Ordained Praise

...out of the mouths of babes, Thou hast ordained praise...

I had a job once. For hours, I would pat babes, crying, screaming infants.
Alone in a room filled with cribs and babies, I would pat.
...out of the mouths of babes, Thou hast ordained praise...
This beautiful 'sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God' helped get me through and turned me into an instrument of praise.

Pat, pat, pat, they gave nothing back but cries and then finally sleep. Then another would need me. Pat, pat, pat, it was a noisy then silent, loud then quiet monastery for me.

The baby house on the kibbutz filled with creatures 6 weeks to a few months old, yet they had already been taught to praise.
Ordained praise.

Ah Lord,
You made me, as much as any flower.
I embody Praise.
My mind, my body, my soul-Spirit;
I embody Praise.
My frets and keys are crowned with glory and honor,
My life, Your stringed instrument silences darkness.
The moon, the stars, Your little daughter;
We are set in place by Your fingers.
The music rises
We embody Praise.

Psalm 8

1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Lamentations

Lamentations
3:20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence

Oh that quiet waiting, oh that sitteth-ing and keepeth-ing silence,

His Voice

'echoed in the walls of silence'

and our humbled souls find mercy and compassion.

I want to keep that with me all day, that place of silence, where I find Him first, before I jump to fix or decide or judge or

doubt...

Stop. Hear the sitar of His silence spelling out His constant faithfulness.

and then my tambourine will ring with hope in Him.

crumb

I found a crumb stuck between the pages in the binding of my library book,
oh in that tiny brushstroke,
I could be present in a Masterpiece bound together by Time...
flipping allowed by the fingers of my mind.
Past: did the eater enjoy that page and receive what I received from it?
Present: Joy and insight
Future: Would I leave it or remove this little crumb?
Or would I add crumbs of my own?

Harley ride

Awakened by a Harley's hum, purr of power...If you sleep on your roof deck these things happen!

It fills me, delights me and I jump out of my wool covers to lean over the balcony and there's Curtis corralling his baby into the garage.

Then my reality returns and
George Harrison's refrain 'Beware of Darkness' echos in my mind.

1 John 1:5 God is Light and there is no darkness in Him at all.

So I start fighting the darkness... images, words, looks, thoughts...

If I allow the darkness "the thoughts that often linger" to fill my mind, then I'm not seeing the
pervasive light of His constant Love.

Fighting darkness is not my job, only beware, be aware of it... then I will jump on the
leather seat of God's Love-Light Harley and hold on as the Purr of Power surrounds me
and fills me with Delight. Thank you my sweet Lord.

For you, Graduate (and me)

Ya know how I sit on my roof each morning waiting for dawn? Well, it means I get to hear one of my favorite sounds. The sound of a car door softy shutting in the silence of a new day.

That sound takes me back to early morning departures when all of us, kids (there are 5 of us, 7 including my parents) would pile in the white station wagon still half asleep and leave on an adventure.

We didn't always know where we were going or how long it would take to get there but we were nestled in together and once the sun rose there would be a beautiful view.

I guess I love that sound because it heralds Peace and Comfort in a journey to new places and adventures.

As we hear the car door of graduation closing softy this week, I wish for you the Peace and Comfort of knowing you are nestled into His Arms and He knows just where the road leads, and there will be a beautiful view.

I love you and I'm always ready to pile into the white station wagon with you or at least be waiting to hear all about the adventure!

Google Earth, me

Have you ever Google Earth searched? Oh man, it is fun! You can see your own house or house top or maybe, a friend's faraway. We love to search the houses of our past and the ones in our future.
I love to get lost on trails in the wilderness and Google Earth has given me a clear picture of where I was instead of where I thought I was!

Well, there is One who is constantly Google searching you and me. His Eyes can zoom in so tight that not only can He count the number of hairs on our heads but He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts.

At the top of the list, His # 1 hit is Love. This One all seeing Searcher sees us, each individual one of us and LOVES us!

and that Love is so Abundant that He doesn't search us from afar but comes right into the Home of our hearts anytime we open the door. Rev. 3:20
Oh Lover of my Soul, search me out and see if there be any wrong intents of my heart and lead me in the way Everlasting.
Oh be my Home, past, present and future and be a Light to my path through every path and unknown wilderness.

My Youngest Son

I was thinking of keeping this post to myself but as I am listening to a video this beautiful son made as i write ...oh heck i think i just have show off his other side!

