It’s been quite a weekend. Sunday on the liturgical calendar was Trinity Sunday, and I went out looking at all the trinitarian symbols in my garden that remind me that the very nature of God is woven into the world around me. At the Mennonite Church we are now attending it is called Covenanting Sunday and this year I gave my resounding yes to the covenant they ask us to live by. Its as I said in my Meditation Monday: Covenanting for a Just Peace theologically we have been Anabaptists for a long time. It was just a matter of accepting the challenge and moving churches.
Saturday was also the full moon, known in this part of the country as the Strawberry Moon. Mary De Jong explains: “The name originates from North America, were native tribes associated the rising of the June Moon with the blossoming of berries. To the Algonquin tribes, June was synonymous with strawberries. The Farmer’s Almanac said: “At this time of year, when spring turns to summer and the flowers of May begin to fade, berries burst forth from bushes.” You might enjoy her wonderful Full Moon Wheel available as a free gift from her website. Wonderful to see our strawberries thriving too. It reminds me of the post I wrote a couple of years ago about strawberries, which as you know only produce for a short season. In Meditation Monday: The Gift of strawberries, I talked about this and what it means to produce fruit in season.
Last week I talked about the different designations I like to give the months of the year so that I know how to focus my spiritual practices. Interestingly there are many wheels, we can explore. As well as the Native American wheel Mary uses, there is the Chinese Lunar calendar and at least one for the southern hemisphere. Part of what I love about this concept is the recognition that the naming has local significance. It needs to be adapted whenever we move to another location. We all need that kind of flexibility to the way we adapt our spiritual focus and practices. I love the work that Mary De Jong does around this theme. You might like to check out her Wild Summer course.
The whole garden is thriving at the moment. We have 28 beautiful looking tomato plants in our new tomato enclosure, as well as several more scattered in pots throughout the garden. There is loads of lettuce, arugula, broccoli and radishes in our new raised beds and basil in my creatively improvised planters. This weekend I will plant squash and hopefully we will be ready for a bountiful summer. I must confess the wonder of the garden continues to distract me from work on Godspace and other projects I should be working, but I sense this is an important season in which I am meant to be delighting in the beauty of God’s creation and allowing it to refill my spirit and soul. There are a few things stirring in my imagination that I suspect will emerge by the end of the summer however.
fLast week’s post on Godspace were particularly inspiring for me. I loved Bethany Dearborn Hiser’s post Breath of Life, on the translation of the Lord’s prayer from Aramaic and Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday: Sitting down with the Trinity is also a must read, as is Jeannie Kendall’s Reflections on Ordinary Time and Ordinary Things. Probably the most profoundly impacting post for me this year was by our new writer Jenny Gehman on the Holy Host. It could have been called The Weeping Years, as she shares vulnerably from her own life and struggles.
This week I am reading two books that I am excited about. The tenth anniversary edition of Brene Brown’s The Gift of Imperfection is fascinating. I read the original book 10 years ago but very definitely need this refreshing new version, with lots of time to reflect on what I read. Lacy Finn Borgo’s Faith Like a Child is also worth a read. I feel it makes a good companion book to my own The Gift of Wonder. We have so much to learn from kids. This is an ongoing area of exploration and delight for me.
Whether you are looking forward to summer or to winter, I hope that this season is one of much delight and spiritual refreshment for you. My poem today is adapted from one I wrote several years ago that I call my strawberry poem and it seemed appropriate for the day.
God of abundant provision,
May we go out
Into your world,
And bear fruit,
Fit for the season,
In which it ripens.
Let us savour its flavor,
And enjoy its sweetness.
God of generosity,
May we go out
Into your world,
And bear fruit,
That will last,
As long as you intend it to.
Fruit that will nourish, sustain and grow us,
In the ways you created it to.
God may we go out
Into your world,
And bear fruit,
That will build your eternal world,
Of goodness and love and peace.
 Want to experience more of the awe and wonder that God offers us? Check out the Gift of Wonder Online Retreat by Christine Sine. This retreat allows for 180 days of access for only $39.99 so you can move through the sessions at your own pace. |