30. First Signs of Spring

The Awakening of Spring is a lovely time of year. Today I was in the garden in-between the incessant showers of rain and noticed the tulip bulbs I planted some weeks ago were pushing their spears into the open. It felt like a little miracle was unfolding in front of me. Particularly special, because I had been part of letting it happen.

e.e.cummings captured the moment so beautifully in his poem that begins with:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes!

With this thought in mind, I read again today the story of Mary's visit to Elizabeth. On her arrival, Elizabeth felt her baby 'leap for joy' within her as she welcomes Mary into her home. An exciting 'Spring-time' God-moment for everyone, as they celebrated the gift of hope and new life.

Recently, I came across the same Spring-time hope in the writing and poetry of the Carmelite mystic, Jessica Powers (1905-1988). Powers lived as a Discalced Carmelite for forty-seven years as 'Sister Mirian of the Holy Spirit' in the Wisconsin community of the Carmel of Mother of God. While her external world was limited to the walls of her Order, the landscape of the inner life became her spiritual sanctuary. She expressed this life powerfully and eloquently in her poetry.

Two essential ingredients of her spirituality were relationship and revelation. Both depended on the willingness and openness to seek God's presence hidden under the cloak of our humanity.

For example, in her poem, 'Garments of God', she wrote:

God sits on a chair of darkness in my soul...
here in the dark I clutch the garments of God.

I thought of the tulip bulbs I planted within the darkness of the soil some weeks ago. Or the seeds of life growing within Elizabeth and Mary – all sharing this amazing gift of life. Captured so beautifully with these engaging metaphors in Power's poem on Creature-hood:

God likes me covered with my creaturehood
and with my limits spread across His face...

The soul that wanders, Spirit led,
becomes, in His transforming shade,
the secret that she was, in God,
before the world was made.

Bulbs and Babies becoming channels of God's creative life and love for others to share and delight in – and through which we may hear the silent whispers of God's voice:

For the mercy of God speaks
to the mercy that lies dormant in the human heart...
That is God's greatest attribute.

I wonder what signs of New Life are budding within you this Spring?

 

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga 

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

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'I Thank You God', https://artandtheology.org/2016/04/27/i-thank-you-god-for-most-this-amazing-by-e-e-cummings/

The Spirituality of Jessica Powers. https://www.helpfellowship.org/OCDS%20Lessons/Lesson%2020.htm