Journey Center Blog

I held a hummingbird in my hand the other morning.  Iridescent green, white and black with darting eyes and wings outstretched.  When I sc00ped it up from the roadside, it was not what it looked like that impressed me as I quickly covered it with both hands so it could stress in the dark.  What impressed me was the purr or thrum of its tiny heart against my palm.  It took my breath away it was so light and utterly racing.  I held it for but moments before I set it high in the mossy crotch of an oak but I will feel the percussion of that miniscule muscle… maybe forever?  What did my heart feel like to the hummer?  It must have felt the deep, slow boom of my pulse in the arteries of my hands.  Perhaps they synchronized.  The tiny thrum the underlying foundation for a resounding BOOM… thrrrrruuuuummmm… BOOM… thrrrrrruuuummmmm.

Jesus spoke in parables.   I am reading a book about parables which says, “In any case, speaking in parables was second nature to Jesus, and it quickly became the hallmark of his teaching style.  At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark in fact- after only a handful of statements actually called parables have been recorded- the author says that Jesus used many other parables, and that he would not speak to the people without using a parable.  Clearly then, if we want to hear the actual ticking of Jesus’ mind, we can hardly do better than to study his parabolic words and acts over and over- with our minds open not only to learning but to joy.” (see title at end of post).  I want to know about the Creator and I believe that Jesus and his teachings hold the key to what we can know.  My next blogs will be thoughts of parables found in the New Testamemt and the parables that are relevant and around me everyday.  This book says that the Greek word parabole simply means, comparison.  All parables seem to be illuminating what the Kingdom of God is all about.

Joe DiStefano photo credit

The comparison of a wildly beating wild heart and the deep, resonating boom of my own.  The Creators warm, solid, safe hand holding the frightened, dusty, injured fragile creature left alongside the road with no freedom to fly.  Hmmmm, I wonder what that says about the Kingdom of God?

(Book: Kingdom, Grace, Judgement- Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parabes of Jesus by Robert Farrar Capon)

We’ve made our way through some wet and foggy weather but even in the midst of the gray blehness of it all (that’s a Snoopy term for you Peanuts followers), there are surprises awaiting us.  I walk in the vineyards every morning with two dogs.  My favorite time to be out is between 6-7a as there is still some quiet and I can imagine that the distant roar of River Rd. and Hwy. 101 is a river.  The sun rises during that hour and last week I watched the light hit the fog.  It was dense and there was condensation happening on my bangs, the air was so heavy with vapor.  Ahead of me there was an unusually bright patch of fog maybe 20′ across and 300yds. further on, another identical, glowing patch.  I lifted my eyes then and realized that the two patches were anchors to an arc that had no color, it was a “fogbow.”  The sun was behind me and the dense ground cloud was bending the light to create the arc.  I was floored and amazed!  In all of my years outdoors, I have never seen or heard of such a thing!  I stopped to take in the scene and I realized that the birds were singing  and excited.  There were two Meadowlarks trading songs with their throaty, flute-like voices, the Robins were laughing and Sparrows flitted between the rows of vines.  I thought of our Creator’s promise of no more earth-covering floods with the sign of the first rainbow and though I know the rains and fog will still permeate our late winter months, I was transported to that time of new earth emerging from the flood and life rejoicing under the arc of a bow.

It was a foggy morning on Mt.Tam

On January 23rd I led a hike on Mt. Tamalpais as part of the Encountering God in Creation outings.  I was excited as I had never been hiking there and we had a tiny window in the weather where we had 6 whole hours of no rain during a very wet spell.  The larger group had dwindled to 4 of us and I think we were all a bit stir-crazy to get out of the house and into the woods.  Being yet green to all of the hiking opportunities here in the region, I prepare for a hike by reading about it in guide books, going online, talking to local hikers for all of the trail and logistical pieces as well as collecting some cultural and natural history to share.  Then I pray to the Creator and ask what I should build into our time together as far as encountering God in our outdoor exploration.

The prayer sat without much response for about a week until the night before.  My husband and I were sitting down to dinner at sunset and as we sat for a moment of silence before eating, God said, “Shabbat has begun…”  It was Friday night and so I asked my Jewish-born partner what his family had done for the Sabbath.  Not being orthodox, they lit candles and sang the traditional prayer and on Saturday, they would rest, read, have family time and go to Temple.  I went back to our office and pulled my copy of “Everything Judaism” off the shelf that my husband had bought me when we were dating.  I loved what I read about the Sabbath being a time to remove ourselves from the mundane things of life.  I interpreted that to mean the “to-do” lists, email, chores and the normal things that lie in wait for me on Saturdays.  In a section discussing what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath by a more orthodox Jewish household, it mentioned that work could mean anything that causes one to exert energy or engage in physical labor but a more inclusive definition included works that are creative or exercise dominion over the environment.

I looked at what our day would be like, hiking 6 miles over rolling terrain in a lush, redwood forest and thought that the outing was anything but mundane over my usual Saturday tasks.  We certainly didn’t exercise any dominion over the environment but did our best to embrace that connection with our surroundings that utilized all of the senses and marveling in the rich diversity, textures, smells and sights we ingested along the way.  We held our own Shabbat ceremony over a cup of grape juice next to a burbling stream surrounded by mossy trunks and pixie-like mushrooms.  There was a sense of the dawn of creation in that primeval forest opening and the Shekinah, or the Shabbat Queen, is greeted at sunset and stays through Saturday evening was definitely surrounding us.  I felt like I should take off my hiking boots as like Moses, I was treading on Holy ground!