Oh what a night! A disappointment for a bunch of people, that felt like my fault, followed by an embarrassment, then a bit of bliss and expectation followed by more disappointment and even an angry exchange!
But I'm so glad it all happened...
My sweet son came to my rescue...he'd heard the angry exchange and amazingly in my home full of boys could see my side! A quiet knock on my bedroom door and in a moment, I was looking up into the eyes of my youngest son.
First, he wanted to listen to me...
listen to ME!
Then he had one little word of advice..."when I get angry at someone and I just want to get back at them, I think, they don't deserve that. It's not worth it and I just let it go."
Oh my sweet son, thank you.
Thank you for your softly knocking heart at the door of my mind.
I am so thankful for you.
Then we compared our heights in my mirror...yep, my 11 year old son's got 3 inches on me...
I was looking up into his eyes and listening to his heart and letting go and trusting in the Peaceful Poet who thought of such a beautiful Poem as my son.

Want some sugar?

Thanks so much for seeing me, Melvin.
Thank you for taking time in a bit of a crazy place to look at me and speak to my heart.
You recognized the Spirit that we share and encouraged, blessed, and promised me that
there's One with me through every circumstance....
then you thanked me for serving you and other homeless ones.
I see you, Melvin.
You see me, and
we are blessed.

2 Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Deserve

I've heard that word a lot this week, like a reoccurring theme in my ears...'deserve.'

My heart has been pondering it, reaching out to touch the hem of it's garment.

Then today with my orange-chocolate frozen yogurt and my friend's heart reflecting mine, I saw it clearly.

Sitting in her car in the parking lot at Stretch's, I pictured a beautiful painting hanging on the cinder block wall. It was a masterpiece lovingly rendered by an expert artist. Then I imagined someone taking it down and tossing it into the dumpster. No, this painting didn't 'deserve' such treatment. It is a masterpiece, unique and priceless. No, not through any virtue of it's own but through the carefully placed strokes of the Master Artist.



I am that painting. I don't deserve to be shoved into the dustbin. I am His Workmanship, His poem and His work deserves beautiful treatment...

and you know what? You are too.

th tri-Universe and Friends I've never met...

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." Ps. 19:2



Feel them? The waves of Time, day by day, night by night.
Time carries so much. Like the vibrations through a pool of water, time bring us 'speech' and 'knowledge,' information and energy. Throughout our lives, these waves of time bring us information and energy from sources near and far...or as Ps. 19:1 says "the firmament sheweth His handiwork." This 'firmament, ' the space in which we 'live and move and have our being,' is continually being carried along by time and being moved by energy and information radiating to and from us in all directions....such a lovely Space, Time, Energy Universe we live in.



I woke up so late this morning that a mocking bird's song greeted me. Intricate sound vibrations entered my ears even through my light green ear plugs and carried me back through time to a place where my house was my backyard with a swing where I would sit and wonder at the mockingbird's song, trying to whistle it back.
The song hasn't changed much...those mocking bird great-great grandparents or something inside these little birds taught them that same song and I still can't quite whistle it. But the sound vibrations hit my ears calling me awake to heart-songs within.
Like waves of Light, my thoughts rejoiced in my friends, the friends I've never met.

I delighted in the friends I know and care for through the speech and knowledge of my closest friends...and ya know what? They know and care about me!
They love me and I love them through the heart knowledge of others. The vibrations of Love knowledge spreading out and connecting me to so many that I've never met.

Then I thought of all the writers and artists who touch my life, I know them intimately through their 'handiwork.' Oh beautiful 'firmament' that they are, their works traveling through time to show knowledge and truth.

That thought blossomed within me to people I know and who know me but I've never spoken to.

I like to go into art galleries and let the paintings speak to me until I find one that is calling. Then I take a little pad of paper and sketch. The last time I did this, that art museum guard, I've never spoken to, was ready. This gallery was a completely silent one, even the scratches of my pen seemed invasive in that place. He quietly walked up to me and handed me a much bigger sketch pad. This guardian of the art knew me. He'd seen me before and he blessed me without a word.
He could have watched me with an eye of mistrust and disdain..'Would she hurt my paintings with that pen?' But he chose to fill the space and time with energy waves of Love instead.

When I walk the beach and I see the back-hoe tractor approaching, instead of being annoyed by the distraction of sound and fumes, I watch the driver until he sees me, this friend of mine I've never met and we share a wave as we've done for years in perfect harmony and with a smile of recognition and Love.

Oh Creator, help us to be One with You today. May the firmament show forth your works
in me,
through me,
in you,
through you
and let us become One with Your beautiful
dance of Space, Time, and Energy!

Wait

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP2nz6PG8KM

Here's the song that goes with the next post...
Homegirls and I were talking about how the dance we do to this song
is really off...during the 'wait' part we tap and gaze at our wrists as if we
were looking at our watches and wondering why Someone was so late.

It just doesn't fit with the definition of 'wait' that we discussed this morning...
Here's a quote from Tabitha, "Seems the Bible always ties waiting with Strength. We
might see waiting as weakness but God sees it as Strength!"

tzitzit

Isaiah 40:30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

The fringe on a prayer shawl is bound together in a beautiful and complex way.
You know what's cool? The word used to describe this binding together of strings
to make a cord is 'quvah' and that same word means to 'wait.'

Oh the perfection and mystery wrapped up in His Word.

I see the tzitzit, the fringe reminding me of Creator's word that binds together and created all things. I see the tallit, the prayer shawl holding me close to Him and teaching me to 'wait' on Him. I feel His promise to those who 'wait' or 'bind together' with Him for 'renewed strength,' for 'wings like eagles, ' for the ability to smile and trust as life unfolds in ways we can't imagine.

Oh Lord, bind us together in You, even when it hurts and help us to trust that You are bringing us into Your heart's home.

fur lined nests

Bunny is shedding again. She has a train of white, furry, feathers following her frisky feet.
Oh those tufts of fluff are so lovely soft. I put them up in a basket by my window...Why?

Because His timing is Perfect...

Just at the time bunnies send fluffy clouds floating into the wind, birds are snatching them up as a lining for their nests. It's fun to watch little Santa bearded birdies winging from my basket.

Oh His timing is Perfect...

I once really disliked Ecc. 3... so decided so determined... maybe even predetermined...but now I find contentment and peace in these words.

Ecc. 3:1 Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. 2 He sets the time for birth and the time for death, the time for planting and the time for pulling up, 3 the time for killing and the time for healing, the time for tearing down and the time for building. 4 He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy, the time for mourning and the time for dancing, 5 the time for making love and the time for not making love, the time for kissing and the time for not kissing. 6 He sets the time for finding and the time for losing, the time for saving and the time for throwing away, 7 the time for tearing and the time for mending, the time for silence and the time for talk. 8 He sets the time for love and the time for hate, the time for war and the time for peace.

Bunnies shed and birds line their nests and I observe and find pleasure in discovering yet another perfectly timed Everything in our big beautiful fur-lined nest.

Richard Feynman points this out in his book, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. He remembers a lesson from his father, "We have been looking at how all these things grow; but for each bit of growth, there must be the same amount of decay, otherwise the materials would be consumed forever..."
What Feynman learned from these walks in the woods with his father was to look, to watch, and if you paid attention, you got a great reward from it, the reward of finding something out.

So notice what happens to the little tufts of fluff floating around you and you just may discover that His timing is Perfect...and see some happy birds and find contentment in trusting that Everything is Allright and time is unfolding in His Perfection.

You

You know Everything.
So I will wait for you.
And I will not be stingy with my affections,
And I will let You love through me.
I will be Your hallow bone,
Everywhere I go,
If You make me so.

1000 eyes

Oh for a thousand eyes to see...
I have a thousand eyes to see...

I had a dream where I, sort of, spread out, kind of like salt and pepper sprinkled
in a soupy world...that's when I got my extra eyes!

Like my brother saying, "Did you hear the tribble purring in the mining station in the movie?" I hadn't but I could now, "It was on the computer console!" Oh yes, there it was now and I texted another friend who was about to see the movie to watch for it. I gave him my eyes.

Or my friend, Rachel saying, "Music is a gift. Listen to this song now!" My heart-eyes open to her words and I see.

My son, shares with me why Fable 2 is so amazing to play. "It's like part of me goes into that world, like a Horcrux." Now I can see his passion and we're using language that helps me see through the eyes of J.K. Rowling.

Another friend sees right through my words and shows me what I really mean.

Or my heart-eyes see a friend's heart and I ask about his mother on the very day she passed away 25 years ago...

Maybe I have more than 1000 eyes.. maybe my eyes are limitless as salt in the ocean.
Oh so many eyes, your eyes are mine and my eyes are yours.

Rev. 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

Roses and Honey

Did you know that wild roses have more intense scent than domesticated ones? I don't know for sure why that is but maybe it's out of necessity. Domesticated roses will get pollinated by a Gardener, they don't need to attract any bees or insects. Wild roses don't have a choice. They need those bugsy suitors.
Maybe that's what made the Shulamite woman in the Song of Solomon so lovely. She wasn't a pampered lady of the tents. She was out in the fields working with her brothers and had darkly tanned skin to prove it.
Perhaps this necessity, this 'suffering' made her lovely inside as well as out. She had a beautiful disposition, a lovely scent of peace.
I want to be like that wild rose. I want to give off an intoxicating scent to my Beloved.
If that means He needs to mold and shape me through the field of suffering, He will help me to endure and flourish.
I will trust Him. I will trust that through His work in me a beautiful Bounty of Honey will be harvested.

Earthworms at Disneyland

i know Someone who talks to an earthworm everyday.
This little earthworm tries to listen and she can't yet understand
much but she picks up on what's important.
Wormy knows intimately that SomeOne loves her,
that Everything is an amazing miracle,
and that her life is a gift.

She knows that whenever she waits for SomeOne and trusts Him
that He will work Everything together for good.

Sometimes like a long line at Disneyland, Wormy has to wiggle around
in the hot sun or in the rain.
But SomeOne has taught her to bring friends along to wait with and
always be sure there's cookies in her pockets.
SomeOne taught her all these things by becoming an Earthworm Himself.
and while He wiggled in line with the other worms, you could hear the best
earthworm talks ever!
Now He speaks to Wormy through the letters those wormies wrote
and especially He talks to her in her heart when she seeks a quiet wormhole
away from the the lines and popcorn smells and finds Him waiting to sing her
a song by the wishing well on the Bridge to Fantasyland.

Don't forget to find your favorite spot in this Disneyland of ours,
my wormy friends
and spend some quiet time there listening to the music
that SomeOne will speak to your heart.

Home

Near or far there u r...

& we r Home.

Distance & place cannot erase

Our heart beat of Home.

Bagels broiling,

Coffee boiling,

Laughter to share

with toil & care,

Anytime, Everywhere,

In U, i am Home.

The waves in the bay,

lap softly each day,,

and continue to say,,,

"We" is Home.

My Pen with the Little Cap for John G. and the Nightwatch

Oh, I have in my pocket a quill and parchment that will serve me in an instant.
This morning I am thinking of all the centuries of poets and artists who had no such servants.
Lost?
No, those poems and lines and paintings that filled their minds and hearts are not lost.
We will experience them,
dance to music sung once
at a sunset in ancient times
and heard by No One
but the artist and the Author of all sunsets.
Oh, we will dance to that song and gaze at that painting,
weep at those words never written down but not lost.
Heaven.

tea

My friend, Mat, woke up early and started to make himself some tea. But he didn't want to have tea alone. Who would be up this early on a Sunday? ....Cindy!...
I woke up early one Sunday and decided instead of watching the sunrise, I would work, not with a happy heart but with a sense of obligation and resentment.
Just as I began, there was a smiling face in my window, Matt and his 'magical tea pouch.'

Oh miracles happen everyday, just see them.

Sitting for hours, drinking tea from tiny cups (if you had a mug you could get up and walk away, Matt explained,) talking of the special minerals in the mud which comprised the tea pot. Trying to taste the earth, the 'adama' and leaves that were grown in it, in far-away China, where the stars were just coming out. Oh it was heaven on this earth of ours.

Matt explained how the tea effected the soil and the minerals in the soil effected the tea.

Oh I feel that... all these molecules I'm made of, all these bits of vibrating strings so connected such a part of Everything else.
We take a breathe it enters our lungs and blood and dreams. We taste a cookie and it has come from so many places and provides comfort and even a way to show love.
We share an idea or a thought and those become one with the hearer, our hearts touch.
Oh heaven, this beautiful home this One Universe....
in His tiny cup of tea...He never gets up and walks away, Creator sits sipping it with us and through us and in us.

The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" Moshe (Deuteronomy 6:4 )

I gotta ask Claire to make me some tiny cups :).