Growing in Love this Lent

Let the video buffer completely before watching. You do so by pressing play and when it 'kicks' in, press pause. Wait patiently until the grey line scrolls solidly from left to right. Turn up your volume and sit back. The video is only 2:33 minutes long. It won't even make a dent in your bandwidth

If you are blessed to be in a committed relationship, grow also in your love and love-making this Lent. Expand your definition - and include into it, the sensual sacredness of sex. As awesome as love and love-making is, I think love is so much more than just sharing someones bed...

Purple and Green

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I love in TS Eliot's Burnt Norton, the image of leaves filled with the light and laughter of children. Eliot poems, the leaves are full of children. During this time of Lent – an ancient word whose roots run deep, like the Afrikaans word, lente. Lent also means springtime. During this time, amid all that's Purple, heavy, diminishing, disturbing, demanding, distracting or dark, I hope you find your Green. And, amid the leaves, your Eternal Child heart-heavy with a handful of dreams.

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In Hindu culture, the colour green is the colour of the heart

Break Your Fast 7

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If you are fasting and - out of hospitality, someone offers you some tea or a biscuit or something. Take it and eat. Drink from that cup. There's such holiness in hospitality - such a Eucharist! Containing in itself one of the deepest, holiest and humbling communions in an act that is full of genuine kindness and care. Surely priest's hands are not the only hands that bless?

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Break your fast! I find its better to break it for kindness sake than to keep it for a holier-than thou or even for a hard-on-yourself, self-righteous, self-centred, self-disciplined sake. Its like sitting on a hard, hard pew convinced that that is the only way to get you into heaven. Fasting (like all good spiritual practices) is so much more than just what you can do, accomplish or complete - it must also leave room for what can be done for you and to you.

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So, the Breaking of our Fast, ironically, can cut or break us down to size, there where we need it most. At its best, this break bears in its heart, the gift to actually deepen our fast. For you see, it returns us to why we are doing these good and holy things - disciplines in the first place. Its like a kind, kind klup in die gesig (smack in the face).

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This Breaking of your Fast - for kindness and goodness sake - displaces the egoSelf from the proud stool on which we - with it - are sometimes perched. Landing with its bum on the floor, our more Expansive, Soft and soulfulSelf must now be kind to our egoSelf (who bruises so very easily). Then, from your more Expansive Self, say to your egoSelf, like you would to a crying or moody child on the cold kitchen floor. Say, "There, there. Let me help you onto your feet again. Let me dust you off, gently". And together let your Fast reengage, having been touched by the softness of an Inner Sage.

Lent and Lips

This Lent, wet and water the gate of your mouth, so that whatever comes out, does so with ease and care. Other times, simply shut close the gate and let Silence mime and miracle its way through. Lick your words with kindness, as you do your lips. Offer them to others as you would the gentlest of kiss

Practice Kindness Today 6

We are halfway through Lent. Continue to deepen the journey, soften the soil, sing and soar the soul.

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In your fasting, discipline and practice - or whatever you are doing to make this time more meaningful, put oil on your head. Perhaps this means physically and or metaphorically. But strive to do what the Spirit of the Christ was pointing to. Don't pull an unsightly face. In other words, perhaps this means that your practice should attract others and not exclude them. I find that a good Practice will always take you into and out of yourself.

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In your practice, celebrate and show the Sacred sheltering in the temple of your body. Soften the look of your eyes; wet and water the gate of your mouth so that whatever comes out, does so with care and ease. Or sometimes, simply shut close the gate of your mouth and let silence mime and miracle its way through. Lick your words (as your lick your lips) with kindness and consideration, and offer them to others as you would the gentlest of kiss. Let the touch of your fingertips be what they are meant to be - a soulful encounter (some ancient societies believed that the soul oozed out of our fingertips).

