February 23, 2025

Today's post in an excerpt from Dr. Susan Nettleton's Zoom talk on "At Home in the House of Life"

In the aftermath of the January Eaton Fire, I was flipping through Stephen Mitchell's poetry book, The Enlightened Heart, and stopped to read the D.H. Lawrence poem "Pax". (link below) I have read the book many times, but never found that poem particularly interesting. This time though, it hit me--that phrase, "at home in the house of life". Although I've never been a house person, I am surrounded by so much loss in these neighborhoods, that the aftermath has altered my perspective. Not that I have moved as often as some, but I have moved often enough to recognize that I am not anchored in a home. I am anchored in, loosely defined, the expression of my spiritual life; spirituality is my anchor. Hillside has always been about supporting people in the expression of their individual spiritual path. Yet, I--We--need shelter.

Shelter is a huge modern issue; just look at our homeless population in America. In 2024, the U.S. homeless population was estimated at around 0.2% of the population. It sounds small til you calculate that's around 771,480. Weather obviously plays a big part here. And now, we have to factor in climate changes, with issues of shelter, housing and migration. Climate migration is bound to become a growing issue in a time of climate change and uncertainty. So when we consider our personal homes and houses against a background of possible catastrophic events, home and house no longer follow the assured expectations of the past.

My focus for this talk is a spiritual state of being at home in the house of Life, in the midst of life's changes. So what does this involve? Home and house have slight different meanings. A house is structural, a concrete image or concept. Home on the other hand is more abstract with overtones of belonging, comfort, connection and emotional attachment--even if we live alone. But what is "feeling at home in the house of Life?" Now we enter the realm of spirituality, which is an inclusive expansion of your belonging, caring and connection--not limited by obligation, blood, friendship, name/fame/need or social order--the ultimate of Life and it's mystery. Is anything outside of Life? For me, Life is another name for God, because it is all we can know of God. Even experiences which seemingly take us beyond Earth life, are still Life, because we cannot get outside of Life.... Ultimately, I am saying that spirituality leads you to a place of surrender where you accept your utter reliance on Life and the Way of things. You surrender to the level of Life as Home, because this is the world you find yourself in now. For now, Life is your Home. You don't leave Home; if you travel, you are still at Home, because you cannot travel outside of Life.... We can feel our home as a specific address, or we can feel our home as the Cosmos. For our purpose this morning, the question is: to what degree can we be 'home', wherever we find ourselves? I am saying that our spiritual adaptability to changing times is linked with a growing capacity to find peace and protection, shelter, wherever we are.

If you can consider the larger field of home as Life itself, you may discover you are already home, the moment you stop searching for another place to be. So, Life is a house we never built, but we have built many constructs around and about it. We may want life to stay the same, but it never does. Acknowledging this to yourself can help the emotions that go along with being uprooted; transplanted elsewhere by circumstances you didn't choose. Ownership doesn't come into play here; you don't own the house of Life, we are aspects of Life, expressions of Life; we belong here, this time, this space, we belong here as unique expressions of Life. Property is a social construct; it has meaning in the social order, not in a larger spiritual frame. Society, and the world of ideas, theories, philosophies, politics arise from human thought and reasoning. What a busy business, humans make. (Susan Nettleton)

Sunday's poetry: http://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Dovethatvent/index.html https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51925/floating-island http://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../L/LawrenceDH/Pax/index.html

February 16, 2025

It's been another adventurous week following my last Sunday post on unburdening yourself! This week, here in the Eaton Fire aftermath, the river of life flowed as rivers of mud. Today, public works trucks are on canyon roads clearing village streets of the mud flow, rocks, and debris that erupted from last Thursdays severe rain storm. Earlier this past week, before the storm began, the city and county alert systems sent flood warnings across communities that had endured the recent fires, with necessary reminders for storm preparation. Midweek, those areas that were vulnerable to mud or landslides were alerted of possible--turning into immediate--evacuation. So I left the area with family and followed the protocols.

It is not an easy thing to simply drop it all, grab the packed bags and go--especially when you have just settled back in after fire evacuation. Then again, it is not an easy thing for first responders to rescue flooded communities. I followed the news of the mud online and Friday evening I returned. Thankfully, all was well with home for us, but mudflow in some areas was severe. On the drive back, I was processing all that I had learned about the mountain above us, burn scars, and the section maps that allow predictions of the flow across the slopes. When we re-entered the city, I stared at the mountain that crowns the end of the main boulevard, and the darkening clouds above it. Then I mused to those with me, "I am seeing the mountain very differently now. It used to be so lovely, but it feels different now...It seems...Ominous."

