Speaking of Spirit

Baby Cardinal Outside My Window (c) 2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas   "The older you get, the less sleep you need."  This maxim was quoted to me in my youth by many of my elderly family and friends as an explanation of why they would be "up with the birds." Thing is, I never believed it to be true since many of them took long afternoon naps!   That being the case, I find myself up with the birds today. The sun has hardly crested North Sugarloaf Mountain, and I am wide awake wondering why. After all, at 5:45 it is still fairly dark. The birds singing didn't wake me because I can't hear them until I put in my hearing aids.  So, why am I wide awake?   Some people believe that waking early is a call from Spirit to rise and commune with the Divine.  Not sure if this is so, but I do know that when I find myself up and about in the wee hours, I usually use the time to pray, to write and to appreciate Nature.    Even in the semi-lig...

This week, as I walked down our lovely tree-lined street, I saw it...the first leaf of autumn.  Everything in me screamed, "NO!!"  I am not ready for fall, not ready for the cold to begin to seep into my days, not ready for the thoughts of blizzards, ice storms, holidays. But, as a wise person once said, "The only constant in life is change." So, no matter how unwilling I am, how unprepared, how unhappy, the season will change in its own time.   Life happens in its own time. We may try to schedule things. We turn clocks back and forth.  We may assign days to various happenings. But, in reality, what will come to pass arrives when the time is right, in spite of all our protests, manipulations or demands. Change has to happen. If a child doesn't grow, it means something is terribly wrong. If the weather stayed constant, plants would fail to grow. If seeds stayed seeds, there would be no flowers, no food. Change has to happen. Change is a blessing. Writer ...

The days are getting longer.  The sun is warming the Earth, melting the snow to provide nourishment to the new growth that lies beneath the ice quilt of winter.  Spring is Nature's long awaited wake-up call.  Spring is also the time we, humans of the Northern climates, practice various traditions of self-renewal, growth and awakening. Like Nature with its occasional Spring snows, we sometimes resist the call to become introspective. We, too, want to cover our heads with the blankets and tell the Light to go away for a bit longer.  But, in truth, the Light is always there, calling to us, shining for us.  We are the ones that chose to turn a blind eye. Staring up at the blue skies, I call out to the Creator... Bless us with Your Love and Light!  Warm our frozen hearts so that we may become instruments of Peace and vessels of Love.  Nurture us with Your Grace so that we may bloom to be the best we can.   As Spring awakens the Earth, awaken...

Before I write anything, I would like you to watch a couple of videos... So my question is  this - Is Nature trying to teach us something? Creatures that should not have any desire to connect to each other have found a way to not simply coexist, (which if you study nature at all, is not really that unusual) but be friends - enjoy each others company and protect each other from harm. Why are we suddenly seeing all this unusual, unbelievable interactions? I believe that humankind is being sent a very important, very necessary message from the Creator.  The message is not new, in fact, it can be found in every faith path in existence.  But, we just aren't hearing the meaning, even when we say the words over and over. What better way to teach than by example. Therefore, Nature has sent us examples, and most recently, many of them!  Unique and unheard of bondings by creatures diametrically opposed to each other. So, what is the lesson...the message that i...