because they have to be

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Some days you just have to plant petunias. On my way back to campus this afternoon I walked by the garden store and spontaneously bought these pink petunias: little reminders of my mother and little affirmations that faith is still sweet. I have been needing that lately. And anyway, it was on my list of goals to have a windowsill garden before the end of the semester . . . and now I have one.

Today I am grateful for energy, for dirt in my fingernails, and for these words:

Faith
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"Faith is in you whenever you look
At a dewdrop or a floating leaf
And know that they are because they have to be.
Even if you close your eyes and dream up things
The world will remain as it has always been
And the leaf will be carried by the waters of the river.

You have faith also when you hurt your foot
Against a sharp rock and you know
That rocks are there to hurt our feet.
See the long shadow that is cast by the tree?
We and trees throw shadows on the earth.
What has not shadow has no strength to live."

(Czeslaw Milosz)

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on prayer | 8

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"Many traditions that are enfolded within Christianity plot a sort of progression to prayer, but I’m fairly resistant to the idea of progress as prayer because I have a strong sense that every time I try to pray I know I’m incompetent. At the same time, however, anyone who is seriously committed to prayer on a daily basis will know that things do start to happen: one is being transformed, one’s whole life is being drawn like a magnetized set of iron filings in a unified direction so the bits of one’s self that one thought were completely unconnected suddenly become vibrantly connected. The greatest writers on prayer in the Christian tradition tell us that once you seriously embark on this journey, it’s like giving your life away: 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Heb. 10:31 NRSV). And we could say that there are stages of progression in this journey, but it’s never for us to say where we are."

(Sarah Coakley)
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if you just untie the sun

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I don't have much to say except that spring break in Santa Cruz with some dear friends was one of the best weeks of my life. I think Hafiz is right, that if you just untie the sun, some of — not all, as he would say — your problems will be solved.

[pictures courtesy of my holga - all crops done mistakenly] 
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