We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied into a single garment of destiny. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. It all boils down to this; that all life is interrelated.” Dr. Martin Luther King
How about getting a cup of tea and listening to the speech that changed the world and our hearts…and then join me in some prayer…
The full moon on the water from my art studio where I prayed in the early hours of this day….
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If I am honest about how I feel, I will tell you this.
I keep feeling not at home. My practice right now is to keep moving into my body – “this is my home no matter where I am”. And prayer is my practice. (with a whole bunch of painting) I am also quite devoted to the practice of rest and feeling pleasure as often as I can – including baths and walks in nature. Slow times and Sabbath. We also have an increasing prayer practice in my spiritual women’s communities, Red Madonna and Heart of Gold – 2019 has become our year of praying for one another. And actually looking for and creating spaces for healing.
The changes and the impacts our country is having and the lives it is all impacting are rippling throughout my life, the circles I serve and the I am sure yours in your own way. I am not talking about politics, I am talking about our lives, our peace, our food, our water, our relations, our systems, our structures that support others in need. Politics is part of it, but I am talking more about people and how we be in this life.
And so it is with a heavy but bright heart that I write you today making a prayer request and an invitation to tea with MLK. Now I know prayer isn’t enough alone. Yet. This is a place to begin and to lift our hearts and hands together on this full moon. I love how MLK talks about prayer and how it is native to us as human beings. (quote below)
Even if you don’t know who are praying to – perhaps you are out of contact with your understanding of Source Divine. Consider this one email of the hundreds you get, as call from the Divine…come… At times we don’t know what to call out to – so just call out…The Divine One, I feel, hears these cries from us – whether that is the sea and trees and moon that hear or the Creator – there is a loving listening all around us.
I have an incredible life, and yet I serve many who struggle, and I hear their stories. I struggle too but I have many tools and a strong network of community who stand with me. And sit with me. When I ask for healing, which I did a few days ago – the prayers flood in. I feel these prayers as true energy encoding into the matter of my body.
The stories and cries are intensely flowing at this time. So I am asking you to pray…in your way. I am not calling a global circle of prayer, I am not making an event you have to sign up for. Today I am just asking you, and whoever reads this today, to unite our hearts in prayer for change and for those who are called, to also thank Dr. Martin Luther King. We don’t need to agree on what that change is, to engage in quantum togetherness along the red thread of loving. If you pause…and tune in, you may be able to feel my prayer for you, reaching you in this moment. This prayer is true and beyond what we can imagine. That is why my letters are called Red Thread, it is a physical symbol of the invisible connection I have with those in my greater community, that’s you! Even if I have to use technology to reach you. Even if I invite you to join me for paid programs. Even if I invite you to free events. All of it is a way of reaching out to you and sharing the gifts I have with you. Today, I offer prayer. Let’s read what MLK says from a sermon.
“There can be no gainsaying of the fact that prayer is as natural to the human organism as the rising of the sun is to the cosmic order. Samuel Jolnson was once asked what the strongest argument for prayer was, and he replied, “Sir, there is no argument for prayer.”1Now Jolnson did not mean by this that prayer is irrational, far from it; he meant, rather, to stress the fact the prayer is first of all a native tendency. Prayer is indigenous to the human spirit. It represents a throbbing desire of the human heart. As [Thomas] Carlyle stated in a letter to a friend: “Prayer is and remains the native and deepest impulse of the soul of man.”2 We often try to call prayer “absurd and presumptuous.”3 But a yearning so agelong and deep-rooted cannot be slain by a couple of adjectives. Men have often tried to dismiss it by affirming that pressing rigidity of natural law makes it impossible. But such a declaration is unconvincing; for there is something deep down within us that makes us know that God works in a paradox of unpredictable newness and trustworthy faithfulness. And so even the most devout atheist will at times cry out for the God that his theory denies. Men always have prayed and men always will pray.” MLK Full Sermon Here on the misuse of prayer.
Encouragement for the journey is one of the ways I live my life of service. That is why I am writing you.
“Greetings beloved sisters of the paintbrush, I am so looking forward to our call today. Please remember to bring a piece of paper or a sketchpad and your favorite pens and pencils. We will have some time to pause and reflect as we come together to talk about the many ways we feel nurtured in this amazing community. Part of my important work in this lifetime is to take an active stance to examine structures that support oppression. Through this examination, I can then make choices on how I might disengage from systems/structures that have been harmful to me and bring healing to myself as needed. Because this work can be challenging to do alone, I am hopeful to have conversations about the process with all of you. I imagine you all have a lot to say on this topic. Our focus today is on our direction into the future as an amazing and vibrant Guild of Intentional Creativity Teachers.”
In my next emails there will be poetry and exciting news about the United Nations and our trip to New York this year.
((((Quanum hugs))))
p.s. sorry if this has some typos – I didn’t have it edited before sending – I just want to get it to you in the moment in which I am writing it which is right now.
