Love

Love

“Hatred stirs up strife,

   but love covers all offenses.”—Proverbs 10:12.

langley on a mission trip

We are all banking on this being true. I think of all my offenses, the evil I have done, the harm I have done consciously or unconsciously, and the friends and family members I have hurt. I make amends for the damage I have done, but mostly, I try to make living amends.

I hope to learn to love how my granddaughter, Langley, is doing to this young child on her mission trip. I want to hold the Christ in others closely and tell them what a treasure they are. I want to see the Christ in them. This is what spiritual friends do for each other. They affirm and stand by each other.

More often now, I am paying it forward. If I could not make amends to the person I harmed, especially if they have died, I now show the love I wish I could have given them to someone else. Paying forward is showing love to someone else who has done nothing for us, especially someone we do not know who feels loveless. Still, making amends to the exact person we harmed will always, always be the most freeing.

I try, I judge, I make mistakes, I mess up, I hurt others, I make amends; I try to show the love that has been so often unconditionally given to me, and the cycle invariably starts all over again. It is a circular path. It is the human condition. Nevertheless, I try to stay connected to this circular pathway of others who know more than I know about love, and I hope to learn from them. I can so easily see Christ in them; occasionally, they can see the Christ in me, guiding me back onto the path of love.

Today, I learn most about how to love from my grandchildren. This is one more circular path: I first learned about love from my grandparents many years ago.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Feast Day of the Annunciation

Feast Day of the Annunciation

“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her.” Luke 1:26-38

       We are in the middle of Lent, with Holy Week approaching, but last Tuesday, March 25, we took a brief break to celebrate the feast day of the annunciation to Mary that she will become a God-bearer. We hear the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, "Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you! "

john collier

What is it like to see an angel? Would we, too, be perplexed, as is Mary? Do we see angels and not recognize them?   What does Gabriel look like?/ 

Imagine that an angel appears to us as we are seated here reading this message. Is it a man or a woman, or can we tell? Is she dressed in white, blue, or pink? Does he have wings? Does he bring us a flower? Is the voice loud or soft? Is there music?/  Imagine being called by God's messenger that we are the favored one, that God is with us.                                            

"Greetings, Edie, Sam, Sally, Henry, Michael, Amanda, Linda, Mark Freida, Henry, Vickie,  favored one, the Lord is with you! God has called you to a special mission. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Nothing will be impossible with God. A new life will be born within you."/

All of creation holds its breath, awaiting our answer. What is our response?/ I am too old, too young for new life. I am a man. I cannot have something born within me. The age of miracles is over. How can something new be born in me? The place inside me is not a pure and holy dwelling for the birth of the sacred./

Gabriel's message is alive and meant for each of us this Lent, not just for the historical Mary so many years ago. It is for you and me.  

The angel Gabriel appears individually to each of us, asking if we will accept God to be born within us through the Holy Spirit. We each have that chance, daily, hourly, and especially yearly, during this Lenten season. The miracle is still taking place. The gift is offered this afternoon. We only need to be open to receive. We are all favored by our Lord, as is Mary. He is with us as he was with Mary. We are offered that same opportunity of new birth within us as she was.

My prayer for this Lent and coming Holy Week is that each of us will answer the call as Mary does, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."  May these words be daily on our lips and in our hearts as God sends his messenger to announce his arrival in each of us./ May we also keep our ears open to the voice of another angel at the empty tomb, who will soon announce that the Christ, this new life within us, has now risen from the dead.

 The birth announcement has been made and heard.

Feel new birth kicking within us.

fra angelico

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Dodie Horne: A mother's Life in Poems

A mother’s life in poems

“Communion

Eyes look down.

 Souls look up.”—Dodie Horne, Root &Plant &Bloom, Poems by Dodie Walton Horne, edited by Jennifer and Mary Horne, 2020, p. 104.

Dodie wrote poems from childhood. She died prematurely in 1994, at age fifty-nine, from a brain tumor. How ironic that a woman who dearly loved words died of cancer in the center of her body where words form. Dodie’s daughters, Mary and Jennifer, surveyed around 370 of their mother’s poems and beautifully packaged and published them as a gift to us. 

The book is divided into sections by subject, headed with lines from her poems. For example, “They Brought Me Spring” is about motherhood. “Life in Little Rock” is about younger adulthood and self-acceptance. The “Calendars and Clocks” section is about time passing and aging. “The Questing Why” concerns religion and the spirit.

Dodie was a girlfriend, soul friend, and masseur who cared for my wounded body through many physical trials. I loved visiting her in her last home deep in the woods in Ferndale, except I was never certain each time if my car would make it through the winding, rough dirt road!

I visited Dodie during her illness. I remember leaving magnolia branches in her room on our last visit in July. She never spoke. She died soon after the visit. I treasured the thought that the magnolia fragrance filled her room and helped midwife her into God’s arms. I could not hold back tears from the synchronicity of Dodie’s last writing, “REAL LIFE,” that Jennifer and Mary left in the book.

“— ‘REAL LIFE’ events are not necessarily events; this evening in July shows me that the magnolia candles have finished spreading their light and dropped to the ground, replaced by glowing lightning bugs random cool breezes. I look out on this scene and feel it with all my senses.

—And there would be, there is: writing—in itself an act of gratitude. ‘REAL LIFE’ goes on.” 1

As our large magnolia tree blossoms by our house, I always remember Dodie and what she taught me.

Dodie couldn’t hold back the words of love and gratitude she gave to so many people in her lifetime and now beyond.

1 p. 188.

Joanna Seibert  https://www.joannaseibert.com/