Monday Music: Alaskan Nights (David Schwartz)

A nice mellow tune on the clarinet by David Schwartz. This is one of the eclectic selections made for the soundtrack for the popular 1990s Northern Exposure television series.

-

Saturday Haiku: Roadways

sometimes a small road

can lead to great abundance

or a simple joy

___________________

Image: "the roadway at joy farm"
Artist: e.e. cummings
Medium: Oil on canvas



-

The Gift of Christmas

_________________________
Photo by Rachael Callahan @objectivityrach
A view from Railroad Park of Downtown Birmingham at Christmas time


-

Monday Music: Heer Jezus heeft een Hofken (Traditional Dutch Carol)

Here is a delightful traditional Dutch carol, "Heer Jezus heeft een Hofken." YouTube notes are written in Dutch. Since I don't speak Dutch, I had Google translate for me:

"Sing along with 'Lord Jesus has a courtship', performed by choir Capella during the recordings of the Netherlands Zingt in the Westerkerk of Amsterdam."

The English translation of this carol, known as "King Jesus Hath a Garden," is often sung at Christmastime. To hear the English version, go to my post at Music of the Spheres.

-

Saturday Haiku: Inner Woods

inner woods

making the pathway

uncertain

_________________________

Image: "inner woods"
Artist: e.e. cummings
Medium: Oil on canvasboard



-

Re-Visioning John the Baptist

How about a John the Baptist who looks like Fabio and preaches like Mister Rogers?

With some help from Leonardo da Vinci and Episcopal priest Penny Nash, that is the image emerging for me this week. The Rev Nash, on her blog, Penelopepiscopal, makes the connection with her post, “Fabio in the Wilderness.” Check it out here.

It was synchronicity, or perhaps “the spirit of God,” that brought this home to me to meditate upon during this Advent season. Last Sunday, during the Gospel reading from the third chapter of Luke, I heard, as if for the first time, what John the Baptist was teaching. He told the people, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." To tax collectors, he said, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers were advised, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

As the priest closed the Gospel book and turned to give the homily, I was thinking that what we heard was almost like a brief synopsis of the teachings of Jesus. Certainly it was something of a prelude to his coming, and the people responded to John’s message with hope and expectation. Some even thought that perhaps they were seeing the Messiah standing before them.

The priest reiterated in the homily that John was explaining to the people that the way to prepare for the reign of God is to start sharing what we have and to treat others fairly. Then I read Penny Nash’s homily on her blog where she bring da Vinci’s painting to the fore along with the Gospel reading to give us a new image for the forerunner of Christ. She has much more to say about it, and I recommend her post to you.

As we wait in Advent for the celebration of Christ’s first coming, there is something new for me in re-visioning John the Baptist. So my words today are not my own. They are a repeating of things heard and seen this week, and offered here so others may catch a glimpse.

_______________

Image: St. John the Baptist
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Medium; Oil on walnut wood
Courtesy of Wikipedia

-

Monday Music: Common Threads (Bobby McFerrin)

Bobby McFerrin wrote the music for Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, a 1989 documentary film that tells the story of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Much of that music appeared on his album, Medicine Man, from which this track is taken.

Enjoy the relaxing vocalizations of Bobby McFerrin.

-

Saturday Haiku: Mountains Rise

evergreens

beside the still lake

 mountains rise

_________________________

Image: "mt chocorua dawn"
Artist: e.e. cummings
Medium: Oil on canvas



-

Rediscovering the Wonder of Life

 "The silver river in the night sky" photo by "matthewwu" courtesy of Flickr

Unitarian Universalist minister, the Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein*, has beautifully encapsulated an important truth for our time from Paul Ricouer concerning what the French philosopher referred to as “the second naïveté.” On her blog, Peacebang, she states:

“In Paul Ricouer’s philosophy of second naïveté, we enter into the mystery of sacred stories not with the naïveté of one who can’t think for themselves, but by choosing to engage the poetic sensibility rather than leading with our critical, intellectual faculties.  More simply put, when we have reached the maturity of second naïveté – a kind of chosen innocence — we make a decision to abide together in wonder rather than to dismantle sacred narratives in an insistent search for rational facts.”

