Angel Hovering Round

 

While attending a meditation class on Zoom, it looked an angel wing was behind me. Our local hospice choir sings a song at the bedside of the dying, "There Are Angels Hovering 'Round." What if angels hover around us all the time?

Sometimes, i do think my guardian angel is keeping a watch out for me. Close calls and i am still alive. Unaccountable luck. One of my great good fortunes this week was to receive my first COVID vaccination because i am a hospice volunteer.

As my mother was dying, i found this hand-written poem in her purse:

Angel of God, guardian dear,

To whom God’s love entrusts me here.

Ever this day be at my side,

To lead and guard, to light and guide.

If i had a quick glimpse of my guardian angel this morning, i say, "Lead on!"

Thorn in my Thumb

While tidying up my asparagus fern, one of the tiny thorns on the stem stuck in my thumb. Such a small little prick--that caused my thumb to swell and throb for two days.

One of the Buddha's nuns wrote a poem about a thorn that is hard to see.

My thorn, indeed, has been removed! Buried in the heart, so hard to see. That grief which had overcome me — Grief for my son — has been dispelled.

When i look at any of my triggers, i find a little or big thorn of a belief driving my reaction. Sometimes those thorns are so tiny and so hard to see. Sometimes it takes weeks to find one of them.

Although the nun was talking about the death of her baby son, we might consider the thorns of not being able to visit children and grandchildren. We call it love. And a thorn is hiding in that love. Can you see it?

Faith in March

I received my first (and only?) Equinox card in the mail. Susan sends Equinox cards instead of Christmas cards. I like the idea. She included a poem by Celia Thaxter:

O March that blusters and March that blows,

what color under your footsteps glows!

Beauty you summon from winter snows,

and you are the pathway that leads to the rose.

The only color under my footsteps at the moment is white. So the beauty that March summons is a matter of faith right now and for the next several days.

When i say "faith," i mean confidence or trust. Do we have the confidence that March will indeed summon beauty? Do we trust that March is the pathway leading to the rose?

Do we have the confidence that our meditation can lead us to moments of calmness?
Do we trust that mindfulness can make a dent in our infernal inner critic?

That's all the faith we need.

Photo from pure-spirit.com