SUNLIGHT AND SHADOWS

By now, if you have read any previous blogs, you have picked up on theme that I can't seem to shake; light and darkness!

Fall has arrived in Minnesota complete with colorful reds, bursting orange, dropping leaves and a chilly dusting of snow over everything. It's early Saturday morning and the sunlight and shadows are dancing over this new pallet of green grass, white snow and yellow, red, brown leaves. I'm waking up slowly from a night disturbed by lack of sleep. In th middle of the night I was woken by the stress of discerning my place in the world.

Recent events have caused me to wonder: Am on the right path? Has anything I done made any difference at all? Does it matter that I am here? Is all this disturbance just to open me up to the next curve in the road? Why me? Why not me?

In the middle of my sleepless tossing, I got up to drink some Easy Now tea and ran into my son. He was on a different mission...that of helping to rescue a lost dog he and some friends found in the park last night. He was busy writing a sweet note to explain why we would be finding a dog in his room when we woke up. What a sweet boy and what a sweet dog! The night was suddenly lit by the compassion and caring of my sons's heart.

So while the seasons and the canvas of my life keep changing, the sunlight and shadows continue to dance over the top of it. While I've been struggling to heal from some punches to the tender spots on my soul, I've also been finding more and more light shining in my heart. I have also been thinking about how grateful I am for all of the love and music and joy that has come to me through God's love, through the kindness of friends and blessings of strangers. God/Love really is so close that we can just reach out and touch each other or just sit and listen and the whispers of wisdom are there.Singing really does create community and bring healing. There is healing! there is peace! There is joy! There is compassion! And it does make a difference!

And do I want a life without the beauty and richness the shadows create over the gorgeous canvas of my journey? And do i want a journey with a canvas that never changes or evolves? If we truly are created in the image of God, then God loves creativity and change as much as I do. So while I fight the disturbance, I also welcome the change and creativity that will grow from it.

We are one. All of us and all of creation and all of the universe. We are one. All of the light and all of the dark, all are nothing and all are everything. There is only one reality...love, a love that runs so wide, so high and so deep that it can wrap around all that we are and all that we can be. I am grateful!

Peace to all of you sisters and brothers!

jules