| | All right, so i was watching a documentary on the Dixie Chicks called "Shut up and Sing" --- a phrase that since its inception has made the blood boil under my skin and rise to goose-bumps. I have felt a solidarity with them in all their trials and all their successes. I have decided they are prophets, to be revered.
You can find prophets anywhere. Another one is Audrey--born in 2000 ("The year of the Dragon!" she tells me) who sings in the children's choir at St. Luke's, and who the other adults say is "always off in space". Space? Maybe. Deep within the heart of the Creator? Definitely. We line up near a unisex bathroom labeled, "UNISEX". Audrey one Sunday realized that her perfect tiny hand could exactly cover the letters "UNI" if she held her hand just right. I laughed with everything i had in me. She asked, "Why are you laughing?" and what could i answer? I shouldn't laugh, i should tell her not to make attempts at adult humor .... this isn't a particularly good example of what a special child she is, but i enjoy finding my prophets in strange places.
Matt and i are doing daily devotions now. It's one of our new lifestyle changes so we can get into good patterns as husband and wife. We're also exercising 3 times a week (um, starting yesterday. I'm hoping we stick with it!)
but what made me remember the Dixie Chicks is what we read in our morning prayer (using the daily scriptures found in week 2 of Lent in the Book of Common Prayer)
John 4:44---"Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country."
So true. In the song "Lubbock or Leave it" Natalie sings about how hard it is to be hated in your own hometown. Buddy Holly is also from Lubbock, and Natalie sings to the huge statue of him in the airport, "I hear they hate me now just like they hated you. Maybe when I'm dead and gone I'm gonna get a statue too!"
that's how she phrases it. Being a mystic or a prophet is insanely difficult and rewarding. Sometimes the balance of "difficult and rewarding" is off. The best way i have to phrase it is that it's like, "Being in exile IN the promised land" not in exile FROM the promised land, but IN it. savvy?
Prayer isn't peaceful. Meditation especially. Prayer is when you talk, Meditation is when you Listen. Often it's when i see my pain connected with a greater pain and it brings me to tears. Often it's when i see my love connected with a greater love and it brings me to tears. Often it just brings me to tears and i cannot figure out why.
But i can see it in other people -- others whose lives have been changed by listening and not backing down once they've heard.
The Dixie Chicks
Audrey
Mother Beth
Joe Nolan(.com)
Rutendo
We are still waiting to hear back from the Bishop to find out whether or not we can get married within the Episcopal Church. Maybe the answer will be yes, maybe the answer will be no, and maybe the answer will be not yet. When thinking about this---this great big BLOCK in my plans like a huge rock in the road or like having to winch a truck out of the mud--- i realized i had no idea what this man whose signature i crave looks like. So i looked him up HERE. He looks friendly and wise, and i read a beautiful letter he wrote HERE and i see from all of this that i can put my trust in him without knowing him.
We plan to have our reception at a castle HERE, and if we cannot get married in the church, we will keep the "church date" of May 31 and have both our ceremony AND our reception at the castle. So we have a Plan A (a church ceremony followed by a castle reception), a Plan B (ceremony and reception at the castle), a date (May 31), and a whole lot of LOVE  |
| | Posted 2/19/2008 9:23 AM - 45 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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