From everywhere.

The sun exploded across the horizon as the chilly dawn spreads across the field. Even here inside my winter room, readying my walk, the rose light speaks to me.

While out amongst the bare trees, the wind speaks to me.

As I encounter one neighbor, and another, they speak to me.

Your voice is all around, Lord, speaking to me. I asked for signs and direction, and if I but listen I will hear it.

❖

If every voice is yours, Lord, then so too must mine be. When I speak to my loved ones, my neighbors, my stock, I speak your words.

Let me hear you and speak you, Lord.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I better hear your voice?

Reading:

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

— Gerard Manley Hopkins

❖

“Listen, and your soul will live.”

— Walt Whitman

❖

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

— John 10:27 (KJV)

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Feast or battle?

I thought I was gearing up for battle. I was preparing to learn a lesson of love. They whom I had thought an enemy had put out a feast and we dined together.

What now am I preparing to do? I dress, I clean. In my mind I see a battle, I festival, a coronation.

❖

What if all there is to come is a day of chores and duties? A day of friendship? A day of contemplation?

Lord, let me learn to live without expectation of result. Let me be open to the lessons you will teach me, the friendship you will show me.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I live without story?

Reading:

“Expectation is the root of all heartache.”

— William Shakespeare

❖

“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.”

— William James

❖

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”

— Isaiah 55:8 (KJV)

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I was looking for signs of your will for me, crying out for a way forward.

I did not see all the signs you had already sent my way: the word from a friend, the nudge from my neighbor, the coincidences, the dreams.

❖

And still I cried out, waiting for a sign.

Was I unwilling to see? Or unable?

Lord, open my eyes, open my heart, to the signs you have already placed in my life. Let me read them.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I look for and see the signs you have already sent?

Reading:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

— Marcel Proust

❖

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

— Anaïs Nin

❖

“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

— Psalm 119:18 (KJV)

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The way to town is crisscrossed by low stone fences, stacked stones, carefully laid by ones who came well before I was here.

The way up the mountain is covered with stones that fall from the hill. When walking along the mountain way, care must be taken lest I turn an ankle. The slow pace makes it easier to appreciate the views.

A quiet spot along a slow creek reveals an artfully stacked cairn, a surprise for the wanderer.

❖

The stones are all equal. One stone no better or stronger or prettier than its neighbor.

Let me be the stone, Lord, that you might use me for your purpose.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I be one among many?

Reading:

“Each stone has a story.”

— Andy Goldsworthy

❖

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

❖

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.”

— 1 Peter 2:5 (KJV)

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