Behold!

Behold!  From before the dawn of time I have been here
waiting
for you…
I gave birth to stars that swirled away
into spiral galaxies
forming and reforming the molecules of me
into new stars
that died and were born again;
I grew larger and larger, and the stars of me
burst and joined again and again
and their partings and joinings made new elements
that danced toward each other,
and caught, and held on,
and my love made them alive.

Behold! This is all alive and dancing here together
in intricate motion:
a luminous blue-green ball whirling in space
filled with starfish and bats
and grains of sand that once were mountains
and belly-laughing babies and rivers and trains
and eagles and cats
and little buildings filled with people who love me.

Behold! From the dust of long-ago stars
I formed your ancestors
who died and returned unto me to be re-formed
into trees and rocks and soil and grass and YOU.

From air and fire and water and earth
I ripen into fruit that drops into your waiting hands.
I feed you and clothe you and shelter you
with my body,
I quench your thirst with my water,
my blood.

Behold! This is my body, grown here for you:
See, my round purple eggplants,
my many colored tomatoes,
my fuzzy rosy peaches, my little perfect grapes,
my juicy melons, my vigorous zucchini,
my beans and grains, my leafy greens,
my alluring herbs and spices.

Behold!  I have set your table with good things!
Now—this is what I want from you:

Learn to share.
Clean up your mess.
Say thank you.

Blessed be.

Love Born Anew (A Christmas Eve Prayer)

Spirit of Life and Love,
mystery beyond mystery:

On this dark winter’s night
we come to you in thanks
and in praise.

How thankful we are
to be part of the tumult of life
on a blue ball
whirling through space
amongst the burning stars.

How glad we are
for our capacity to tell stories,
for our ability to counter
the violence of a tyrant
with songs and dreams
of the birth in a stable
of new life and new hope:

parents holding a baby,
a world at peace,
and angels all around.

On this night, and every night,
help us enflesh our dream
of love born anew
into the world.

Blessed be.

The Stars

The call of the great horned owls
draws me out into darkness
where cedars bend and wave in the night wind
and the branches of  the old oak
are bare of leaves
and full of stars

Whoever knew they could glitter so?

Meteors flare through Gemini
past Sirius and into Orion
whose belt and sword and bow
hang glittering in the black night
next to Taurus who carries
the Seven Sisters
on his back

I cannot watch them long enough
so I settle my back on the hard deck
with my face to the sky
and fall up into the Milky Way

The stars glitter and pulse and flare
and I can’t help but think
there is some meaning there
and if I could just concentrate
hard enough
I could make out
what they are trying to say

something about beauty
something about glory
something about shining
just as brightly as we can

for all things die
even
the stars

the stars
the stars

 O how they glitter in the night