Context… today. Especially!

Sleep came hard last night, which is a story for another day fast approaching.

Eventually I made it to my chair (aka Grammy’s throne!) with my cup of hot water and lemon, as is my habit.

The first job was, as it generally is, sorting dreams from calendar issues.

I was helped along by a question from my magical friend known to most of us as SARK. It began with a statement:

Sundays are about filling your cup so you can love others with the overflow.

Then, the punchline… (Susan’s as fond of questions as I am!)

How are you filling your cup today?

I’m curious, too… what would you say???

My response went a lot like this:

Joan Baez. Shiloh Sophia. Paint.

Now, realistically, my response is a whole lot like that on as many days as I can manage! (And I really don’t think we can over-do the filling our cups and loving others with the overflow bit.)

This, however, is not every day in my world. You see, if you happen to have spent a bunch of years as a preacher-type, as I have, THIS is the day we remember Dr. King – federal holidays, aside.

I also suspect that it’s a day which has gotten more than a few of us in trouble with the Things We Don’t Discuss crowd.

Note: sermons or posts or paintings with titles along the lines of Isaiah and Martin and Gary may not play where you hang out – especially if you suggest boycotting KKK marches – though those creations matter, anyway!

Which is, in some senses, one of the things we were talking about in Shiloh Sophia’s gathering around the Wheel of the Year…Celestial Cycles and Natural Rhythms.

You see, both of these calendar issues have a whole lot to do with language and power and who gets to decide who gets to decide. (Also re-wilding gardens!)

Realistically, they also have to do with something pretty close to throwing the baby out with the bath water! Which is to say, categorically discarding a whole lot of useful, empowering stuff because it grew out of contexts from which we haven’t yet finished learning.

Now, if you’re still reading, please add in or substitute whatever examples work for you.

Here’s something pretty close to the bottom line for me.

We ALL matter. The world we call home matters. Relationships grounded in justice matter. Our intentions matter. And, we are able to choose!

So, out of all of this, in the context of all my world… some overflowing love for you.

The Matrica Bear, in the photo above, says she’s done, for now. With the paint part. (Even though the rest of the painting still needs some help!) It’s time for her to sleep in the fertile darkness, as the Celtic myths go, so that she can emerge in Spring, into the clear light of knowing. May it be so for each of us who are willing.

And, then, Joan…

I know. We’ve done this not to long ago, but she once sang this song for Dr. King and has now graciously agreed to sing it for us!

May whatever touches you here, overflow with love for yourself and others.

And, if you live in the part of the world where the light is now and the darkness is still to come… well, I trust you to knead this into what nurtures you, just as you are!

ps… somedays it takes a tribe to make a blog post and this is one of those! Huge thanks, Joan, Dina, Susan, Shiloh, Jonathan, Lavender Grace and Trish! (Also, Isaiah and Martin and Gary!)

pps… if you haven’t clicked the admittedly annoying pop-up thing to join my mailing list yet, I really hope you will! There’s lots of cool new stuff coming and I don’t want you to miss out! (After you click the first right thing, the elves will send you another right thing to click, too… it matters!) And, just in case you joined a while back and haven’t been getting these posts, I’m hoping you’ll give it another try. The “other” elves still need a bit of training!