Comments on: Parabolic Curves

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:46:01 +0000

You’re welcome – and thanks, Jan!

The quote I shared is from ‘To Bless the Space Between Us’.

And how interesting you should mention pulling a book-as-gift off the shelf – I just did the same thing with one called ‘Night Visions’….:)

By: Jan Richardson

Jan Richardson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:20:30 +0000

Ooohhh, thanks, Carolyn! Which book is that from? And then there’s Christina Pacosz’s wonderful poem, whose title alone is a little poem in itself: “The Seed Is the Light of the Earth.” She writes, in part,

I tell you here, in this dark, this
indistinct country, comes our shaped
and fleshed evolution. That step
on the unlit path stretches us,
and those who may come after.
With each hesitant journey
we open, blazing beacon fires,
flashing lanterns from high, distant
hills. Dark surrounds us. We are
paradox. We carry our own light
and move in love through the dark,
as the seed loves the earth enclosing it.

The poem is collected in an anthology titled Looking for Home: Women Writing about Exile (edited by Deborah Keenan and Roseann Lloyd). The book is one of the loveliest gifts I’ve ever received, an impromptu offering from a long-ago friend. Your comment inspired me to pull it off the shelf again, and to remember; thank you.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:10:40 +0000

Perhaps these words, from John O Donohue have some application here as well:

‘Light cannot see inside things
That is what the dark is for:

Mending the interior,
Nurturing the draw of growth
Through places where death
In its own way turns into life.’

Thanks again Jan et al ~
Blessings all around, and amen

By: Jan Richardson

Jan Richardson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:01:30 +0000

Thanks so much for your comments, everyone! Reading your words, I find myself thinking of a quote, one that often surfaces for me as Advent approaches. It’s from a fellow named Jack Boozer, who taught at Emory University; he says, “In this strange season when we are suspended between realization and expectation, may we be found honest about the darkness, more perceptive of the light.” I think that’s one of our greatest challenges (at least it is for me)—to recognize how God works both in darkness and daylight, and to pray that I may be open to God’s presence in both places, and in the shadowy in-between spaces. Thanks again! I appreciate your company on the path.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:52:34 +0000

I love what you said about growth requiring a season of deep shadow and the absence of light for a period of time. I find myself growing more when things I am struggling with remain hidden for awhile. It’s like they need to be nurtured and worked on before they will come to the surface.

Thank you for your wonderful words of wisdom.

By: Deanna

Deanna — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:30:11 +0000

I also love reading your posts. You have a wonderful way of showing us a way to look at scripture and to carry it into our daily lives. Thank you.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:21:59 +0000

I had finished with treks down the ‘road of beginning again’; I was sure…. and yet here I am, preparing to seek anew the ‘God who startles with stunning abundance in the midst of the starkest lack’. Your verbal tableau, Jan, dovetails loudly with a previous invitation to ‘unhide myself’; I choose to dare live my way through these ‘lingering days of Ordinary Time’ and beyond with expectancy, persistence and gratitude.

So be it.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:51:06 +0000

WOW! Jan, you have a great way of seeing and articulating what makes this parable so uncomfortable. I read the planning helps on the UMC worship site just prior to yours and they concur so beautifully, defying all the decades of standard hooha for those who multiply what they were given, while the poor insecure or stubborn slave says, “No!” Thank you for the insight into what lurks within each of us and for the reminder that God is not the one who throws us into the outer darkness. Great stuff on which to reflect all week!

By: Roberta

Roberta — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:23:57 +0000

i love reading your posts….you are just so great at peeling the layers from these well worn stories as if to expose them to light after having been kept in the darkness for so very long.

we read the talents parable (is that a talent in your artwork today?) in lectio this morning and i too connected with the servant who buried his talent – i thought he paid a very high price for having spoken the truth to his master!