greening

Growing Together

Spirit of Life,
Great Immensity of Love that birthed the stars
and washes through our bodies
with every beat of our hearts:

Help us know you as the greening force
that pushes tender shoots through hard pavement.
They penetrate and then grow, and grow,
prying apart the hardest places.
Lush green life reclaims ugly surfaces.

May it be so in our own lives.
May we welcome in the seeds of love.
May we encourage them to take root.
May they take hold and pry apart
any hard casings on our hearts,
anything that separates us, one from another.

Cracked open, may we all weep
with one another’s sorrow.
May we all laugh
with one another’s joy.
May we grow together, our roots intertwined,
beautiful with the life we share.

Blessed be.

Fever Rising

Spirit of Life, Source of all Love:

Our planet has a fever.
Giant storms bring floods
that inundate whole countries.
Smoke rises from the ruins
of thousands of miles of forests.
Incalculable numbers of beings
suffer much worse things
than death.

How do we bear it?

How do we bear it,
knowing that it will get worse
before it gets better
and it may never get better
at all?

Help us allow ourselves to grieve.
Help us know that our grief
arises from our love
which arises from our interdependence
with all life on Earth.

If we can allow ourselves to grieve—
if we can sob and wail
and stomp our feet;
if we can release the tears
that clog our throats—
we can recover our voices.
We can come back to life.
We can act from our love
on behalf of all life.

Spirit of Life, power of greening:
nothing is stronger than You are,
You rise in the trees,
You swim in the waters,
You fly in the air,
You crawl on the earth.
You move in our hearts as Love:
Love that is stronger than death.

In our hour of need, we pray:
Rise in us and overflow
as the tears that express our love
and clear the way for you to move
as the wisdom we need
to know how to act
and the strength we need
to do it.

Rise in us, O Spirit of Life,
and help us make all things new.

Amen. Ashe. All our relations. Blessed be.

Singing

Spirit of Life,
You who rise greening in our hearts
as well as in the vines of zucchini plants:

Now is a time of great abundance,
when fruits and vegetables of every kind
are piled in great heaps in the markets.

Queen Anne’s Lace blooms in the meadows,
the clear pools of the river beckon,
and the trees are so fragrant
we want to gulp in the delicious air.

Yet fire season has already begun
taking the homes and lives of many beings,
little children are still crying for their parents,
and many we love are sick and in pain.

Help us know that
this is the way of things here,
on this little blue planet
hurtling through the vast starry deeps:
there is always both at once.

Both ravishing beauty and terrible suffering,
both immense joy and agonizing pain,
both glorious celebration and overwhelming grief.

Help us know that whatever we are experiencing
You are with us, whatever we call You—
Love, God, Universe, or no name at all—

for You are the love that binds all wounds
dries all tears
and frees all who are captive
and You are right here in our hearts
singing.

Blessed be.

Artwork: Aditi – Goddess of the Boundless Sky by Peg Green

Easter Prayer

Spirit of Life, you who are the greening of the world:

May we know you as that force which holds
the earth among the stars
and brings the sap rising in the maples.

May we know you as the deliciousness
of the sun’s warmth
and the movement of air
on our faces in spring.

May we know you as the urgent beckoning
that draws salmon up into streams
and eagles back to their nests.

May we know you as that in us
which responds to beauty with awakening
and to suffering with compassion;
which cries out for justice
and draws us together to create it.

In this time of the renewal of life
may we have the wisdom to know
that paradise is here and now
if we will but make it so.

Blessed be.

Spring Prayer

Spirit of Life,
You who rise greening in our hearts
as well as in the blade of grass:

Now is the time of budding and of blossoming,
of blue skies and scudding white clouds,
of streams flashing silver
in the washed-clean light.
It is the time of renewal.
And so much in this world needs renewal.
Needs healing. Needs our tender care.

What dull or frail places
in our own minds and hearts
need renewing?
What tender shoots need special care?
What is just about to blossom?

Spirit of Life,
may we be open to your greening force.
May we be channels of healing love,
so that when we look upon
the beauty and the brokenness
of this scarred and abundant world,
we may serve you
in all we think,
all we say,
and all we do
today
and all the days of our lives.

Blessed be.