To but sweep the floor with love
is to be a living prayer.

-Kathy

Welcome to the Reflection for April!

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is taking hold of the land.  The days are getting warmer, the first blossoms of the year are appearing and birds are flying overhead with sticks to build their nests.

This season of spring is a time of refreshing our homes and as I walk in my neighbourhood I see people raking their lawns and preparing their gardens for a season of growth. 

On my walks, I also witness the urge for cleansing and renewal as people begin washing windows, hanging out laundry, and airing out bedding.

The season of spring invites us to open our windows once again and to allow the fresh air to blow through our homes, bringing with it fresh and enlivening energy.

As I watch others, I feel this urge for spring cleaning and renewal within me.   This feeling has had me reflecting upon how, with our intention and attention, we can turn these acts of cleansing and refreshing our homes into rituals that nourish and sustain our lives.

Our April Spirit Garden Reflection is devoted to how the mundane acts of cleaning and preparing our homes and spaces can become a doorway into gratitude, appreciation, and loving care.  I have been enjoying rich discussion about this topic with a colleague of mine, Rev. Cristina Bordes.  Cristina has generously provided a Blessing for the Home that we can each incorporate into our spring preparations of our dwelling places.

I hope you enjoy this month’s reflection and that it helps you turn the everyday, mundane tasks of your living into an opportunity to be a living prayer.

With spring blessings,
Kathy & Cristina

Blessing for the Home

As you embark on your spring cleaning this year, you are invited to take a moment to light a candle and offer this blessing to the dwelling space that shelters and keeps you.  Thanks to Rev. Cristina Bordes for sharing this blessing for the home.

Love Talk to the Universe

There is a teaching that I have come across often in my reading about eco-spirituality, and it is this:  that the earth and all of creation longs to be in relationship with us.  The earth feels our separation and misses our presence and longs for our attention. 

The simple act of paying attention to the world around us brings us into deeper relationship with the sacredness and interconnection of all life.  The act of paying attention also draws us into a place of awe and wonder that replenishes the soul.

This past year, I have been reading more about Celtic spirituality.  Tom Cowan describes a practice in the Celtic tradition that is called ‘Love Talk’.  It is a way of connecting with the beauty of the natural world and allowing ourselves to be drawn into relationship with it.  The practice is a simple, but profound one, and it involves going for a walk in nature and naming and acknowledging what you see by using a poetic style of verse. The verse goes like this,

‘Beautiful the….,
beautiful too, the…”.

As you go for your walk, you name and acknowledge what you see using this ‘love talk’.  The practice helps us open our minds, hearts and souls to the divine spark inherent in all of life.  It also lifts our spirit as we sprinkle words of praise upon the world around us.  This practice turns a walk into a rich prayer of blessing and relating.

Here is a sample of love talk from one of my walks this week:

Beautiful the budding linden tree,
beautiful too, the bird’s nest held in her branches.

Beautiful the clear blue sky,
beautiful too, the storm clouds on the horizon.

Beautiful the sound of the breeze in the trees,
beautiful too, the song of the chickadee.

Beautiful the purple petaled crocuses, 
beautiful too, the dark green cedar.

Beautiful the field of grasses,
beautiful too, the deer grazing there.

Beautiful the stones under my feet,
beautiful too, the surprising hail falling from the sky.

This practice of love talk is not about being a great poet, it is about practicing the art of connecting to the beauty and diversity of the more than human world around us.

As we celebrate and honour our generous, yet hurting earth on April 22nd, I hope you might join me in deepening your relationship with all of creation with a little ‘love talk’ each day.

With prayers and blessings for living in right relationship with Mother Earth,
Kathy

In Closing

As spring continues to blossom with new life around us, may we find ourselves taking moments to pause, appreciate and bless the beauty that is around us.  In this way, may we bring more and more of the energy of our hearts into our hurting world.

Blessings,
Kathy

Connect & Share

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