Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Deuteronomy 15:7-11; God Is Honey

A Guided Meditation/Poem in Three Parts
August 7, 2010

1. "I"

Imagine that no one is any less broken than you are. Reach down into those places within that are not yet healed. Don’t fear – we all have them. Now the trick is to breathe them together.

Close your eyes. Imagine that your breath can reach those places, can be the honey, the viscous substance that begins to bind the fractured pieces together. Loosely. We don’t want everything in there immobile. But we want to remember that the pieces of ourselves that we have tucked away, buried under layers of shame or fear, hidden beneath the bedrock of the other places in our selves, our lives, our relationships, can be healed.

Meaning, we are all mosaics. We can all be joined and smoothed in ways that make us beautiful.

2. "You"

I need three volunteers for this part. Everyone out here, I want you to close your eyes and imagine your breath flowing through you like honey. Slightly sticky, and heavy, unbelievably sweet. Take in as much honey as you can manage – it’s delicious, it’s good for you and if it’s local it’ll help with your allergies.

Volunteers, please close your eyes and slowly, begin to move, as if through honey. When I say so, everyone open your eyes, but volunteers, keep moving. Okay. Breathing in the honey, letting it coat the insides, the broken places, the jagged edges. Where you are stuck, imagine yourself lubricated. Lodged places are becoming more free. Anything that doesn’t need to be there will make its way to the surface. Let it move, let it out.

Ok. Open your eyes.

Volunteers, move through this honey we have all breathed into being. Move your bodies, look at each other, find your flow through time and space, like honey, like breath, like clouds and rain, like dancing, like crying, like thunderstorms and flowers.

This is how we meet our neighbors – with the honey in mind, the sweetness of not knowing the other.

And the stranger in our midst?

If the community can surround the stranger (within, without) and breathe the stuck places free, then what do we have to fear? Within ourselves, within our hearts, our relationships, the other is another piece of ourselves that hasn’t been coated with that honey love, hasn’t been encouraged to breathe free or move itself out, or stick to the other fragmented parts right alongside it. We can do this. God is in us, god is in you and me and them. Other is part of it. We can be the honey and the healing. We can see the flow of this all around us. You don’t have to call it god – though I will, I like the redefinition of god as honey! But if it’s more comfortable for you, call it love, call it goodness, call it peace, call it breath, call it silence in the spaces within and without. Micro and macro.

3. "Us"

All of us, stand up.

Begin to move.
Imagine you, too, are moving through honey.

Imagine every motion gilded with sticky sweetness. If you touch your neighbor, it is sweet. If they touch you, take a taste. We are all delicious! Now, as we all move about the room in this heavy sticky sweet way, imagine that we are God’s mosaic, micro within, macro all around, external, flowing, moving through space and time both internally and externally, forward and back. Taste joy. Taste the love that flows between us, beyond us, through us. Taste the love of God. We are in it, bound together in sweetness, an ever-changing kaleidoscope mosaic of goodness, sweetness and love.

Now stop.
It is Shabbat – stop.

Taste the bounty that is within and surrounding.

Bring this with you as you flow back into your life, your struggles, your community, your family.

Let the honey of God ease your way.
Let yourself heal.

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