July/August 2020 (Vol. XXXIII, No. 7)

Dear Friends ~ Years ago, a friend made us a gift, a calligraphed beginning of a prayer attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Jardin: "Above all, trust in the slow work of God." From a central spot in our dining room, these words reached out to me often while raising a large family and working with kids. The prayer calls to me now as the heat of July and August arrives on the tails of righteous anger, fires of social unrest, and the terrible toll and world-wide anxiety surrounding Covid-19. What can we parents, grandparents, educators, pastors, ordinary humans do for our world's children?

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In the child is much knowledge

In the child is much knowledge, much wisdom. If we do not profit from it, it is only because of neglect on our part to become humble and to see the wonder of this soul and learn what the child can teach.
~ Maria Montessori in THE THEOSOPHIST
Maria Montessori The Theosophist child

Every child

"Every child is an idea of God."
~ Eberhard Arnold
Eberhard Arnold child

We feel at one with nature and the realm of dreams

As infants we enjoy an intimacy with everything around us: tiny stones, butterflies, flowers, birds, animals both stuffed and real. We live in a world of beauty and imagination. Ecstasy comes easily. We feel at one with nature and the realm of dreams...The past, the future, the present: these are meaningless to us, for we have the ability to blend them into one. We can be anything we want at any time...Then at some point in our lives, that awareness changes...adults convince us that we are not all one.
~ John Perkins in THE WORLD IS AS YOU DREAM IT
John Perkins The World Is As You Dream It child

What our Children Need Most Right Now

"I encourage you to spend as much time with your family as your time allows, whether it's dancing, playing, walking, cooking, cleaning, being silly, or just hanging out. This can be a scary time for kids, and nothing will help ease their fears and encourage their cognitive and social development like spending time with you." ...This same teacher is also emailing us [parents] a daily photo of a bird to identify...and sharing out-of-the-box ideas for the students' unit this month on an appropriate topic: survival...but the words above are the words I will treasure as a parent for a long time. They will remind me to take a break from refreshing the updated coronavirus map, checking my school email, and cursing Amazon's multitude of out-of-stock items.

Instead, I'll look my 12-year-old daughter in the eyes and ask, "How you doing, Baby Goose?" I'll accept my son's challenge to a muddy soccer game in the backyard. I'll take him by the hand and walk up our mountain one more time, grateful that during a crisis when all we have is each other, "each other" is exactly what we all need.

~ Justin Minkel, an elementary school teacher in Arkansas, "What our Children Need Most Right Now": in Education Week., March 2020
Justin Minkel child

The moment of the eternal now

If I am slavishly attached to the previous moment
Or if I'm already living
tomorrow's moments,
Then I am not free for
the moment of the eternal now
~ Macrina Wiederkehr in WALK IN A RELAXED WAY
Macrina Wiederkehr Walk In A Relaxed Way child

Patient Trust

"Patient Trust"

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin child

To live life in radical amazement

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement...get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel child

The miraculous in the common

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson in Nature, Chapter VIII, 1836
Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature, Chapter Viii, 1836 child

Something not looked for

Joy is the by-product of something not looked for.
~ Nan Merrill
Nan Merrill child

One whole unity

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.

~ Maria Montessori in TO EDUCATE THE HUMAN POTENTIAL
Maria Montessori To Educate The Human Potential child

April 2020 (Vol. XXXIII, No. 4)

Dear Friends ~ Spring has arrived in all its glory. As I walk the labyrinth at Still Point, the Friends of Silence retreat house where Nan Merrill's library lives, I'm reminded time and again that "This is Holy Ground," both secretly and brazenly transforming itself in all seasons. Winter was mild in West Virginia with crocuses up early by the front step. March brought hints of the transformation to come. Shadowed by the dark clouds of Corona Virus spreading through the world, daffodils bloomed in profusion down by the pond and at the woods' edge.

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The renaissance being celebrated

...Open my eyes to the moments of resurrection that surround me every day. There is always something rising, opening to new life, budding and blossoming, forgiving and transforming. Teach me to live awake that I may recognize the renaissance being celebrated in my midst at every moment. Make me a disciple of joy. Amen.

