Here among the Stones

"Here Among the Stones", photo by Constance Schroeder, copyright 2013

 

Here among the stones
she grows
their silent song
pull her roots within
their cold, rough surfaces
strange comfort
to the leaves which drink sun and rain
and at the end of day
lay back against these ancient pieces
of the earth.

And in the darkness of the night,
the stones sing out a song,
communing with the stars
and she delights in its deep hum
of harmony all around her.
She grows
her prayer
her small flowers
join the blessed harmony
all about, beneath, beside, above, within...

The song go on,
here among the stones.

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Choosing to live in harmony with the world around us, with the communities of which we are part, with family and friends is often a silent and even difficult choice.  Choosing to remain silent when disagreements rise up.  Choosing to be supportive of one who has hurt us.  Choosing to love even when we've been thrown off kilter are powerful, life affirming choices, and yet so difficult.  Choosing laughter and warmth seems like a no brainer, and yet many of us refuse the joy which is right before us.  Instead, we delve deeply into the darkness, the grief, the violence of the world.  We watch television shows which promote violence on so many levels.  We read books which celebrate violence, we play video games which draw us further into worlds of fear and rage.  We think ourselves somehow exempt from the effects.  But we are not. 

We are glad when one who has killed is himself killed.  And we do not see our own responsibility in the violence.  We have become such individualists, that we do not know how to live with each other in community and in peace.  Our pain, our anger, our bitterness has created such walls of division that we refuse to build bridges of healing.  It is because we ourselves are desperately in need of healing. 

There is One who calls us to stillness.  We can only hear the song of the stars when we find the stillpoint, the center of ourselves, which roots itself in the ancient and the eternal.

May we live in harmony with goodness and peace this day. May we choose love and life and wholeness.

Shalom.