Reteach the spirit

It's funny how for a non-religious person I have been so drawn to readings on faith and spirituality of late. Today, I read a book called The Passion of Reverend Nash by Rachel Basch. I enjoyed the oversized Reverend immensely. Her imperfections made her so human.

I wanted to share a short poem from the book, written by Galway Kinnell, St. Francis and the Sow.

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out fro the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of the sow.


Doesn't that strike a chord? To reteach a thing its loveliness?

I think there are times when we need to remember who we are and just how lovely our being is.

That's what I wish for you today, that you remember your inner truth and take delight in your being.

Colleen