~ Macrina Wiederkehr in THE FLOWING GRACE OF NOW
Macrina Wiederkehr The Flowing Grace Of Now resurrection

Resurrection

Stump dead with rot, sprouts
Single moss spore, emerald green
Resurrection sings.

~ Mary Ann Welter, "Resurrection"
Mary Ann Welter resurrection

Held

We carried our grief
to the ocean's edge,
sat quiet in the sand;
the sorrow softened
as the waves washed
over them and the
brilliance of the
morning sun upon
the shimmering waters
filled our hearts
with wonder.

~ Rob Soley, "Held" from MOVING DAY
Rob Soley Moving Day resurrection

It's time to make some new threads

Women are spinners and weavers; we are the ones who spin the threads and weave them into meaning and pattern. Like silkworms, we create those threads out of our own substance, pulling the strong, fine fibers out of our own hearts and wombs. It's time to make some new threads; time to strengthen the frayed wild edges of our own being and then weave ourselves back into the fabric of our culture. Once we knew the patterns for weaving the world; we can piece them together again...we can remake the world. This is what women do. This is our work.

~ Sharon Blackie in IF WOMEN ROSE ROOTED
Sharon Blackie If Women Rose Rooted resurrection

A blessing is a form of grace

A blessing is a form of grace; it is invisible. Grace is the permanent climate of divine kindness. There are no limits to it... For one who believes in it, a blessing can signal the start of a journey of transformation. It belongs to the same realm as the inner life— its effect becomes only indirectly visible in the changed quality of one's experience. Where before gravity and deadness had prevailed, there is now a new sense of animation and lightness. Where there was grief, a new sense of presence comes alive. In the wall of blindness a window of vision opens.

~ John O'Donohue,"To Retrieve the Lost Art of Blessing," in TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US
To Bless The Space Between Us resurrection

Practice Resurrection

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute...Give your approval to all you cannot understand...Ask the questions that have no answers. Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years...Laugh. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts...Practice resurrection.

~ Wendell Berry, excerpt from "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front"
Wendell Berry resurrection

May spring come to us

May we today be touched by grace, fascinated and moved by your creation, energized by the power of new growth at work in your world.
May we move beyond viewing this life only through a frame, but touch it and be touched by it, know it and be known by it, love it and be loved by it.
May our bodies, our minds, our spirits, learn a new rhythm paced by the rhythmic pulse of the whole created order.
May spring come to us, be in us, and recreate life in us...

~ from the "Chinook Psalter" in Earth Prayers, ed. by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amido
Earth Prayers resurrection

Rise Up in the Morning

Rise up in the early morning when the sun
shines in the east.
Rise up and see the sun as she shines in the earth,
She sheds her kindness on the earth in such splendor.
...Rise, bless the morning...
Your light shall shine...brighter than the sun...
Keep this light shining in your hearts, spirits of earth.

~ by Janet Hurlow "Rise Up in the Morning" from PSALMS FROM THE HILLS OF WEST VIRGINIA with Matthew Fox
Janet Hurlow Psalms From The Hills Of West Virginia resurrection

Fred Taylor

A Voice not daunted by "You Can't do that!"
A voice lighting fires for children
Whose spark of hope
Is fast sputtering out
A voice that saw the gift in each
And opened the door to winds of change
That ignited the dormant creative possibilities in each
And gave them the vision, power and will to transform
The world.

~ Nancy Van Scoyoc, "Fred Taylor"
Nancy Van Scoyoc resurrection

In Memoriam

In Memoriam
Fred Taylor
May 23, 1932-November 23, 2019

Fred was the President of the Friends of Silence Board and a founding partner of Still Point Mountain Retreat after his retirement as Executive Director of For Love of Children, a nonprofit organization focused on the needs of at risk children in Washington, D.C.

FLOC's Outdoor program has been an active participant and steward on the Rolling Ridge Conservancy property in West Virginia. Friends of Silence is housed at Still Point and Rolling Ridge. All of us who knew and worked with Fred miss his kindness and his warm way of offering critical insight and practical training in the formation and care of organizations seeking to do good work in the world.

Both "For Love of Children" and "Friends of Silence" are accepting donations in memory of Fred.

~ by For Love of Children
resurrection Buy on Amazon

Resurrection

Stump dead with rot, sprouts
Single moss spore, emerald green
Resurrection sings.

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