Life's Prequel – A Photographer's Glance

Together Alone Shakespeare

Shakespeare in Love, for Romeo and Juliet,

But this is just a play.

For there is nothing more amazing in life than love, outstanding overwhelming love, that holds all of the hope and grace of the universe.

And there is nothing like hell more than the promise and betrayal, that will

For recovery is profoundly impossible, for there is nothing else that God would have one encounter, than to reach across the tragedy of family feuds.

And thereafter the power of love invites one to death, accidental and then intentional as if there were nothing else,

For there is nothing,

Nothing else,

Yet Grace.

For this life after death brings hope and joy.

But what of this life.

It is all that would be, that could be, that must be, that can be, of all that has brought us to bear in life and hope for centuries.

As love guides the hope of each day, beauty invades our eyes, our hearts, our minds, our dreams … and these will not disappoint or betray, as courts, and people, and church …

Where children play.

Alone to sit in the light, on bench upon bench anchored deep. Alone.

In the dark that cannot last, for the light will come to also these sands, and smooth across the water, and the light will reveal the depths of sin. Where will we be found, in dark or light?

Light brings beauty, golden whole. Alone and empty.

And the meal shall be shared, the Eucharist that sends free the soul lost and captive.

And there is light, also across even the darkest paths, the light that brings us life.

Through the darkest woods the light will shine, and trees white stand clear, full of hope.

And then it is just a day, a day that has light, and love, so much gained and so much lost … but for all this it is, says Shakespeare, it was all worth, what is worth to be had.

Romeo, Shakespeare: you will not age for me, Juliet, Lady Sussex: as you for me.

And what will we write?

A voyage on a wild sea … Twelfth night. All drown save one, a lady.

And so we start anew. And hope for all. That the profundity of love will be known without loss.

Small Beauty

There are times when people steal from you, with lies and deception, with manipulations and friendly smiles.

And there is little to be done to counter these grave sins,

But one not only smiles and turns the other cheek, one loves ones enemy.

And to forgive, one gives to the one who sins against you.

There is a little bit of beauty in all that.

And I have no photo to demonstrate this, but I did at 4 am wake and by 5 and sunrise stand in place to watch the sun rise, and captured this photo of a place of grace and love.

They has requested a photo without power lines or extraneous items of the neighborhood, like hay bales and machinery (we are after all rural here!)

So this was the small beauty of result.

St. Paul's Lutheran Church Rolly View — St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Rolly View

Simple Beauty

There is a simple beauty of knowing

That one is blessed

Dark or Light, all is well.

Beyond all belief

And beyond all hope.

Simple. Embrace Life without killing off others with lies.

Ducks Afloat
What will it look like to be able to be with the children and not have to worry about criminal charges based on lies and recalcitrant court processes that deliver on lies more than on truths?
Is there a peace that God offers beyond the torture delivered by God’s own people to their own?
Is there a calm, cool place of hope and productivity that gives life?

I do not know for sure but I know the children will live with joy. And the hemlock is as likely as peace and freedom, or even more so.

This is God’s world. Calmly about the day’s tasks, staying afloat, doing well.

Sometimes

There are a few times when things just click and you know it is terrific to be alive.

The rocks are terrific.

The light, the water, the colour, the barnacled rocks. It’s the beach.

And the light just glances fabulously off the water around the sand and over the rocks.

When one sees the world with lies, it is never good for oneself and for all.

When one sees the world of beauty it is always a sense of grace that prevails for oneself and others.

The Light of the World, The Light of our lives.

1 John 7-9
If we walk in the light as Jesus himself is in the light, we have communion with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our si ns and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Today, the waters of baptism flow freely in the Light, and we walk as one, accompanied by the saints of all time:
To be blessed to be a blessing to all, every last person who encounters us.

May Day Celebration

On this May Day, a festival of dance and spring, maypoles and cakes, a day of workers’ recognition and honour: Dance this day, full of hope and joy. The creation awaits your participation in its rebirth.

My Love,

On this May Day baptismal day we celebrate not only a small child’s baptism, but all baptisms, including our own: that God is a Gracious and Loving God, to have created this universe, and us with it, knowing what we would do, what God would have to do, what Jesus would suffer, what the Holy Spirit could do, and what we would do with all that to ignore all that God has done for us.

There is a wonder, in you, a miracle of reality. God created as child grown to a respected slim, silver haired elder woman, guided by grace in all you do, with a mind that flips your focused reality from short term to long term memory with concentration and focus, that lives in the world of emotions and sorts them, gives meaning to them and is able to see what others are blind to; and you use that information with grace for people to move forward in life. And your heart of compassion, kindness, grace, generosity, persistence and hope moves you and people around you into a world where God’s grace abounds. You face issues that others shrink from and give space for others to be as they will, yet insist that they hear the vision of justice that you bring, the vision of grace that you bring, the vision of understanding and compassion for all people.

In you our sons have a model for hope against hope. In you I have received my self again. In you God has made a miracle, a reflector of God’s light and music so that the dance, though by broken people shines with colours and rhythm that reveals the infinite in our limited finite reality.

