Lilly Green--Everything Changes in the Light
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
Here I Am
There have been many times in my life when I gripped tight
in desperation
to calling, gifts, and kin,
thinking that my grip could hold. And yet
most often,
there was nothing I could have done to prevent the slipping away—
no desperate enough prayer, no holy enough life, no adequate bargain, no amount of rule-keeping and promise-making.
The dark and loss crept over my youthful optimism and my faulty belief that somehow I was protected—impervious—because
I held the right creeds and made my bed in the right holy camp,
but here I am,
helpless once again, eyes open once again to my need, and
I am gripping tight
to You.
Friday, June 6, 2014
My Book of Uncommon Prayers: Here in the Middle
Time and non-time,
the common and the uncommon, spinning together,
sometimes glimpsed, but often not–
always together, spiritual and material,
intertwined.
God is calling, wanting communion;
it’s a call to communion,
to participate
in all these grace-gifts.
Heaven and earth are tangled, and here I am in the middle,
thinking I am caught only in my own will and experience, when
there is this tugging for the eternal, the mystery–for me and my affections,
and I am off trying to find myself, when
I need only find myself in You.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Perhaps the end of the story–at least my part!
Well, I just got a gift.
I went out to check on where I had the cage. I left his sock nest there just in case he came back. Then I saw him in the crook of a tree cheeping. I thought, oh, no. Now what? So I went in to get a dropperful of food.
When I got close, he went to another branch. And then a black-chinned hummer started beating on his head to drive him away from the feeder area! Argh!
He flew up in another branch, but not close enough for me to get him or protect him if the black-chinned came back . . . which, in fact, he did. But…………..so did mama!
She came swooping in and chased off the other hummer and was eyeing me, too. I wanted to see if she really was protecting him and would feed him, but she did not come close to him–just chattered in the tree close by. So I went inside and peeked through the window.
I saw her fend off the black-chinned again; and then, she went to the feeder, loaded up apparently, and went up and fed him. Yeah! Hallelujah! Then she took off and he followed in her direction.
Sigh.
Why am I crying?
Well, I guess it should be a happy ending, but why am I crying?
I took Bano outside in a birdcage we have to see if his mom would hear him and find him. He was hungry and cheeping. I thought the cage bars would hold him, though he is small. But . . .
We sat there for a while by the feeder, and he was very excited, hearing hummer sounds. But none of the several hummingbirds there even expressed curiosity about him until . . . she came in my face, closer than close.
She came several times, opening her mouth and talking to Bano. She even clung to the sides of the cage, then flew around trying to get at him. She came back several times, and I didn’t know what to do. There was no doubt this was mom.
I thought I would put him on his sock bed cupped in my hand and see if she would come to him out of the cage. When I tried to catch him in the cage, he got very excited, flitting around, and he squeezed through the bars!
He flew up where I could not reach him, clinging to the stucco wall, cheeping. I watched him, letting him know I was still here. Then he flew to a nearby tree and clung to a crook, swaying in the wind. No breezes here. I watched and prayed. He cheeped.
Finally, he flew again into the neighbor’s, out of sight, but I could still hear him cheeping. I felt sad, and there was nothing I could do.
Then mama zipped by, and over the fence. I heard her chattering to him, and the cheeping stopped for a long while.
I just finished cleaning up the mess, and I am happy-sad. I think–I hope–he will be okay, especially since I believe his mom found him. But this has been an awesome experience, and though he needs to be free, I will miss those tiny feet on my hand. :(
All Creatures Great and Small
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.
~~Cecil F. Alexander
Pajarito del Bãno
Since the bathroom is his home right now, this is what we have christened the little one. Thanks to my hubby for the correct Spanish. In French, it would have been La Petite Oiseau de la Salle de Bain, which is too long a moniker for such a little one.
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