The unsettled image of the mountain hung around though unloading and unpacking. It lingered, until I finally could sit in meditation. In the quiet, I realized that underneath the events of the new year, 2025 is the pressure of climate change. That thought floated around in my psyche a bit with fragments of ideas about adaptation; certainly the adaptation necessary for living near the coast and mountainous terrain. Then a line popped clearly into my mind: "We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." It's always a bit of a shock, when a clear inner voice speaks! I let go to a larger field past the reasoning, problem solving mind that had been at work with its "analysis". Still, I started to scan my memory briefly to come up with the author, "Lao Tzu?" I questioned, "no, Han Shan? no...but there's more...". I gave up again, and sat with my mountain. The true Life came into focus, and with it Peace, and a certainty of living at the right time, and in the right place, as life goes though its changes. Underneath, I felt only Love.

Later, I looked up the full quote:

The birds have vanished down the sky.

Now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,

until only the mountain remains. Li Po, Tang Dynasty

What is Life whispering to you today, as you go through your changes? (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../ten-thousand-flowers-in.../ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../the-poem-that-took... https://mypoeticside.com/show-classic-poem-2074

February 9, 2025

This Sunday, after a further round of intense news and general upheaval, it seems to me to be a good time for self-care. Valentine's Day arrives on Friday, but the emphasis on romantic love and friendship is apparently taking a back seat to the political drivers. It may be difficult to find your way to traditions of cards or a special expression of love. Still, in turning our attention to hearts, flowers, and candy, we are reminded that relationships matter, impacting our stability, health, support, and broader perspectives on life's events. First though, before you rush to plan any Valentine expression (or choose to ignore it all together), consider some self-care. Specifically today, I encourage you to unburden yourself.

In "unburdening yourself", I am looking at the process of letting go and letting God. Consider your personal sense of burden in your life right now and, realistically, what you can control and what you cannot control; what you can change, and what is not given to you to change. There is not a "one size fits all" answer to the question of control; rather, it is meant as a call to you, individually, to lay your burdens down.

Whenever it comes to me to lighten the load of responsibility, my mind automatically begins to echo the African-American spiritual, "Down By the Riverside". "I'm gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside"...and the repeating refrain, "ain't gonna study war no more." That powerful phrase links to a Biblical passage, Isaiah 2:4, "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." While the scripture carries a global message, the song is layered with individual meaning. We become students of war as we entangle ourselves in personal struggles, resentments, and arguments, as well as, when we carry the weight of responsibility to "fix" things, fix ourselves and fix others. These struggles are the burden of human life.

The song, though, is actually a joyous affirmation of the freedom that comes with spiritual release. Letting go is giving over to something beyond human effort, giving way to Grace of Life. A river has multiple metaphysical meanings, but essentially, water flowing as a river is the gift of life, packaged in all that is needed to nourish and sustain life. Indeed, our physical body is over 50% water. Water carries us. Water washes us, cleanses us, renews us. Living water can also refer to the Holy Spirit within us. Rumi writes of rain that brings the renewal and nourishment for life around us, and unseen Rain, brings Grace. When we are ready to enter newness of life, we are ready to lay down our sword (the struggle), and shield (the self protection of our ego, our isolated self), and open to Divine Grace and the gift of Love.

What about the world? What about the mess? What about all the uncertainty, threat, change? To unburden yourself is to take a bit of space, a bit of time to drop it all, and rest, restore, listen, trust. Expect unseen Grace. The river of life is flowing. (Susan Nettleton

"We can’t help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water. Milk drinkers draw close to the mother. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, shamans, everyone hears the intelligent sound and moves with a thirst to meet it. " Rumi

When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action comes from another section, the feeling disappears. Rumi

for more poetry: https://internetpoem.com/william-stafford/a https://dominicalapat.wordpress.com/.../unburdening-myself/ https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../in-blackwater-woods-by.../

February 2, 2025

It's February! A new month! Even though our calendar is a human construction to give order to our collective lives, we have had the good sense to link February to matters of the heart. While January, identified with bringing on the New, is not always traumatic (although the weather can be fierce), January 2025 has carried a harsh, chaotic, disruptive energy. Time to let it go. Personally, February gives me relief, as we turn to the Heart. The history of February as Heart Month has expanded from the one day religious celebration of St. Valentines Day, to a cultural celebration of Romantic Love, then reaching to friendship-and-favorite-people-kind-of Love, and now more recently (1964!), February includes a public health focus on self Love, expressed by cultivating Heart Health. While Love does have a "medical" relationship to the well-being of our hearts, today, I want to begin February with a call to meditation.

Why not approach this February 2, and the month ahead, from a spiritual perspective! Is "Spiritual Love" separate from all the other forms of love that humans experience? It's a good question to contemplate over the next month. When the world around you, or people, or even your own emotions, actions, or thoughts become unmanageable, meditation is a powerful antidote. It isn't always an immediate solution, yet in my experience, it rarely makes you feel worse; meditation has a way of "setting things right" inside. Heart ache of every type is eased, even if just a tiny bit. That little bit is the beginning of healing. That little bit of time that you disengage from the drama of life, to sit in Allness, or perhaps in the Presence, in Stillness, in Letting Go, even in what feels like "giving up", becomes a new awareness of Love.

My many years of meditation, with changing patterns and methods, has come to a point where I see that meditation simply feeds itself. By that I mean, there is not one way to meditate and meditation is not at all about technique. It is about stopping. In that sense, it is a form of disruption. Sometimes, the mind-body-spirit initiates a moment of stopping, but usually, we seemingly make the choice to stop, disengage in the moment, and enter in a space of freedom, or the space that for you, becomes meditation. Even the "being fully in the present moment" form of meditation, is a form of disengagement; we move away from the 10,000 things that demand our attention, to the one thing that is before us right now. Meditation finds us, no matter how briefly, and we can allow it to expand, by simply giving it our time and attention.

If Love is eluding you in this first week of February, concede all your chores as well as your grudges, and enter--even if only for a few moments--stillness, silence, "meditation". It doesn't matter what you call it, or what technique. Stop and breathe; let Love find you. Your heart will thank you. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../DeSpirituSan/index.html https://outofcontextsite.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/light/ https://equallywed.com/wedding-poetry-series-denise.../ https://allpoetry.com/Love-After-Love

January 26, 2025

This January, 2025, has been a tumultuous month of weather, political shifts, (including immigration upheavals, legal battles, a cease-fire in the middle east) and disastrous fires here in California. Today as I write, I am waiting for the rain. The gray clouds moving in hold a double possibility: relief from fire, relief for the parched trees, vegetation, and wildlife, but also a threat of flooding, mudslides and possible landslides from the charred mountain sides. Now and then the sun still peeks out from the dark clouds, creating a golden glow that is much more welcomed than the orange glow of fire. We have to wait to see what nature offers over the next few days.

The pending rain reminds me of Alan Watts' rendition of the 'Story of the Chinese Farmer' who was prosperous enough to own a horse in a time when few could. One night, the horse ran off and all the neighbors came around to commiserate with the farmer, wring their hands at how unfortunate he was. The farmer said, "Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad. Who can tell?" The next day, the horse returned, bringing seven wild horses with it. That evening everyone visited again, saying, “You are really lucky. What a wonderful change of events! Now you have eight horses!” The farmer responded, “Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad. Who can tell?” The next day while his son was breaking in one of the wild horses, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors said, “Oh, that’s too bad. How terrible--your only son cannot help you now with the farm.” The farmer answered:,“Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad. Who can tell?” The following day the military officers came around to conscript men into the army, and they rejected the son because of the broken leg. Once again, all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that wonderful!” Again, the farmer said, “Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad. Who can tell?”

While we have accumulated amazing knowledge of life and it's processes--including some ways to mitigate nature's harshness (and human harshness and mistakes), we are far from control of the natural world. In fact, our demand to control the natural world without understanding that we too are components of that world, means we can never be certain of the meaning of events. Life is complex; events are interwoven. We have our part in life's ongoing unfoldment, even as Life remains a mystery. We can choose to name Life as an unfolding Good, in which we participate and contribute. To me, our part is to feed the Light, not rehearse the darkness. How do you do that? Robert Schuller put it simply, "Find a need and fill it; find a hurt and heal it." (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../StarTeachers/index.html https://grateful.org/resource/wind-one-brilliant-day/ https://allpoetry.com/After-The-Storm

January 19, 2025

This Sunday, I offer you a question: Who's in charge? Those of you who knew Dr. Larry Morris will recognize that question as Larry's favorite response to people who shared their difficulties with him as they passed through the greeting line on Sunday mornings. Sometimes he was met with confused uncertainty, or a concrete societal answer, like "the judge", or my "boss", but those who came regularly to a Sunday service, learned the answer he wanted to invoke was simply "God", or a variation like "my Higher Power", or "the Universe". "Who's in charge?" is a reminder to return to spiritual ground, no matter what the situation may be, or the surrounding opinions and interpretations of others.

To be clear, this phrase is not about cause, but rather about resolution and healing, pondering the causes of events is another kind of meditation; there are layers of belief and perspective in our search for cause. In the world of science and particularly medicine, if we are investigating a possible cure, it is certainly helpful to investigate cause. But when we turn to the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos and the larger field of Earth and human intelligence, we simply cannot know all. When there is a pull within us, we wonder and we sense meaning, and our capacity to weave faith is activated. To turn to and to trust, to surrender to a greater Good, to give way to that which you sense, is to realize both your personal limitations and your capacity for the transcendence we name spirituality, God, or simply: The Good.

This week collectively includes snow storms, fires, a controversial inauguration and government shift, Martin Luther King Day, and the living events of your personal life. Here, in L.A. County, life is on the move with the incredible skill, bravery and dedication of Fire Fighters, support staff, government officials, FEMA, social services, local clubs, and so many more. I am awed by the recovery staff and those who are still in the field. Yet, we don't know what the winds will bring this week, so I will have to wait a few more days to schedule my next Zoom talk. Who's in charge?

There are chains of command in every field, but ultimately, the human world, the world of nature beyond humanity, the microbial world, the world of weather and the changing movements of life are their own mystery within The Good. Martin Luther King wrote: "If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream." "My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God’s hands." "In a real sense faith is total surrender to God."

(Susan Nettleton)

https://hillsidesource.com/.../2018/4/10/rigid-or-flexible?

https://genius.com/Amanda-gorman-the-hill-we-climb-annotated https://allpoetry.com/If-I-Were-In-Charge-of-the-World https://allpoetry.com/.../15794790-Who-Is-In-Charge...

January 12, 2025

Last Sunday I wrote of unexpected sanctuaries. In retrospect, I am beginning to understand that my encounter with the rustic Madonna shrine at the nearby monastery was preparation, strengthening me for the week ahead. I mentioned the haze that had begun to engulf the L.A. skyline as I sat at the shrine. That haze was a forerunner to the treacherous Santa Anna Winds sweeping down the San Gabriel Mountains last Tuesday night, igniting the Eaton Fire about 5 miles from my neighborhood. Monday had brought the weather report of high winds, and tree limbs banged about through the night. Tuesday, I knew I had to be cautious, but with errands to run and grandchildren to collect, I entered the day, maneuvered the streets and flying branches, and was home by 6 p.m. Checking my phone, I saw I had missed messages from the police and fire departments warning of escalating fire threats. At 8 p.m. my phone buzzed with an emergency SME to leave the area; a fire was raging through nearby Eaton Canyon. At first I thought it had to be a mistake caused by recent changes to my phone service. I decided to ignore it for a bit, do a little online search for information, and check in with family. But some other part of me kept pulling at me to pack. I began loading my car when a policeman with a speaker mike, drove through the streets warning everyone to leave! By 9:00, I and my family were packed and leaving L.A. County for a distant motel.

If you have followed the news, you know the Eaton fire has destroyed an estimated 6,500 buildings. And the Palisades fire, the first in what has become a series of fires sweeping Los Angeles County, including Hollywood, has flared again with further destruction. I am writing this from a hotel room, although I will be returning to my home later today.

What is the message here from a spiritual perspective? Given the timing and the political division, the fires have turned into further political battles. Given the social media culture, it has been difficult to sort out truth and necessary information from deliberate lies, conflicting announcements and misinformation. But these conflicts now seem like a kind of annoying (although potentially dangerous) epiphenomenon, that is, the undermining undertow obscures the heroic strength of community and kindness. Kindness promotes community. Community arises from recognition of our commonality; we identify, we recognize, understand, what it means to go through a time of threat, of fear, of loss. This week I have witnessed incredible acts of kindness and generosity of spirit. There are threads that connect us, not just to one another, but to the natural world as well, and it's shifts and adaptations--the winds, the droughts, the rains, the fire. I encourage you this week to expand your sense of community and the thread that weaves community with kindness and belonging. Even as the world shifts and changes, It is still One. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://onbeing.org/poetry/after-the-fire/

https://allpoetry.com/.../16400958-After-The-Fire-by... https://allpoetry.com/.../15179079-Like-Others-by-Jane...

January 5, 2025

New Year's Day gave my neighborhood a sunny blue sky, even though we were under a poor air quality alert as a haze settled across the San Bernardino Basin, and "no burn" restrictions were in place. The sunny blue sky won out over the alerts and I decided on a morning uphill hike up to where the street ends at the gates of a nearby monastery. The climb is pretty strenuous for a city sidewalk "hiker", but the way down is fast and easy. I expected the gate at the top to be locked, but this New Year's Day, it was wide-open, with no one around. Past the gate, a road winds upward, disappearing into a thicket of trees and obscuring the buildings from the street where I stood. On either side of the entrance road, there are open fields with dried grass and marked with gopher holes everywhere. About 30 yards to the east, you can make out a small, rustic rectangular shrine with a wooden sunscreen "roof" and three sun-bleached, rudimentary benches marking the border. A lovely, weathered stone Madonna in prayer, stands on a small brick wall; her robe curves downward, flowing to frame a fading, ambiguous angelic figure, with up-stretched arms.

I had forgotten about the shrine, but seeing it across the way, on New Year's Day, 2025, it called me to walk further and visit. So I did. I sat on the weathered bench facing the Madonna, as my gaze was drawn beyond to the view of the valley below. The smog had definitely filled the valley, giving a ghostly image of Los Angeles skyscrapers. Yet despite pollution, if you sit without judgement, it is an awe-inspiring sight. And I knew I was here to meet the Madonna in quiet prayer. For me, forgiveness and gratitude are two sides of the same "coin" and my New Years Eve, has traditionally included forgiveness, while New Year's Day brings gratitude. The essence of my prayer at the shrine was gratitude for the year that had been, as well as for the year ahead, and gratitude that, unintentionally, I had entered a spiritual refuge on a morning walk.

I thought of a time in Kyoto, after weeks of visiting the 1,000 Gold Statues of Kannon, the spectacular Golden Pavilion, and so many other Buddhist temples and zen monasteries, I aimlessly wandered through a quite Kyoto neighborhood and came across an obscure corner temple with a solitary Buddha. The small yard surrounding the temple was unkept, with wilting grass and weeds. There were broad steps leading to the "stage" where a towering Buddha statue sat in peaceful meditation. No one else was around. For the first time that summer, I was moved to unabashedly sit on the floor and meditate facing Buddha. There, I was no longer a tourist. I was not a minister, nor a Buddhist; I was just me, encircled in reverence and deeply at Peace.

Somewhere near you today, there are places of Peace, hidden sanctuaries in unexpected places. Before life pulls you further into the busy month of January and 2025, find a quiet space--outside your usual orbit. Sit, pray, meditate, receive and renew. Have a quiet talk with God. An unexpected encounter with Good is it's own sanctuary, awaiting your recognition. Let Goodness guide your way. (Susan Nettleton)

for Poetry: https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/douglas-malloch/sanctuary/

https://thepoetryplace.wordpress.com/.../the-place-i.../

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../StoneGateTem/index.html

December 29, 2024

This last Sunday in December, 2024, brings spiritual focus to "Letting Go". Having already transitioned from autumn to winter, December moves to its annual closure, and by our Gregorian Calendar, the year's end. Mid-week, we enter 2025. Even though a spiritual perspective may bring us a sense of timelessness--or as Evelyn Underhill expressed it, "the leisureliness of eternity", or a practice of being in the present moment, realistically, we give meaning to time and meaning to a new year. We are grounded in time and in the structures of global daily life, that reach across and unite countries and cultures. Even though other cultures have additional traditions and dates for New Year celebrations, the global world of Commerce recognizes December 31 as New Year's Eve, and we collectively review and release the old year. At midnight, in succession around the globe, we welcome a New Year. This week, consider what it means to let go. Or perhaps, simply, to Let.

