How Rich One Day Can Be

I awoke this am soon getting on my knees.  Upon standing there was a depth of knowing within that this was/is on a new trek in my prayer life. The essence is that relating to God/Allah via prayer is so much more significant/real/important than ever before.  This feels/is more real than any of my other
relationships.  This is a visceral/mental/spiritual/psychological experience.

When checking emails I find the joy, breeze and light in a note from a young friend.  Her inner beauty, honesty and enthusiasm increase my own energy and motivation.  How lovely an intergenerational/international correspondence can be.

There is a new person in my life -- a lovely woman who is so childlike and so needy that I tend to try
to limit my time with her.  Today we go to excercise class together.  Then to a coffee shop.  We talk about her difficulty with her college-educated daughter.  And we thank God together that this is going better this week.  We are also thankful together that she still has her small job when she thought she had lost this.  She grabs on to my use of dignified in reference to her new attitude.

Each time I am with her I marvel at how grateful she is for the smallest gesture of friendship.   I recognize how little is asked of me when someone like this Jamaican woman -- who's been through hell and back -- reflects to me such a rare willingness to learn what she has not had the opportunity to learn thus far.  I am rewarded a hundred times over for such a small amount of time and energy the few times we meet.

Today several quotes engraved on the walls near where I drink my coffee almost look like they have lights behind them:

"What would be the good of learning without Love?  That would puff us up.  And Love without learning would go astray."   Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Here is the way I suddenly substituted the word 'writing' for 'learning' in this quote:

What is the benefit of writing without Love?  And what is Love (for the writer) without writing?
Perhaps Love (for me as a writer) could then go astray.  (In part).

So I am taking notice that since I am a writer at heart who is only partially realized in this calling --
I am perhaps actually losing Love energy by not applying myself to the same?

There is another part of me who also looks for truth.  This part is alive indeed as well as the writer-part.  So today in my extra prayerful mode I notice this quote almost the same time as the one above:

Numbers 15:15-16  From the Bible (Old Testament)

The community is to have the same rules for you and for the foreigner residing among you;  this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.  You and the foreigner shall be the same before the Lord:  The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigner residing among you.

My dear friend Barbara practices this daily for years with her originally immigrant friends and teachers of the displaced from all over the world.   She knows these seven below named wonderfully gifted young people and called about a week ago to ask for prayer for these students who just graduated.  There was some concern that  this article/interview might stir up trauma.  As things turned out -- my friend felt quite relieved about this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/17/living/georgia-refugee-graduation

This may seem out of place yet I needed one more event that might happen on one day so I decided
to put this from The Indian Express as a tribute to World Environment day.  These artists are remembering
this special day although their town is one of the most polluted in the world.  This too makes each day and place a space of ongoing co-creation with the Divine.

What an interesting way to go through a day.  What might occur during this dialogue with the Divine during the evening?  As I get ready for interacting with my incredibly courageous Mother I am so glad to have such riches to share with her.


Link and credit for first photo:
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/santa-barbara-california-road-trip/