Sweet and sour, sour and sweet

A few mornings ago, walking fast to a service I thought I was going to, but which actually wasn't happening at all, something went squish under my foot. Startled, I looked back and saw I'd stepped on a lemon. How could I have missed seeing a lemon lying on the sidewalk! Never seen such a thing before in my life, so wouldn't it have jumped out at me? Well, I guess that depends on where I was focused - the here-and-now, or the what-if-of-the-future. You can probably guess the answer. Maybe you've had such moments yourself?

I thought I was going to Eucharist, but I actually wasn't sure if there was one scheduled.  I was looking way ahead down the street to see if any of my buddies were walking in that direction, cause then I'd know I was on the right path. The sour possibility of being all mixed up, or of simply being wrong, one way or another, had me focused way out of my body. Would any of us see a lemon, even if it'd been jumping up and down in front of us, in that state of mind/heart?!

Walking back up the hill, I encountered the person who lived at "the lemon-house". After hearing my story (which I now found comical) he proceeded to fill my arms with lemons. Wow. I'd heard about eating lemons right off the tree, and now I was about to do that! What could be more sweet! Sweetness of new encounters. Sweetness of generosity. Sweetness of 'wrong' turning into something good. I walked the rest of the way home with a big smile on my face, cradling my precious cargo.

It can be so easy when my heart is open and ready. Allowing sour to lead me into sweetness, even allowing sour to be normal and ok... I wish this way of being upon myself, and upon you too. 

There is that classic phrase - when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. (I intend to, for sure!) And isn't it easier for me to see the possibility of making that delicious drink when I'm fully aware not only of the sour that may be underfoot, but also of the sweet that surrounds me all the time. When the sweet becomes my focus, life softens. My ribcage expands. Which permits my lungs to take in more air (more generosity!) and then... I remember what a shimmering gift my life is. Thanks be to God!

My prayer for Syria & the world

Source of all Light and Life,
seed in the hearts of all leaders
a deep and tenacious hunger
for peaceful and tender resolutions 
to all conflicts in the world.

This morning's poem...

Morning Poem

The birds begin – this is it, we feel it coming

It’s that early morning slide, the quiet wind

the slight shifting of air. Trees flutter, giddy

expectation trembling through sap

and limb. New beginning, we get it.

Silver and soft, light grows, flushes,

fills with juice, with fullness. It’s

the arrival. A new day – do you feel it?

That shimmer and hum, rippling up

from dirt, from ground, from earth –

she, the One. It’s the disappearance

of night, of shadow, the lightening

of despair, the possibility of ‘found’

replacing ‘lost’. We rise into the mystery

already here, the grace, the miracle…

We awake to find it present, solid

as if there were never 

any question. Or doubt, not that either.

On this good moment, stop. Be astonished.

Be amazed. Life – it’s ours.

© Gyllian Davies  09.01.13