i love the images and cards from pondering pool by Susan Mrosek. this one speaks to me today.

there is a rich autumn breeze blowing, the husky air of summer ushering in September. the air is kind, cool and warm. a washing, baptizing. moments calmed, cleaned, slipping easily into old worn out shoes, everything sitting, fitting well.  gratitude hovers like sunlight.

there is a need to bathed in kindness. there is a need to bathe ourselves in kindness.

there is a need to remember, know, be clear about who we are. to not let the world impose its thoughts upon us.

JB Philips in his translation of Romans 12:2 says this: “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its own mold.”

between all the storms internal and external, market fluctuations, personal upheavals and struggles, i’ve been noticing a lot of shell-shocked looks lately…friends, neighbors not sure what has hit them…how thought gets mired in, paralyzed in patterns of uncertainty and fear. Ryan Bingham’s song seems more than fitting:

“This ain’t no place for the weary kind
This ain’t no place to lose your mind
This ain’t no place to fall behind
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try”

Pick up your crazy heart…pick up your sweet heart…be bathed in sweetness…be bathed in love.

all the storms in the world cannot take from you one ounce of who you are…they cannot break you, make you, define you.

they can, if you let them, prompt something deeper in you to waken…waken…take possession of that core order, sweetness, certainty, rocklike light within. you are not made to grovel, weep, or to be broken.

waken

waken

break this

half-dazed

slumber

of intractable despair

shake loose

the shackles

slide ever so guilelessly

from this shell

emerge

emerge

into the light

so right

yes

you do stand sturdy

on your own sure feet

everything about you

unable to hold back

surety of footing

impulse to sing

air rippling

lightness of laughter

you

bathed

soaked

immersed

showered

evidencing

Love’s light

Psalm XXIII

[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

[LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.

[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]:

[LOVE] leadeth me in the paths of  righteousness for His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:

for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE’S]rod and [LOVE’S] staff they comfort me.

[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

[LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.

(interpretation of the 23rd Psalm in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy)