Lead
Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.
~ Mary Oliver ~
my novice contribution to eighth letter which didn't quite make the list
To the church in North America,
To the church in North America,
Dear people,
I simply offer to you this one question:
Are we willing?
Are we willing to receive one another into the harbor?
– the kind of harbors that provide shelter rather than a place for storing souls for future use.
Are we willing to open our eyes to the unseen in each other and ourselves?
Are we willing to go to the places we have merely heard calling out to us, from within?
Are we willing to go without hesitation into those places of the unknown?
Are we willing to completely absorb the moments of joy that pour over us and through us?
Are we willing to listen to the stories of our lives?
Are we willing to share these stories with others when we do?
Are we willing to be wakened and available to each other and ourselves?
Are we willing to be that place where the broken can be healed?
Are we willing to be a home where the hidden places can be safely revealed in the hearts of God’s people?
Are we willing to have our own hearts broken open to never be closed again to the rest of the world?
Thy will be done -?-
…on earth as it is in heaven.
Blessed Be,
Charity
