In the Light

All my life has been a relearning to pray-a letting go of incantational magic, petition, and the vain repitition “me, Lord, me” instead watching attentively for the light that burns at the center of every star, every cell, every living creature, every human heart. (Chet Raymo)

There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. (Thomas Merton)

In the late 1980's when my children were young, I traveled on the train overnight to a conference on children and spirituality. It occurred over the first several days of November. On the evening of November 1, All Saints' Day, we were gathered in the chapel of the seminary where we were meeting. This space was built in the 1920's and featured quantities of dark oak and stained glass. Everyone received a simple wreath for their heads made of gold garland. In the candle lit chapel our head wreaths were glowing. That is the single specific recollection I have of that meeting, a room with light blazing from our heads. It mattered that we were together. The light grew because there were many of us.

What would it be like if you and I were aware of the potential light we have to radiate wherever we are? How might the world be different if we recognized similar light in one another and in all that surrounds us? Light is life and energy. It fills us with hope, protects us, and allows us to see. Our light is a gift for us to give; similarly it is an offering sent in our direction. We can become light, name light, and send forth light. We face so much that is dark, dreary, and dangerous. Bearing light together is a powerful witness to what might sustain us all.

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Miniature Promises

Nests are easy-to-spot signs of new life. I write about them with some frequency. Other indicators of an irrepressible commitment to life are more subtle. Above you see an old table covered with milkweed leaves. On these leaves are 43 viable monarch butterfly eggs and 6 larvae. A small number of us have spent the last couple of summers establishing a monarch waystation behind my house. A beautiful swirl of rich land was covered in thick black plastic much of last summer, a slow but less toxic method of killing the grass beneath. When the plastic came up, twenty-eight yards of mulch were spread to discourage future weeds, and then the first shrubs were planted. This summer soaker hoses have been buried in the mulch to get them beyond the sharp teeth of rabbits who chew on them. With all the pollinators in mind, there are now young lead plants, cone flowers, phlox, prairie drop seed, asters, liatris, little bluestem, butterfly weed, milkweed, and other native plants carefully placed in the soil. Those the rabbits have feasted on often still have stubs of growth attached to healthy roots. They are being dug up, potted, and nursed back to health for later replanting. An inventory of the yard today turned up the eggs and the larvae. One of us has a protected monarch nursery space where the eggs and larvae will reside until several stages later when they emerge from their chrysalises as adult butterflies. How glorious it will be to release them over the waystation. And today a tiny leopard frog hopped into sight. What a welcome appearance! Amphibians are the first to retreat when a habitat is unhealthy. Both the eggs and a frog are miniature promises of new life in a habitat growing richer for all of us.

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Morning Bikers

It’s not as famous as the Tour de France, but let me tell you about the Tour de Farms. Its route varies from 15 to 200 miles with intermediate distances of 35, 50, 75, 100, and 120 miles. Shorter rides are covered in a single day. Longer rides stretch over the weekend. The course covers beautiful back roads in northern Illinois. Along the way are farms, growing fields, and the rolling land often found near rivers. There isn’t a yellow shirt at stake. Instead, hundreds of riders pedal away for a world without multiple schlerosis (MS). Riders and volunteers are committed to increased public awareness of this devastating disease and to major fundraising for MS research. As one of the 100 Bike MS annual rides, the Tour de Farms raised over $1.45 million in 2014.

A family in our church has the farm which is the first rest stop for all riders on Saturday. Hours before hundreds of bikers arrive, chairs and tables are unloaded, tents set up, mounds of oranges quartered, water refill stations readied, and trail mix and energy bars laid out. The band takes its place. Farm dogs romp in the grass. There’s a box of kittens. Several sheep and a cow are there to greet the riders. An old tractor is polished up for the day. When we see the first riders streaming over the hill, the band begins to play as we line the road, with pom poms and cowbells in hand, to welcome, thank, and cheer on the riders. The band’s music and the cheer squad will continue uninterrupted for several hours until the last rider has left the farm.

So many ordinary, generous lives come together, to make a difference, to share in a struggle, to remember some by name. What a morning!

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