I navigate the self-publishing world for the first time. I worry that the long build up will lead to disappointment in the book once people have read it. I worry that I am not cut out to do this story-telling thing I’ve felt compelled towards since I was two years old. But I am trying to practice what I preach in hopes that ultimately there may be wonderful opportunities for connection as I share the highs and lows of this publication process, and when people finally read the book itself. The greatest reward I experience as a writer is when readers tell me that my words made them feel seen or helped them articulate something about their own experience. That reward doesn’t come without risk. Like sitting in the sun on my front steps, it might be uncomfortable to know I can be seen, but it brings more opportunities for the kind of connection that reminds myself and others that we are not alone.
Reaching by Hailey Scandrette
My debut book, Reaching, will be available soon online and through your local independent bookstore. Follow me on instagram at @haileyjoywrites or visit my blog, https://haileyjs.wordpress.com for updates and links to order my book.
©haileyscandrette
Mother’s Day is May 14, 2023 this year, and we wanted to highlight some previous posts about the the mothering heart of God. This post was originally posted here on May 7, 2015.
Biblical Maternal Images of God
compiled by Christine Sine
The response from so many to the article and reflection I posted earlier in the week about the feminine images of God in the Bible has inspired me to produce this video with Biblical verses and prayers interposed. Enjoy and please let me know what you think.
The music is Vesper: La Dimora Dell’Eternal by Lisa Peretti. (Used with permission.) not by Jeff Johnson as it says on the title page.
Today we thank God for the gift of mothers and mothering around the world.
As one whom a mother comforts, so I will comfort you – Isaiah 66:13. (RSV)
Gentle, patient God, thank you for your tender care.
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15 (NIV)
Loving, caring God thank you for your compassionate care.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content. Psalm 131:2
Protecting, embracing God thank you for your nurturing care.
How often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings… Matthew 23:37
Comforting, warmhearted God thank you for your gentle care.
God was like an eagle hovering over its nest,
overshadowing its young,
Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air,
teaching them to fly. (Deuteronomy 32:11 The Message)
Ever present, sustaining God thank you for your enduring care
I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. (Isaiah 46:3 NLT)
Sustaining, all sufficient God thank you for your satisfying care
I will be your God throughout your lifetime—
until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. (Isaiah 46:4 NLT)
Faithful, providing God thank you for mothers and their love
Everlasting and eternal One, thank you for your mothering love.
Amen, Amen and Amen
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