Recordings

Hope to develop a conversation, Support each other and ourselves to the dynamic of the process, and let go of what gets in the way: blame, analyzing, stories, old ideas, 'shoulds.' 

Becoming aware of our need for healing, our willingness to be healed. Looking for the place within ourselves where we experience hope. We are members, creatures of a Dance; the Dance moves toward wholeness and the ripple effect of our willingness to become whole. Letting go of judgment and prejudices allows us to participate in the larger system and its movement toward wholeness.

Choosing away from outer distractions, to where we are nourished and held. Where we are most truly comfortable, available to that which draws us toward our purpose.  Doing something, no matter how small, opens to hope and presence.

Willingness to be transformed toward our purpose. Surrender to the process, not make it happen. Be willing to be formed and willing to participate.

Living Mosaic is Why; Spark of Humanity practice can be How—Zoom guest Danielle reports on three situations shifting when the mutual humanity was silently affirmed.  Claiming out sparks, we are more readily drawn to our role in the Mosaic.In preparation, we pray:

Please help us see the breadth of your presence in the world through the mosaic of the many lives we judge to be beautiful and through the lives of those we deem difficult yet whose humanity is not less than our own.

Please let us see in all human beings the opportunity to grow in compassion and love and to become the children that you see when you turn your loving gaze our way.

And please help us to seek you in the ever-present spirit of your love and find in others the seeds of our compassion, the field in which your love might grow, and the hope borne of joining in the space where “us” and “them” comingle in your spirit.

Amen.

Neuro-divergence. Difficulties with Mosaic; options of Dance and Body. Small steps open us to the ongoing process, letting go of the need to understand to have our questions answered, and choosing to participate.  In preparation, we consider and pray:

Obedient to our desire to be instruments of peace, we tune to Life’s song.

We harken to Life surrounding us and to its presence within our hearts.

We seek through ourselves the path that joins with others, 

And, following that path, we discover our truest selves.

As we join in the Dance that is Life, Love, and Truth,

We bring peace into the world,

Through our own true peace.

Offering up something we value for the greater good. Sacrificing the stories we tell ourselves and becoming aware of these stories. The process is alive, and we are part of it. Letting go of what we need to let go of in order to participate fully. We are never alone. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

We awaken to the possibility

of our joining the grace that can heal the Earth.

We know support in the constant miracle of those who have sacrificed

that the mosaic may live and be whole.        

We offer up as sacrifice;

all that impedes our joining.

We listen for the song that tunes all creation to sing us into the whole…

In this episode, we discuss how troubles, if met and encountered with a constructive attitude, can be instruments of one's formation.

Prone to running from my troubles,

I now choose to seek a higher purpose in the challenges life sends me.

Inclined to see conflict as the force that keeps me from my home,

I now choose instead to see the hands of the skilled craftsman,

Paring down my clinging to the stuff

that keeps me from my place in the mosaic.

Construction of bafflement, distortions, and defenses.  We are safe: our Sparks, our essential selves, are safe. How do we support others in knowing that they are essentially safe? Defenses invite attack.  Safety is a dance, not a place. An orientation toward True. Find our place of safety and comfort within ourselves and visit it regularly. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Gently pushing back the comfort gained from ordinary pleasures, sanctuaries, dreams…

We open up our hearts to the reality of their impermanence.

Into our open hearts, may that which will endure,

Enter in, bring love, hope, and lasting refuge.

May we abide in peace, within the everlasting truth.

willingness to change our perception, letting go of old ideas, willing to be changed and transformed by what is offered.  Engage in what comes toward us in order to be formed for our place, trusting we are being brought to the truth of us. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Through this life some call a vale of tears,

We walk, grateful of the patient abiding of our teachers,

guides and beliefs that unite us.

May our journey be made joyous through the deepening

Of our union with each other, and with the divine.

May we be inspired to endure the harshness as we celebrate the joys

Of discovering our position in the vastness of the dance

That seeks to heal and strengthen all beings in a love beyond our comprehension.

A medium? A mystery? Alive? How to develop a respectful relationship.  Chronos and Kairos.  Letting go of fixation on Chronos to become sensitive to Kairos.  We'll know when we need to know. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

The swimmer cannot grasp at water that lifts, challenges, and moves her.

The runner cannot cling to the earth beneath his feet.

The singer’s song is borne of tone’s sweet flow

through measured time.

Our place within the whole is ever-changing.

Our place within the whole… is ever-changing… 

In this episode, we explore we’ll explore the topic of “Shame” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Obscuring light, devouring time, denying truth…

Confusion breeding doubt, then blame,

believes itself to be Protector.

This false humility clouds pleasures, blocks our hope,

   Confounds us with its dark persistence.

We open out our doors, revealing inner sparks,

   We trust in something new,

regenerating life.

Choices of how to respond when we feel we have messed up, or someone else has messed up. Expectations broken apart. Refusing shame or blame.  Creative potential. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Babies cannot learn to walk without falling.

Fledging birds fall flapping to the ground before lifting themselves up.

Creating beauty and new ways of being in the world

requires willingness to fall…

And rise again without a loss of faith.

We flap, we tumble, stumble on the path

To an ever-freer spirit.

In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of “Adaptation” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Embedded in desire for Hope

We face resistance,

born of seeking refuge in the very thing

we need to change…

 May we lift our eyes toward another way,

a path transformed by adaptation

changing that which cannot stay

if Hope will bloom in transformation.

In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of “Hope” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Lifting, gliding, drifting ever higher

we reach for you, not knowing if we’ll fall

Suspecting light above the clouds we reach,

expecting to collapse, we climb.

Foolishly we dance,

expecting Hope to hold our hands

In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of “Receiving” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Opening our hearts to give,

we accept the hearts of others.

Opening our hearts to gather,

           we yield the gift of generosity.

Response to open hearts

lessons taught,

not seen but heard.

We yearn toward the gentle light.

Allowing that today,

We’ll receive the things we need

if not what we desire.

Shifting our focus, everything that comes to us in our lives may be seen as an invitation to press more intentionally into the truth of us, the truth which is our place in the Mosaic, our figure in the Dance.  When we claim our Sparks we become “agents of transformation,” becoming part of the solution as we are willing to be transformed.  In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Broken hearts are opened,

seeking love when none is found.

Troubled minds imagine

calmness, peace on hallowed ground.

We stumble down a troubled path

invited to rejoice,

Resilient in each other

   learning our own voice.

In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of “Asking” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Ask and you will receive", a man said.

Another man said "You ask and you do not receive because you do not ask rightly"

What's rightly?

Where are our hearts, and our guts?

How do we find our way?

Together.

In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of “Small” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Too large to carry on our backs

These likenesses of mountains,

songs we cannot sing,

journeys that our legs can’t make.

How do we paint the face of endless space

with each of us a pixel,

mote of dust,

a spattered drop of paint?

In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of “Awareness” in relation to the Living Mosaic and Spark of Humanity practice. In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Opening

Eyes, minds, ourselves

Being,

Becoming,

Asking and answering…

Please let us see, think,

Inhabit, inhabit…

Speak and listen.

Please awaken us and let us rest.

Let us yield.

Please open all we think we are.

Please allow our aching hearts to heal…

Evolution happens. Choice of response. Cable cars, attaching to the cable that draws to our place.  We are all in this together. Long view: hope because we are not in charge,  In anticipation, we contemplate and pray:

Opening

This will wither,

That will die.

All things change, grow, decline.

Releasing our delusions that all and we will last,

We choose Hope to live through us,

 releasing love that might still be.