Spirit of Life, Great Immensity of Love
that birthed the stars
and washes through our bodies
with every beat of our hearts:
The desert is unusually hot this year
and there has been no rain all winter.
No wildflowers are growing.
The air is still and the silence is immense.
At first it is difficult to find anything green
unless you seek out an oasis.
There, water trickles over rocks
hummingbirds sip from flowers
and ravens poke around
in the pockets of palm trees.
But out in the deep desert
all life seems to have ebbed away.
There are boulders and sand and
the skeletons of plants
waiting for rain to come
before they venture any green.
Then—there—in the shadow of a tall rock
a chuparosa plant blooms in full glory
proclaiming that even in the harshest conditions,
life remains.
Life remains and it goes on.
Life goes on, and can even flourish
through what may feel
like the end of the world
and of hope.
Spirit of Life, you are the very essence
of resilience and tenaciousness.
Help us feel your presence
in our hearts and minds.
Help us know you as a love so vast,
so wide, and so deep,
that we can never reach its end.
Help us immerse ourselves in that love
fill ourselves with it
until we are overflowing
and we can pour it out
onto each other
and onto our burning, hurting world.
As the sweet waters of love
fall onto parched earth,
let new green life spring forth:
let justice and equality
and joy and gladness
take root and grow and flourish.
Help us be one another’s oases.
Blessed be.