Oddly enough, sometimes our social media, although created with the aim of connecting people, can cause us to feel more isolated than ever. We know how people in the most remote areas of the world are suffering and yet we do not know what is happening to our next-door neighbor.
But it is not just about news. It is also about our feelings. So much of the news makes us feel small, helpless and sad. When you start to feel small and useless, it is good to tune in to a big picture. One solution is to listen to music. We each have a favorite piece that brings that feeling of balance to us, maybe even a smile. However, there are other options – other things we can tune into.
Joyce Rupp wrote a poem called “Star-Breath” which I find refreshing:
I lie awake on summer’s greening grass
soon to be soft with evening’s dew
I lie expectantly, silently,
waiting for a presence to breathe upon me.
With the first sigh of the evening star
my heart responds to a distant touch,
a wisp of recognition, a waft of joy.
Life-giving breath of the galaxies
sails through the heavens
into my grasping, yearning spirit,
uniting me in the morrow of my soul.
Star-breath washes over me
like god-breath
filling the soul of a new creation,
awakening my soul’s withered bones,
lifting them into lightness and dance.
I open my small, isolated self to the stars
and am once again healed of my disparity,
the falsehood of a separate identity.
Infusing star-breath fills my soul
with eternal oneness.
My being absorbs the star’s sighing,
and I enter into the easy sleep
of endless communion.
At this Easter/Passover time, my wish for you is a connection to those you love; inhaling the smell of spring; seeing the first crocus coming up; a rejuvenation of your spirit; the crossing of the Red Sea (whatever that may be in your life); and a “star-breath.”
–Rev. Ed
