Redbud Blossoms and Fig Trees

“Then [Jesus] told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” —Luke 13:6-9.

There is a wild redbud tree outside my office window that in the spring had beautiful pink budding flower clusters very close to the stem. The tree is in the middle of a line of wild bushes and hardwood trees. For several years I saw no new life on it. Then, one spring, when I was outside, I noticed these beautiful blossoms and wondered where they were coming from.

When I went back to my office I could not find the tree. Then I happened to look up from my desk. There they were, high above the other trees. The tree was flowering only in the canopy above my window. Lower down in my direct vision there were no blossoms. It gave me pause, and I determined to stop during the day to look up from my line of vision—to interrupt my work to glance away and take in the beauty of the blossoms.

One more lesson from my blossoming redbud tree: Very near its trunk it has divided into three parts. For years, it looked as though only one of the divisions was living and flowering. The other two large sections had no leaves or blossoms. Then, this year, I notice that at the very top of the middle division, clusters of blossoms have formed.

I am reminded of the fig tree in the Gospels. Jesus calls us to be patient and expectant. What is difficult to detect and may seem to be dead may still be very much alive and capable of producing beauty and fruit.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Charleston: Imagination and the Spirit

“The light under the door to your mind is your imagination. It is always glowing, always searching for a new idea, always alive and energetic. If you want to enlighten your spiritual life, try the one channel of contact to the Spirit that is the most direct: use your imagination. The curious, playful, unlimited vision of what you can imagine is a hint of how the Spirit thinks. It is a point of contact for us because when we open ourselves up to thinking and seeing in new ways, we are stepping into a sacred process. If you want to find the Spirit, open the door.” —Bishop Steven Charleston Daily Facebook post (3/7/2019).

Bishop Charleston affirms that using our imagination is one pathway to connecting to God. My experience is that my prayers are more meaningful if I imagine each of the people I am praying for sitting near me, or holding the hand of Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit. I am turning each of them over to our loving God, who is guarding and caring for them.

In the forgiveness prayer from Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., we imagine being with a person who has harmed us. We sit in a safe place, with God beside us, as we tell the person how he or she has hurt us; and then we hope we can say words of forgiveness. This is not a one-time prayer, but a practice we repeat over and over again in our own sacred space until we reach the place of forgiveness—with God by our side.

In Ignatian study of Scripture we imagine ourselves in the scenes of Jesus’ life when he was on earth. We join the crowd following Jesus. We may become the Samaritan woman he meets at noon. We may stand in the crowd at the foot of his cross as he is dying. We may be with the women who first discover he has risen.

In dream work we practice active imagination by conversing with people and images as they present themselves in our dream. In our imagination, these participants in the dream can tell us who they are and explain to us the parts of ourselves that they represent.

Anthony de Mello encourages us to make albums in our imagination of joyful times in our lives. Then we can come back to our album from time to time, especially in difficult times, to remember what we experienced. De Mello also believes that at the time of a past event we never appreciated its richness. Returning in our minds and actually “getting back” into the scene can bring even greater joy; and we may feel greater love than when an event first happened.

Imagination is one of our best spiritual practices.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com

Book Signing Wordsworth Books

Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Cymbals and Morning Prayer

“Praise him with clanging cymbals;

praise him with loud clashing cymbals!” —Psalm 150:5.

I frequently read Morning Prayer online from The Daily Office (dailyoffice.wordpress.com) posted by Josh Taylor in Indiana. Josh calls the site “not a website but a community” because an interactive Morning Prayer is offered during the week online and as a webcast at 7:00 and 9:00 in the mornings. There is also a video Evensong every Friday night at 9:00. Josh, who founded dailyoffice.org in 2004, is a vicar and lay commission evangelist in the Episcopal Church. I am drawn to the website because of the ease of reading Morning Prayer according to the tradition of The Book of Common Prayer; but I especially look forward to the artwork, the music, and short related discussions Josh and his staff bring to the Daily Office.

Recently Josh included some information about cymbals in worship, referencing this article in the New York Times by Lara Pellegrinelli with this photograph by Kayana Szymczak:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/arts/music/zildjian-cymbals-400-years.

For more than 400 years, an Armenian family has been manufacturing what is considered the world’s best cymbal, called Zildjian, which means in Armenian, “son of the cymbal maker.” The family first developed the cymbal for the Sultan of Turkey, but moved the business to Massachusetts just before the Armenian genocide. The cymbals are made from a carefully guarded family secret alloy of tin, copper, and silver, and the company is today led by its fourteenth generation of cymbal makers and the first female CEO, Craigne Zildjian.

We sometimes have cymbals in our resurrection Easter worship; but we more often see them used in bands and at the symphony. Interestingly, no two cymbals are exactly alike.

Today I learned about an instrument we so often see and hear, but take for granted, and one we would normally not consider interesting unless we were drummers or percussionists. I learned that this powerful instrument came alive 400 years ago when an Armenian artisan convinced a Sultan that the cymbal would be a significant instrument to mark the rhythmic cycles each morning before prayer, and every evening after prayer.

Next time I am at the symphony I will pay more attention to the cymbal player and give thanks for this Armenian family that has made a difference in so many of our lives.

The Zildjian family story is only one of so many powerful stories to be told about people who have come to this country seeking a new life, and who have enriched all our lives in ways we most often take for granted.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Contact: joannaseibert@me.com