Over the Rainbow

12/24/23

From the heart, Merry Christmas.

Here is my stubborn, loving invitation to target the biggest problems together arm-in-arm, helping each other find our missing pieces along the way… and affirming one another's gifts. It goes without saying that we are not each other's enemies.

Here is what I'm watching as I wrap presents on Christmas Eve:

I know it isn't easy sticking together, but neither is tearing down empires.

Ask Jesus and Mary Magdalene and the Rabbi’s “merry” band of broken, exhausted disciples who tried to transform their followers’ spiritual fuel away from legalism into a more intimate, embodied burn with the Divine. It went sideways a few times from the very first “yes” of a young, independent mother.

The wilderness can be scary - and there's those freaky trees throwing apples.

Also, sometimes we need to oil a rusty or stuck friend. Or smack a pouncing lion on the nose and tell it to stop attacking for literal Christ’s sake.

And then there's our unique fears.

We might have to sit out for a minute or even run and jump out a window.

It happens.

Today I'm grateful for a story that has always kept me in the game when I forget how to dream, or for when I want to jump.

I believe in what is waiting over the rainbow, where we simply return to ourselves yet again - but with the certainty of connection to all who were never lost to begin with - even if we were taught the language of storms and exile.

We had “gale force winds” in the delta area of Mobile/Perdido today.

I rose early and took a walk, letting these things marinate under a gray, gusty sky. I'm not always sure what home means but sometime it feels like a person or people. And I've always known how to feel at home everywhere I go as well.

There's nothing like it. I think home is a feeling. A centeredness. If a few people share it together and have a common vision, they could overthrow empires. It's a stubborn shift in consciousness and connectedness.

For me it manifests as an addiction to forgiveness and can become what C.S. Lewis called Deep Magic. We all have the capacity to set prisoners free with this kind of love. Including ourselves.

Image Descriptions: [these are a series of photos from the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz showing on Frances’s TV next to her Christmas tree. They depict Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Lion and The Scarecrow, journeying arm and arm to see the Wizard and experiencing some fear in his intense, high-production presence. They comfort each other and support one another with great patience despite the stressful circumstances. The final picture is an image of a ruby slipper ornament hanging from Frances's Christmas tree.]