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In your practice (as in life), strive not to be bitchy or boring but beautiful - and don't reduce your inner and outer goodness to simple cosmetic glamour! Grow and groom yourSelf - oil the hinges of all the selfless, unopened doors - of selfless dreams wanting to be roused. Pour oil on all that is sore, knotted or stuck. Scent yourSelf. Smell good about you and other Selves this Lent - this springtime. Bud, blossom and bloom as never before.

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If you've not started any practice, you can start one right now by being kind and gentle and forgiving towards yourself. And then, like a good practice - consciously extend these qualities (like loving arms) to others, to animals and insects, to things material - and immaterial (like your thoughts, your dreams, your hopes, your hurts). Extend these qualities to the environment as well.

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As you walk softly upon the soil of your soul, do the same upon the earth. It always amazes me that the same mysterious energy that animates us, animates a miggie (the tiniest, tiniest flying bug). We are so related! God's got such a wicked sense of humour. Smile and laugh out loud this Lent as never before.

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Another way to start a Practice right here and now is to relax: Breathe deeply. Sink into the settee of your soul, fall into the gladness of God and, whenever you are ready, say and pray Here I am, Lord. Come, sit beside me. Sit within me. You may want to repeat this invitation quietly, several times, in the language of your dreams. Here I am, Lord... Then stay in the sacred Hereness for 2 - 5 minutes. You can turn this into a Practice by doing so at least once or twice a day. Everything must start (somew)here. All you ever need is rooted within.

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Take your Practice into your everyday world. The kindness you've shown to yourSelf, show this sacredness to others too. Invite them to sit with you on the settee at the heart of your soul. For a settee - a sofa - a couch always, always has room for more than one! Sit beside me you must say (again and again). Say this, like a mantra, with and without words - through the tone and touch, the silence and soul-shine of your whole life - and let their Story sit and settle more deeply within you. You may also want to share with them, a cup of tea.

All Knotted Up? 5

Before Starting Your Practice

If you find it hard to relax, hard to be just here, hard to be in your body, hard to settle with a cup of tea into the settee of your soul, try some of these techniques. They may or may not work for you. But please use what you find helpful, ditch what you don't.

Stretch or be physically active

Gym or jog or something

Engage the gift of your body - sow into it seeds of subtly - stretching is good. Tai Chi is wonderful for all ages

Breathe deeply and purposefully

drop your shoulders - they're not meant to be

all bunched up around your ears

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Relax your jaw

unclench your teeth - you're not about to attack but to soulfully attend. Rest your tongue gently against the inside of your bottom set of teeth or up against the roof of your palate

Relax your face, neck
and shoulder muscles
Relax these muscles by deliberately tensing them

and then feeling the difference afterwards as you release them again. Even making a fist and then releasing again - stiffening your whole bodySelf and then relaxing can clear and ease you into the softness of soul.

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Let the God of gravity seduce you. Sink (not slump) into the chair or meditation cushion or stool or the floor on which you are sitting to do your spiritual practice.

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Being altogether here can be really hard, but it is within the reach of your heart. Breathe deeply. In one day, I'm told, you have approximately 21 600 times to catch the wave of your breath. Breathe naturally but purposefully in and out and pray Here I Am, Lord.

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When you become distracted - be kind not cruel or overly critical of yourSelf. Refocus on your breathe - refocus on your simple mantra - that repetitive prayer and pray Here I Am, Lord.

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Start small with your practice - give yourself 3-5 minutes (from this, something really deep and cool will grow) but you're going to have to keep at it - and show up on the landscape of your practice and prayer regularly. If you love something (or someone) you will show up for it, for them - for yourSelf.

An Invitation

In Africa, we dance - dance because hearts are human, humming and happy. We dance when our hearts are bleeding, heavy, hacked or broken. With Sydney Carter's Lord of the Dance, we'll even dance with the devil on our backs. This short 47-second video uses a poem by Hafiz, the 14th century Persian poet. May it bless and help you on your Journey.