And this is what it can look like, adjusting the photo for the human eyes tremendous flexibility.

Wandering

When one wanders about a foreign neighbourhood one finds all sort so possibilities.

The neighbours are enlightening.

The paths enlivening.

The fields inspiring.

The sky inviting.

Flying through Failure into Joy, Hope, and Life

There is little in life that is more precious than to see the one you love enthralled with delight at something simple; for therein one touches the self of one’s soul, the memories of the child grown, and with joy one heals many things that are not so.

With just enough wind to raise the kite, and not so much that one had no challenge to pay attention, provide tension, and bring success through intention against the wind, to give the kite cause to rise against the sky.

There the sun burst through the clouds of the day above the city skyline, giving witness to human effort to create a city and God’s good effort to create beauty at every turn, even amidst the chaos of human effort to falsify the past in order to ruin another.

In God’s world there are of necessity always things of our past that we must haul along with us, and we can complain that they are there, or realize that God leaves them attached so as to stabilize us in the present, to keep our heads up, our hearts beating, and our spirits oriented towards grace. The tails of life are not anchors of disaster, but lessons that can be the source of our wisdom.

There with light pouring through us we can truly be alive.

Or we can deny the past, pervert its memories, and shut out the light, and live a shell of God’s intention for us; we can live in darkness, fear and anxiety.

There is nothing so destructive for ourselves but to think everyone else is to blame for our failings; for then we never learn, we never grow, we never love, and we never truly live.

It is in knowing our own failings and our past, and receiving forgiveness for it all, that we learn to shine, and fly, and stay connected to those we love and those who love us.

As wise Phoebe said: once you lie, though it may seem so small, it leads you places you could not predict, places dark and destructive from which you cannot escape. Okay she didn’t quite say it that way, but she saw that truth: lies seep in quietly and suddenly grow to consume our lives. And we cannot get free of them.

Except, when the light of Christ enters our real though denied guilt, and then we see by grace the goodness we had forgotten and denied, the goodness all around us, and in people we once denigrated and rejected … and the profound goodness that God imputes to us though undeserving. And then we can live free of fear, for we are forgiven and valued and worthy … and able to stand as equals.

Equal in failures; and equally redeemed and made whole. Sinners made simultaneously Saints.

And the fun of it all, and I mean of it all, not just this evening in the park, or this week of lies and hell and hope, rather the fun of it all is like this evening;

It is the enemy’s ace, the Red Baron, which is portrayed, and which delivers the delight, and which, though in previous generations an instrument of death, is an instrument of joy.

Against the backdrop of light and darkness, or cloud and trees this red triwingeddevil thrills us.

And that childlike thrill reaches deep in the soul to heal and bring hope.

God is Good; and all will be well. We shall see the devil of the past, turn into the deliverer of joy, of life, of love, in the present and into the future.

If only the children (the child in us all) could see … the truth and be free.

Can You Hear the Sunrise and the Sunset?

Kathie,

God created a good world: the image is of a garden where all the necessities of life are available without labour: but we know labour is an essential part of life. So we need a different image.

And then we humans broke it by seeking to be like God, to know good and evil; which then brings us forever to struggle with the realities of life that are so complex no one in all of time has solved the riddle of life. But we know that it is a gift to know of good and evil, to struggle with the riddles and paradoxes of life and hope, despair and conscience, of delight and death. So we need a different image.

And then we humans received a story that Jesus came as God to be one of us both at the same time to take upon himself all the sins of the world, the results of knowing good and evil, paying the price of death for all these sins, and then conquering even death by rising to new life. It is a powerful life giving story that transforms history even before it is lived and known. But we know that the story has been twisted in so many ways until it is almost always perverted. So we need a different image.

Today, which image will be your model, your pathway through the maze of challenges and roadblocks.

Do you have a new image?

Do we …

Simply need a new and fresh re-look at the old images, a photo retouch back to the original, yet still with all the cracks so that the light not only gets in but also gets taken apart into the rainbow of life before our ears and fingers. Will our eyes hear the sunrise today, and set tonight.

Have we received the gift of forgiveness and new life, which is Christ’s gift to us.

How will you live this day?

Towards what texture will you focus your sense of smell today, to discover again, the wonder that God created the world with everything at hand that we need for life and gave us the gift of knowledge of God and Good and Evil?

Can you smell the light on the snow between the branches?

Our sons will as always receive the gift of your words and courage, knowing that the future is secured with love; love more powerful than even death.

I will walk with a spring in my step, for the gift of voice that you have helped me regain. With eyes to the a future so uncertain it ought to drive me under; yet you give me your love more powerful than death; and how can I not see the sunrise and sunset as specular gifts from God?

And you, in all your comings and goings, your calls and planning; how will you touch the infinite this day, as you dance to the music of hope?

Today let God find you, with your fingers in the snow, your eyes beyond the horizon and your heart steadfast in labour that brings life to others:

Have a spectacular day.