Here in Southern California, the school semester ended December 20 with a short final day, and Winter Break began. I was picking up grandchildren, and parked near the school, waiting for the bell in my usual spot. It was a lovely, clear morning and my eyes swept the mountains ahead, but my vision unexpectedly settled on a curb-side tree, just a few feet from where I sat. It was a majestic old Sycamore, with its signature large starry leaves. Most of the leaves were brown, but a few still flashed red. What struck me were the tiny stems, fragilely holding each separate leaf, as if the leaf could drop at any moment. And each leaf was a perfect floating star. I suddenly realized that the tradition of crafting stars to hang on Christmas Trees developed from such a sight. Suddenly, there was an unexpected wind gust, and the stars began to dance! None fell, at least not then. The wind came and went, came and went, and the stars shimmered and leaped, dancing with the gusts. Spellbound, I realized nature is always offering a glimpse of the mystery, beauty, and awe of life. Right there, in a car, parked on this suburban curb, Life was dancing.

This week is our time to let go. The Sycamore leaves, too, are now letting go. Yet, their letting go is not separate from their process of growth; the roots of that tree are growing. Spiritually, in "letting go", we are nourished; we make room in the heart of our inner life for growth, for stronger roots in a larger frame of Understanding and Being. Our minds may divide the process with "step 1: let go, release, forgive" and "step 2: plan your goals, clarify your resolutions", but really, our finished 'leaves' fall away, as new life is already emerging. Let it happen. Let the old fade and the new form. Let go to Life that renews Itself. Let. Happy New Year! (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/freshstart https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54327/to-the-new-year https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../in-blackwater-woods-by.../ https://yourmindfultribe.org/.../u4uz0vy8ceorbknfz5b6q3w0...

December 22, 2024

Last night was the Winter Solstice, and today begins the gradual increase of daylight. I have been reflecting this month on the undercurrent of spirituality in December that is more than just the social/commercial holiday of Christmas, or the Holy Days of the birth of Jesus. Archaeologically, there is evidence that humans celebrated the solstice as far back as the Neolithic period (10,000 to 3,000 BC). And the actual date of Jesus's birth is unknown, but many scholars and theologians agree it was not in winter, based on the references to events and seasonal activity in the Biblical stories. This year, Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light, begins on December 25, as well. It changes dates because it is based on a lunar calendar, whereas the birth of Jesus was formally established during the Roman empire, coinciding with the Roman Winter Solstice celebration dated in the Julian Calendar, as December 25. There are lovely dimensions to this history, with the miraculous light of Hanukkah and the birth of Jesus as the "Light of the World."

My focus on the Solstice is simply the wonder of living it: Humans discovered this repeating pattern of sunlight that slowly lengthened, achieved a balance with night, then slowly shrank again to a brief balance, expanding long again, in seemingly solar inhalation and exhalation. Over time, they constructed an understanding of the cycle, and eventually developed a mathematical formula to calculate dates and angles of the sun that allowed them to precisely capture the sun's rays in temple ceremonies. Amazing! Yet my real point here, is that we are Living on this earth, in movement with the solar system and beyond. We live with and in the Solstice, and Hanukkah, and Christ, with and in the mysteries of Mohamed, of Krishna, of Buddha, Quan Yin, the Blessed Mother Mary, and so many more visions and stories. We live in a world of intelligence, in the human mind that can grasp not just the solstice formula, but so much more. Our knowledge can be used to dismiss the spiritual, or in deepening amazement, feed the mystery. The more we weigh and measure, the more questions we raise....questions of how and why. The solstice still feeds the mystery; and the mystery brings awareness of the Sacred.

So this week of incremental return of light, consider the Sacred. There is a paradox to exploring the Sacred. We think of the Sacred as that which needs care, spiritual respect or reverence, often with a fixed idea of how we handle and address the Sacred. Some protocol that must be followed. But the purpose and value of the Sacred is the FEELING it creates in us. We know the Sacred through the feeling. Do you feel the Sacred in Hanukkah? In the birth of Jesus? In the Solstice? This week consider what you name Sacred--objects, places, teachings, spiritual practice, or person, or the stars above. What and who is Sacred to you? What is the feeling called forth in you? Let your response deepen your inner life. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://allpoetry.com/.../14880598-Winter-Solstice-by...

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhenWorld/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../All.../Light/index.html

https://hillsidesource.com/christmas-vision-2007