7.17.14 All That Is

     When we have a day like this, and on the way home from a leaping-pile-of-dogs-walk, the phrase that comes to my mind is always "Of God's own creation".

     I do remember my own upbringing, in the Unitarian church. And I too, recall raising my own children. All of our conversations, about faith and belief and prayer and the divine.
     We would sit around, and I would tell them that at different points in our lives  faith appears to us in so many different ways that we don't always label it faith. 
     And for me, God is not a man. Certainly not a white man with a robe and a beard, making decisions and listening and allowing some things and not other things. Granting parking spaces. Doling out diseases or health. For me, God is not a woman either, even though we felt that way for payback. What we know for sure is that  the Divine appears in so many ways to so many people.
    The first time I heard the phrase "All That Is", it's stirred my soul. It filled my heart. And I knew that that is what God was to me. Besides, the word God is a very helpful translation when communicating with others. About Faith. Grace. Love. Devotion.
     I once knew a person whose answering machine ended with  "Enjoy God's beautiful day". I loved that. There was a gift every time I heard it. Of course her God and mine seem pretty different to us, but that's the way  it goes. We're sitting in different places at the table, and we can have a different perspective.

     My maternal grandmother was a devout Baptist. When my first child was born, without the benefit of married parents, and not baptized, she told me, worried, that God does not bless unbaptized children.
I told her not to worry, embracing her. I told her "My God does."
     In the meantime, All That Is -  is everywhere. We would lay on the grass and look up at the clouds while my children were young, and talk about that. "Well then, what IS All That Is?"
     And we would lie there, chewing on the ends of grasses, watching enormous billowed clouds stream by overhead, and we would think about what is All That Is, to them.
     Every single thing in the universe. They loved the idea of neutrinos, minuscule unmeasurable things in the universe that pass directly through every single thing, possibly without us detecting, I don't know.
     They were taken aback by trying to imagine the endlessness of the universe.
      But I laughed, and told them that I never couldn't quite get it either. And that maybe it's one of those things, like love, that you don't think about or measure,or challenge someone to PROVE to you, but instead, just feel. Get to know. Get to trust. Grow a deep and lasting relationship with, slowly.
     To me, that is a great and unfortunate misunderstanding about God. Detecting God. Finding God. Having proof of their existence. Them 'proving' their existence to you. 
     I'm not sure why humans tie things  all up in knots this way, in lieu of simply listening carefully to themselves. 

      Honoring others as they would be honored. 
       Taking into consideration all of the vantage points that surround them, and all historical considerations, some that hold great great lasting wisdom. And then ? Simply finding their own way.

     In the meantime, many of us are lucky enough to live long enough discover this precious thing-that Faith grows when we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

     That when we cannot find our faith, during terrible terrible difficult times, we can be patient with ourselves. 
     Simply keep taking step after step, until things ease up. 
     Until the streaming sunlight through the trees lifts our spirits. 
     Until a row of breathtakingly majestic clouds moves along the horizon.

     Today I drive past my home , wet panting muddy dog by my side , further on down the road,  to see if I can catch a better view of these clouds before they moved through the neighborhood altogether. 

     And down by the Eagle Sanctuary, on their way out of town, there they are. 
     Enormous. Miles high. Glorious. 

And yeah,  they are. God 's own creation.