Exhaling

Comment by Gabrielle

June 27, 2007 @ 4:35 pm

kt, your first stanza - I feel like I am right there in it. It is like the weather today, and the summer weather so often where I live - heavy, oppressive with humidity to the point where some days, you actually feel like you cannot breathe; you can barely move. Wonderful metaphor for a weighed-down soul…

Comment by C.O.

June 27, 2007 @ 11:47 pm

I’ve explored the sky first by eyes, then by binoculars, then by the seat of my pants aboard a number of aircraft. Too many years looking at sky, because that was the one uncluttered clearing. There are some days where it’s just as gorgeous and clear as in cemetery times, but maybe the ocean is sky for some. Even a few inches down, it’s all new and thrilling — and cooling — each and every time.

But yes, the thundering humidity of a weighed-down soul.. ugh. It’s like a headache in the eyes. No wings, lately, but I did happen upon a tiny, fluffy new-bird feather. I’ll take it!

Comment by Ann

June 28, 2007 @ 3:19 am

I like the openness and honesty of the poem. Isn’t it amazing how one day we see things one way, and then the very next day our eyes are opened enabling us to see things in a different light altogether. God’s ways are not our ways, and for that we must be eternally grateful. This poem has its own lifting power, and now the sky’s not falling down!

Comment by kathryntherese

June 28, 2007 @ 2:37 pm

Just like we might look at the same sky and see something different (because everything is received according to the mode of the receiver), God’s Word is always the same, but we can take something different from it. And His grace is always available, but we don’t always experience it in the same way.

And so, the brightness and expansiveness of the sky is at one moment too much to bear… and in another moment, God allows us to soar through it to Him…

Comment by C.O.

June 29, 2007 @ 11:44 am

According to the mode of the receiver..

I asked an Irish teacher about a simple mystery: how is it that tiny birds with tiny lungs and presumably tiny vocal chords can make the most immense sounds? He didn’t know, but he and his students set out to find out. What they discovered is, the sound is far more in the ear of the hearer.

Comment by kathryntherese

June 29, 2007 @ 11:47 am

Here’s a question my priest-friend asked me last night, and I’d like to hear your answers:
Does God love us all equally? Does He give to all equally?

I’ll tell you my answer after I hear yours

Comment by C.O.

June 30, 2007 @ 12:07 am

I think He loves me just as much as He loves Judas.. or Charles Manson. But maybe He has given more (grace) to me, because I know that my every breath and this world’s every turning in space depends entirely upon Him.. and I know that God is Love–beyond a shadow of a doubt. And I am one lucky girl for knowing that.

If the hairs of one’s head are numbered by the God Who loves us, then we need no scales by which to measure His love, as Jesus told Peter when he asked Him about the beloved disciple’s fate to come.

And to those (Chosen) who killed the prophets and rejected the cornerstone, Jesus quoted, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would’ve gathered…”

And as He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Comment by Just me

July 2, 2007 @ 1:37 pm

Are you summer-busy or book-busy? Both? Yes?
:-)

Comment by kathryntherese

July 2, 2007 @ 1:53 pm

Both. Family-busy.
And deep into 4 books right now (how this happened, I’m not sure):
the children’s Adoration book
a new book of poetry
a book of meditations on JPII’s Scriptural Stations (our retired bishop suggested this to me)
and a book of thoughts on Mary (my sp dir, when I shared the comment here that the blogging from May “would make a fine addition to the Marian bookshelf” replied quickly, “Well, that makes two of us, so… get writing.” Ok then.)

I appreciate your prayers here, and your patience. But because you’ve been patient, I feel obliged to post something of what I’m working on. So I will. Soon.

Comment by J.M. (Just Me)

July 3, 2007 @ 12:03 am

Never feel obliged to any human bean. Never.

Comment by JustMe

July 4, 2007 @ 12:00 pm

7 kids home-schooled, 4 books in progress, a wife, daughter, sister, friend and parishioner..

Hmm..

Are you slowing down, Lady?

Comment by kathryntherese

July 4, 2007 @ 12:48 pm

You forgot to add “Secular Carmelite,” which is what keeps me sane

My friends here will appreciate this story:
I met with our retired bishop again yesterday. He always asks what I am working on, works in progress, etc. and yesterday he did ask that. But then he wanted to know whether I had a certain time of day when I write, or a place I go, or whatever. He wanted to know what it looks like. So I told him that I have no set time or place, and I often write with kids running around or while waiting for the next load of laundry to finish. He laughed heartily and said, “Well, it doesn’t SOUND like it was written leaning against the dryer!”

Which only proves that when God wants something done, He can get it done under the strangest conditions….

Comment by JustMe

July 4, 2007 @ 1:55 pm

I came back in to add “Secular Carmelite” — *gasp! Sorry!! (Don’t anyone buy Fruit Loops — I apparently hold a monopoly on that!)

Yes, I appreciate the above perfectly. I still marvel that I was reaching into the ‘fridge for some catsup when one insight all but floored me, and yet again years ago while “policing” a cartoon (in which a large rose bush just then burst into bloom..)

Indeed, He works in mysterious ways.

Comment by Gabrielle

July 8, 2007 @ 10:27 pm

Well, you know what they say: If you want something done, ask a busy person!

I think a book on Adoration for children is a really wonderful idea, and I’m happy that you’ll be putting your Marian posts into book format too.

Your question: Does God love us all equally? Does He give to all equally? It makes me think of Jesus’ special love for John, and Mary Magdalen. Why was it such a special love, different from His love for the others? I think it has to do with their desire for union. Yes, God is Love, and all of His Love is available for everyone, but He desires to be desired, doesn’t He. The more we desire to be united with Him, the more He responds. For me, maybe the question is, does He yearn for us all equally, and I know the answer is yes, He does. He yearns for us to yearn for Him, so He can respond.

Comment by kathryntherese

July 9, 2007 @ 12:08 pm

Yes, Gabrielle! This is similar to what I said to the good padre.
I said first, I could not choose one of my children that I “love more” than the others. And God loves us all equally in that He would have given all, lived and died, for any one of us. He is always giving His entire Self to all and each. But…

But we are not all equally open to His love, and He fits us with different capabilities and talents and gifts. But His love for each is whole and entire. But our capacity and openness to that love is not equal.

Just as with some of my children I have a warmer and more “sympathetic” relationship and others seem to resist; so that some loves are easier and flow more clearly than others. But I would give whatever it took to give each child what was best for them; sometimes a hug is best, sometimes taking the car keys away is best. The children perceives one as better than the other, but they are both indications of my love for them. The love is the same. The action is different. And it depends completely on the will of the child…

Comment by CO

July 9, 2007 @ 12:52 pm

Even for grumpy children, He will bend low and wait.

Comment by kathryntherese

July 9, 2007 @ 1:02 pm

Yes - grumpy, stubborn, stupid, confused, weak, wounded, whatever.

Yes, CO, He waits. Bending low, as you said, to clarify that He is not waiting with arms crossed and tapping an Almighty Foot.

Bending low, to nudge us, whisper to us, encourage us.

Waiting for us to open ourselves to His love.