So many academic disciplines are coming together, each in their own way, to say that there’s a constant movement of loss and renewal at work in this world at every level. It seems to be the pattern of all growth and evolution. To be alive means to surrender to this inevitable flow. It’s the same pattern in every atom, in every human relationship, and in every galaxy. Indigenous peoples, Hindu gurus, Buddha, Moses, Muhammad, and Jesus all saw it clearly in human history and named it as a kind of “necessary dying.”

If this pattern is true, it has been true all the time and everywhere. Such seeing did not just start two thousand years ago. All of us have to eventually learn to let go of something smaller so something bigger can happen. But that’s not a religion—it’s highly visible truth. It is the Way Reality Works.

Yes, I am saying that the way things work and Christ are one and the same. This is not a religion to be either fervently joined or angrily rejected. It is a train ride already in motion. The tracks are visible everywhere. You can be a willing and happy traveler. Or not.  — excerpted from Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, April 26, 2019

Chosen and read by Denise P.

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There were signs of renewal everywhere throughout this beautiful garden this morning.

A few days after this walk the following words were shared with me from a dear friend.

“The grief never goes away. I have learned to live WITH it, to move BEYOND it, to be happy and productive and engaged IN SPITE of it. And some of the “best” of who I am now is BECAUSE of it. Sometimes I surprise myself.”      Lynne Kozlowski

Photos and reflection by Denise P.

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Photos by Annette P.

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Photos by Sue J.

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Storm clouds speak of loss

moss weeps in grief for those gone 

melancholy heart. 

New growth shouts in joy

Renewal, rebirth, wonder

Embrace loss transformed. 

Photos and haikus by Nancy L.