Unfolding Light

          The Holy One said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh
          and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’
          Is anything too wonderful for God? At the set time
          I will return to you, in due season,
          and Sarah shall have a son.”
          But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,”
          for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
                       —Genesis 18.13-15

Don’t be afraid to laugh, even at the impossible.
The laughter of disbelief soon blossoms
into the laughter of joy.

We laugh at how foolish we are,
and also at how foolish we are not to see
how glorious we are.

Yes, and we laugh at how both of them
live so amiably in us.
Creatures so noble and silly deserve a laugh.

We laugh even in the face of despair,
for our hope is not in a possible future,
but in a seed already planted and growing.

We laugh because even when death itself
is set in stone, the Beloved
is already climbing out of the grave.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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A great ocean moves inside me.

The world swings wide her windows,
looks out,
and waits.

The streets come crawling on all fours
like beggars, like beasts.
The world opens its mouth….

I have been given much.
It can only be received, not taken.

Before what is expected of me, the stillness.

A great ocean moves inside me.

Open the door.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Cure the sick; raise the dead;
          cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons.
                      —Matthew 10.8

You don’t have the powers of those who wound the realm,
nor those who seem able to save.
But, friend, the One who brought you into life
wove themselves deep into your being
with powers that you from behind your eyes may never see.
Simply in your way of being, if you so choose,
there flows a grace that heals.
It is not yours, but the power of the Beloved.

The forgiveness you have been granted
mends beyond you.
The gentleness with which you are held
spreads like the scent of a flowering lilac.
The grace you are given courage to trust
and to bear casts out demons of fear.

Imagine the mystery that there thrives in your heart
forgiveness that cleanses,
beauty that cures,
love that raises dead.

Don’t long for some great magical powers.
Let the heart of your Lover beat in you.
The blessing whose spring is within you
flows out to the ends of the world.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You grow in a crack in the sidewalk,
neither asking nor receiving hospitality.
Spreading your arms out
to what the city will give you of the sun,
reaching your roots down unseen,
patient among slabs and pipes and gravel,
you find a way to nourish yourself.
You gather yourself into this one simple blossom,
not a big one, but yellow in a desert of gray.
And what is it worth?

A guy comes along, distracted,
maybe troubled even, looking down.
He stops, sits on a cement block,
and stares at you. He tilts his head
as if reading something. After a long time
gazing at you he makes a single sound,
“mm,” and something that could be
a smile comes to his face.
He looks at the sky, takes a breath, gets up,
and walks off, somehow different.

You never know.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Go and learn what this means,
          “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
                       —Matthew 9.13

Jesus quotes Hosea 6.6
(twice, in fact):

God doesn’t want animal sacrifices,
but our hearts,

isn’t interested in our religion,
but in our relationships.

God doesn’t care what we believe,
God cares how we treat people.

Jesus says: choose the religion of Being in Love
over the religion of Being Right.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Give up your wish
to be a spiritual whiz.
Even the greatest sage
must learn ignorance,
must go out again
and practice not knowing,
address a stone,
innocent of all but the word:
Who are you?
True wisdom is not knowing,
but attending.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          “Why does your teacher
          eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
                       —Matthew 9.11

There is one table.
All our divisions are a lie.
All our hierarchies are a delusion.
We are all different, and equal.
There is no greater or lesser,
no more or less worthy,
no superior or inferior,
no better or worse.
Not in God’s eyes.
There is no ladder, no pyramid.
Only a circle, where last is first
and first is last.

Our hard work
is to repent of our evil hierarchies,
to be done with comparing,
creating insiders and outsiders.
We do it by coming to the one table,
sitting with our companion sinners,
our beloved siblings, all.
They’re all here, friend, at the table.
Sit with them,
as God sits with you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Greeting the four directions

I bow to What Is;
          with attentiveness I bow.

Greeting the East, I bow to all I receive:
          the breath of life, the gift of Creation,
          the grace of God, the love of others,
          the gift of all whose lives and labors benefit me.
With joy and gratitude I bow.

Greeting the South, I bow to all that is within me:
          body, mind and spirit,
          my unconscious and my microbiome,
          the divine light, steadfast and warm.
With wonder and reverence, I bow.

Greeting the West, I bow to all that flows from me:
          my work, my gifts, my talents and energies,
          my love and prayers,
          peace flowing from me to those I love,
          to all who struggle, to the whole world,
          peace flowing out from me to the universe.
With love and courage, I bow.

Greeting the North, I bow to my death,
          to my limits, my powerlessness,
          my not knowing, and to my end.
With humility and good humor, I bow.

Again to the four directions:
          To what is Yes: my Yes. I bow.
          To what is No: my No. I bow.
          That I may discern with wisdom, I bow.
I bow to What Is.

Let this day begin.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          As Jesus was walking along,
          he saw a man called Matthew
          sitting at the tax-collection station,
          and he said to him, “Follow me.”
          And he got up and followed him.
                       —Matthew 9.9

The voice of freedom or justice,
the song of beauty or healing,
the call of the Beloved, is not a shout.
It’s merely the hum of life
that begs your harmony.

You’re going about your life, plain as always,
when something ineffable, moving
in a different direction, tugs at you,
like the aroma of bread baking:
an urge, a subtle leaning, an invitation.
Your presence is requested.
Learn to stop and attend.

Perhaps in a moment of stillness,
maybe in a rush of trying so hard—
a compass needle wobbles.
Stop and attend.

You are not especially wise or gifted;
your faith is no stronger than anyone else’s.
Don’t question why you are chosen;
the only way to know is to follow.
It may be a life-changing endeavor,
or a moment’s simple act of love. Follow.

Never stop listening.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Sit on a park bench
or a street corner
observing humans
in all their glorious
strangeness
and know you are one.
Let the sun hold you
in its loving gaze.
Marvel at the baby
in the carriage
who you used to be
something like,
and how you have become
this.
Sit there long enough,
lifted on a tide of wonder,
simplified,
to choose yourself
and recover
your own splendor.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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