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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Tag Archives: eternity

Ashes

22 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in grief, Reflections

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

ashes, earth, eternity, grief, mortality, weeping

Ashes to ashes
dust to dust
take on new meaning
when the phone rings
and a cheerful voice on the other end
informs me that my wife’s ashes are ready

ready to be picked up
ready to be brought home
ready to remind me of all I have lost
ready to humble me before my own mortality
ready to make me weep at the sight of them
ready to strip me down to my core
ready to reveal the naked truth

our bodies return to earth’s body
our finished flesh is accepted back into earth’s sacred folds
we are never merely our own
we are made of star dust and earth dust
we live in eternity’s flow

ashes to ashes
dust to dust

~ Mark Lloyd Richardson

Poem by the roadside

04 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

disciplined life, eternal now, eternity, goals, God, Ground of all Being, morning prayer, mystical experience, nature, presence of God, spirituality, work

side of the roadOn the road
work beckoning
a daily duty
to be productive
to be hard at work
to be diligent in all things
to be focused on the important
to be tied to the meeting of goals
to be steadily progressing in the disciplined life

Only to be stopped in my tracks
stalled into awareness
dared to open my eyes
to the morning unfolding
in the periphery
where the land rises from the depths
in ways that mirror our own emergence
as living beings
within the large and beautiful Ground of all Being

Here the stillness refreshes
and releases me
to live
in the now

in the now of eternity

Words (c) 2015 Mark Lloyd Richardson

The Blue Edge of Time

09 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Asilomar State Park, eternity, Future, Sacred quality of life, Time

DSCN0493

Asilomar State Park, California

The Blue Edge of Time

My eyes, my heart, are often drawn to a distant line,
Where I am told the future lives, as yet unknowable,
Indiscernible, unrequited, like an artist’s blank canvas.

Always though,
I am pulled back from the blue edge of time
Through waters pulsing with life,
Over rocks the ages have sculpted,
Across fragile wind-blown dunes,
To the eternal now –
This wild and holy moment in the sun.

Words and photograph (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson

An Untroubled Heart

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

absence of fear, believe, blessed, child of God, divinity, eternity, God's grace, heart, Holy Week, humanity, peace, refuge, safety, steadfast love

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” ~ Jesus

From a Christian point of view, your heart is who you are as a child of God. It not only reflects your affections and your intentions; your heart is the core of the person you are, and are becoming, in the light of God’s grace!

Jesus speaks of having an untroubled heart even as he himself prepares to face the very troubling consequences of a world wracked by hatred, intolerance and violence.

After a lifetime of doing my feeble best to follow Jesus, I still find it difficult to get my mind around his absence of fear and worry as he stared the prospect of death in the face.

Some of my fellow Christ-followers would ease my mind by easy talk of Jesus’ divinity. Our spiritual tradition, though, always keeps Jesus’ divinity in tension with his humanity.

Jesus’ humanity is evident throughout the gospels as he wept with those who were suffering. Jesus felt compassion for all who were hungry, whether for food or justice. Jesus became angry with people who were so focused on appearing pious they had lost track of their inward spiritual compass. Jesus condemned the taken-for-granted bigotry in the world – the sexism, racism, and classism masquerading as holiness.

Jesus was a human being whose divinity was expressed through a deep and abiding communion with God, whom he addressed as “Abba,” a term of familial intimacy.

Jesus was at peace with the path of his earthly life because he knew that all of life is ultimately blessed and encircled by God’s steadfast love, now and for all eternity.

Jesus invites his followers, then and now, “Believe in God, believe also in me” (see John 14:1-7) ~ an invitation to be in relationship with the Divine. Jesus assures his followers that this act of trusting God is the way to discover a “dwelling place” with God – a place of refuge, safety, and peace!

As we approach Holy Week, and consider the meaning of Jesus’ life and death, spend a few moments recalling Jesus’ untroubled heart, and let his words of peace roll over you like streams of living water ~ “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

You are a beloved child of God. You have a place in the circle of God’s care. Your life, and all the life you see around you, is held within the abiding and steadfast love of God!

 

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson, Yosemite

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