What is remarkable about her presentation is the story she tells from her own life to illustrate her personal journey. She tells of an encounter she had with a taxi driver in Romania, and in the telling, she sheds some light on what Ricouer was getting at. In doing so, Weinstein helps us to better appreciate those moments of encounter that may come our way. Her example shows us how we may find communion with a fellow traveler rather than separation from those who may see things a little differently. We are, after all neighbors and kin on this plane of existence.  

Dr. Weinstein shows us how a rational human being living in the 21^st century can incorporate that healthy use of “second naïveté” to appreciate the wonder of this life that we live.  

Here is how she begins her story:

Second Naivete: The Mystical Way of Faith

By Dr. Victoria Weinstein

It’s that magical, mythical time of year again. Virgin births and super novas shining directly over a little barn, angels crashing through walls to make shocking pronouncements, roly-poly men with white beards in red suits flying through the sky in a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,

“Do you hear what I hear?

Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,

Do you hear what I hear?

A song, a song high above the trees

With a voice as big as the the sea,

With a voice as big as the the sea.”

Do you hear what I hear?

Well, sometimes the answer is just “no.”  The word from researchers lately is that some of us are genetically programmed to have a rational view of life, and others are born with a gene that makes them more prone to a mystical experiences of the transcendent. I hope this will come as good news to all of us, who join in a free religious tradition that is not invested in our believing the same things, but in seeking and creating together inner peace, higher consciousness, intellectual challenge, compassionate community and spiritual depth wherever we may find it, by whatever name we may give it… (Please continue Weinstein’s story on her blog, Peacebang)

__________________

*The Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn, Massachusetts.

-

Monday Music: One More Cup of Coffee (Heger Walter Band)

Here is an amazing and beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee." This Dylan cover is by the Heger  Walter Band. I think this group takes the song to a new level! (Lead vocals, guitar: Hans Heger; guitar, vocals: Karl Heinz Walter; bass: Math Schouten, drums: Peter Joosten: keys accordeon: Wilbert Verheijen)

One more cup of coffee HEGERWALTERBAND PaludaRecords ISRC NLL280500018 from paludarecords on Vimeo.

-

Saturday Haiku: Winter Snows

snows settle

on the mountainside

quiet days

______________________________

Image: "new hampshire: winter"
Artist: e.e. cummings
Medium: Oil on cardboard



-

Peace in a Time of War

"Aleppo after the Fall" speaks to that uneasy peace, that "haphazard reprieve from war," and the attempt to find a normal life in a world that seems to be perpetually at war.

[Originally posted on June 4, 2017 as part of the "Bearing Witness to the Times" series]

Ruins near the citadel in Aleppo’s Old City. Credit Sebastián Liste/Noor Images, for The New York Times

Aleppo After the Fall

In a city so ancient

That a merchant can stand on a street corner

Where his blood ancestor may have stood

Three thousand years before,
There comes a haphazard reprieve from war.

A weary silence falls
Where streets once bustled

With sales of fabric and spice

Amid the sweet cacophony

Of exuberant traders and pilgrims.

Like a shattered plate,

The courtyard of The Great Mosque

Now lies in fragments –

The hundreds of daily footsteps

But a prayerful memory.

Children play –

When they dare come out –

In the rubble-strewn side streets

While old men try to remember

The ancient pathways.

A flute still plays in the distance;

A dancer regains her steps.

The rest of us settle

Into a strange new world

Where victory is as dangerous as defeat.

                                                                      ~ CK

“On March 7, 2006, the sun rises on Aleppo. Aleppo, along with Damascus and Sana'a, is one of the three oldest inhabited cities in human history,  added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986.” (From The Atlantic Monthly, “Aleppo Before the War"  - Photo by Khaled Al Hariri / Reuters)

-

Monday Music: Bohemian Chanukah (Six13)

Six13, the award-winning Jewish acapella group from New York, does an amazing adaptation of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (call it parody if you must) while explaining the significance of Hanukkah that even we gentiles can understand.

Hanukkah, the eight day Jewish Festival of Lights, began yesterday (Dec 2) and goes until next Monday (Dec 10).

-

Saturday Haiku: Forest Path

quiet forest path

eliciting warm tribute
to the stately trees

_______________________________________

Image: "view through a forest road"
Artist: e.e. cummings
Medium: Oil on canvasboard



-