Good morning friends – Between our house and the neighbor’s there are ten Douglas Firs and one small redwood. A very small forest that we share and enjoy. This morning I watched awhile (breathing in the beautiful perfume of those firs) as the rising sun lit one side of the highest branches, and turned them a golden green. Meanwhile, a convention of crows was gathering in the field, then flying to high branches and back. Once again the morning sky is bright and clear – this particular summer day, another chance to be alive and thankful.
On this last day of June we begin again, just as we are called to do every day. We are called to wake up from our assumptions and opinions into appreciation of the miracles of life. We are called to be aware of the breath which makes us alive. We are called to recommit to a path of compassion and peace, to create more justice, to choose to bless the world, knowing how blessed we are.
A prayer for today, to encourage us to choose this path once again: “Blessing of Hope” by Jan Richardson.
“So may we know that hope that is not just for someday but for this day—here, now, in this moment that opens to us:
Hope not made of wishes but of substance, hope made of sinew and muscle and bone, hope that has breath and a beating heart, hope that will not keep quiet and be polite, hope that knows how to holler when it is called for, hope that knows how to sing when there seems little cause, hope that raises us from the dead—
Not someday, but this day, every day, again and again and again.”
Jan Richardson
Thank-you to all of you for being part of this circle of practice! Next week Daily Practice will transition to the UUFC website, where I’ll post it at least once a week, maybe twice sometimes. More information about how to find it will be coming. Until then, and always, I’m sending love to you all! Jill