Tag: God

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Ida

I met God at a yard sale near my home recently. I’m calling her Ida.

Miles and I stopped in at a yard sale a block away, mostly because we were just walking past but also because it was at a yard I particularly admire for its rustic creativity. I commented about this to a sturdily built African American woman who was there and we both wanted to have a peek into the backyard, as well. But then, all of a sudden, she turned to me and said, “God is telling me to pray for you.”

Whoa! I was the tiniest bit taken aback. But I’d had a rough week and my eyes stung immediately. I told her I’d had a hard week but that it was mostly resolved now. She said, “That was God. Is it okay if I pray for you?” So I said sure. Really, why not? Then, “Would you give me your hand?” Again, whoa! I hadn’t expected that she would pray for me right then and there. I figured she would add me to her list later that day or the next morning in church. Nope. Right then and there, holding my hand and out loud. In the middle of a yard sale. And then she handed me a bracelet with this passage from Corinthians on it: “Faith Hope Love. Abide by these three. But the greatest of these is love.” And off she went.

I did not get her name, though she had asked for mine, for the prayer. She was skilled at praying, that was clear. As she drove off, I placed my hand on my heart, gave her a nod, and she waved. I was so touched. She had not asked if I went to church or believed in God or Jesus or anything like that. Just like I imagine God would do.

I’ve decided that I will call her Ida and she will be my version of God. And I believe I will take up praying to Ida. I have thought of her every day and I love the idea of this sturdy, bosomy African American woman in shorts and a t-shirt as my God.

Since that day I’ve made some very nice changes that will make my life better, too, changes that I’ve struggled over. So thank you, Ida. You have made a difference.

I am convinced that we need to be open to whatever and whomever comes our way. I don’t always manage it but I do believe it’s important to do. I am very grateful for the fact that I chanced by that yard sale at that particular time and that Ida did, too. You just never know, do you? You just never know what is waiting around the corner for you.

Who has made a difference in your life lately? What random encounter has changed you?

“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” ― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

“This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.” – Hafez

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Proof of God

I, a non-religious, “fallen away” Catholic, have felt for many years that Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto is proof that there is a God.

How could a mere human have created it? Beethoven himself claimed his music came to him from God. And when I listen to this unbelievably glorious piece of music, I think, Yes. Of course. There is no other explanation. It is simply sublime. The ascending and descending, the gentle, tender melody suddenly breaking into a grand, passionate torrent of wild booming amazement. It is perfect. Whenever it comes on the radio in my car, I have to sit and listen until the end. No question.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, feeling particularly ebullient as I got into my car, I thought, Ooh, maybe the Emperor Concerto will be playing!–and miraculously, it was, but deep into the third movement. Ach! I turned the volume up, sat in my driveway until the end. (How many times have I done that?) Came into the house and found the video with Leonard Bernstein conducting Krystian Zimerman. Oh my God. Leonard Bernstein unabashedly bouncing around on the podium. Zimerman, eyes closed in ecstasy, in another world. I myself cannot sit still as I listen. I watched it twice through.

Now I’m sharing it with you. Listen and watch. Let it take you. See if you aren’t transported. Forty two minutes and you will feel incredible.

All we need to do to experience awe is open up to it. Towards the end of his life, Beethoven could not even physically hear his own music. But he must have heard it in his soul. Though his ears had failed him, he remained open and, as he said, received the Ninth Symphony, which contains the famous “Ode to Joy.”

We can’t all be Beethoven. But we can find awe in both the grand and the seemingly inconsequential. The sparkle of frost on just about anything, the sun making a surprise breakthrough on a grey morning, a lucky glimpse of a kingfisher sailing over the creek. So many things, there for us to love.

“The Lord and I are on speaking terms, and our bickering most often gets penned onto a piece of parchment.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

“God, Madame, sends me down some of his angels and they whisper sweet melodies in my ear.” – Charles Gounod

“You don’t need faith to believe in God, because there are plenty of signs available of His existence. Mozart wrote a symphony as a child. Heredity cannot account for this. There is only one explanation: the Creator chooses people as His instruments to produce some beauty in a world that is all too ugly. ” – Herbert von Karajan

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Beliefs

Found a buckeye in the woods right at the toe of my boot

and I liked to think that it was lucky, auspicious, held

some meaning, though I could not now say what

and a small amount of research yields nothing along those lines.

Of course they are pretty, smoothly soothing in the hand.

Forever searching for signs and significance without

any very firm beliefs beyond my own amorphous ideas,

I’ve placed the buckeye next to my small Ganesh

and three special rocks on my desk.

I do not believe in Heaven and Hell or the devil

though I like to think there might be angels.

I do believe that some part of us goes on again

and again coming back to take another fleshly body

out for a spin, figuring out something new or important.

I do not believe that everything happens for a reason

or that there are no mistakes.  Really?  Everything?  And none?

I do not believe God doesn’t give me anything I cannot handle

i.e., God hands out difficulty and pain as if to say

This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

I do believe in God.  I believe in miracles

small significances, luck and the power of belief.

I believe I can impart my own meanings to the

finding of a buckeye, the spotting of the great blue heron,

the shape of the moon, a chance encounter with a

red fox, a person from my past, a shooting star.

And so I will continue to keep my eyes wide open

as I travel through the world.  Just in case of some

something of importance that might materialize

somewhere.  Anywhere.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Acts of God

This dry heat is killing the redbud trees.

You see them around town patched yellow

or completely brown, bewildered, I imagine.

I heard about the 7-year drought of Texas

in the fifties, rivers dried up, grass-fed cattle

dying, ranchers giving up and moving

to town to take up other trades.

When the rain finally came it would not stop.

Floods tore through the state wreaking

more havoc and another kind of destruction.

Some would call these things acts of God.

On today’s radio there are stories about the

failing corn crop, the soybeans that might

not make it, a crusty farmer’s voice saying

Now we’re just waiting on the good Lord.

But I like to imagine a God who neither acts

out of spite nor deals out cards good or bad,

but one who hopes for the best

wishes we could bloody well get it right

and whose patience far outlasts our own.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Signs

It seems a tender little bit of something
to begin a new year on a Sunday
the first day of any week 
in any month of any old year 
a small symmetry that might 
bode well as I like to think
plus my two dogs lie here lovingly
however uncharacteristically 
legs over legs entwined suggesting
if I care to read it so (& let me say 
right here that I do)
a quantity of forbearance 
if not love not to mention that this day
is as sunlit and radiant as any
spring or summer day suggesting
grace and light to come
and in addition the wind does blow
something fierce meaning
(of course) that
ships’ sails will fill and billow
truths will be declared
angels sing in full chorus
as God whispers 
recondite secrets to the trees.  
Ah yes.  This wind that sun
those dogs this Sunday
all signs point 
to an extraordinary year.