In your budding, blossoming and blooming this Lent, be as radical as a root and don't forget to grow (not just up) but grow down a little or a long way, following the example of children and the Gardener who lived close to the ground. Also, don't forget to take up God's Invitation summed up in four words (watch the video and see).

Here I Am, Lord

It takes courage to be completely here

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There are many places we love to live in -

two of which is in the shadow or security of the past,

and in anticipation or anxiety of a tomorrow or just now still to come.

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But in the ancient prayer: Here I am, Lord
we are expressing a powerful desire to

be nowhere else but here,

Here in the sacred, present moment -

possibly the only moment we ever truly have!

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It is from this here moment

that we are able to unfold and take the next courageous step

God the Gardener

I love that in this story of the fig tree that bears no fruit for three whole years, the gardener (who seems to represent God) is the one who says to the owner (representing a part of ourselves), "Sir, let it alone for one more year" (see Luke 13: 6-9).

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In this story, God calls us "Sir" or "Madam" a cultural sign of respect - respect for us! More so, in this story (as in the person of Jesus), God takes on an amazing humility (humus) - an earthiness - an attribute, a face - an image of GodSelf that is often sadly lost - especially in church pomp, fanfare and festivals (buried perhaps beneath birettas, lost in the sleeves of surplices, caught up in the lace of some cotta).

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But in this story, God the Gardener lives close to the ground. In apartheid South Africa, God would have been "the Boy" - a term many coloured and white families would use to refer to a mature black man working in their gardens. But wouldn't it be cool if we celebrated from time to time, the Feast of God the Gardener or the Feast of the Christ who Fell (more than once)?

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In this story God is the patient, risk-taking one - but more so, God is the one willing to get God's hands manure dirty for something - or someone - or some situation bearing very little promise.

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Wouldn't it be cool if we also celebrated the Feast of God who Gets God's Hands Dirty (for us)?

Human 4

Human

Humanity

humility

Humour

humus

Latin root - ground, earth

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To be here is immense - Ranier Maria Rilke

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Inhabit your Body-Mind-Spirit-Self-Shadow-Soul completely

Be the Blessing You truly Are

Courage to Bloom 3

To bud, blossom, burst forth, break open and bloom; to come into your own - to inhabit your bodySelf more rootedly and robustly takes enormous courage. Courage derived from Coeur – the French word meaning heart.

The prayer below encourages a return to this Inner Heart. The prayer is framed by an old, more ancient Hebraic one, Here I am, Lord. This prayer could be used on its own as a centring mantra.

Here I am, Lord

Let my heart be
what it is meant to be,
a place of courage.

Courage that is not hard –
but supple and flexible

Courage that is not immovable –
but beating and able to blossom and bleed

Courage that takes in, holds on
and is able to let go

Let my heart be what it is meant to be –
a place of courage

Here I am, Lord

Bud Blossom Bloom 2

This short video meditation talks about the meaning of Lent. It suggests a serious and sacred return to an ancient intuition that our bodies are Temples sheltering something incredibly sacred. The video ends with a short reminder of who we are in the most expansive scheme of things. It uses the soundtrack, A broken heart, from the movie Ladies in Lavender. I think its appropriate because often a broken heart - at its best - is also an open heart.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition there is also this sturdy conviction mouthed through the poetry of the Psalms that God is very close to those whose hearts are broken - God is like medicine to those whose spirits are crushed (see Psalm 34:18)

The Word Lent 1

The word Lent is rooted in an ancient word. Like the Afrikaans word, lente, Lent also means springtime. So far from it being just a time of gloom and doom – Lent, perhaps more than ever, is a time to Bud, Blossom, Burst Forth, Break Open and Bloom!

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It is so interesting to note that Jesus never wanted his disciples to pull unsightly faces when they fasted – but he wanted them to groom themselves – to put oil on their heads – to shine and show the sacred in more refreshing ways (see Matthew 6:16-18).