Day 8 The ABC's of Advent, Letter H

I may be just a little slow, but have you ever noticed that HEART and EARTH are spelled the same--just take the first letter from Heart, the H, and put it on the end, and you have Earth (kind of a 1st shall be last and last shall be 1st kind of thing)! I just noticed that, and that little think makes my heart sing! Doesn't take much, does it!

I also noticed that Heart has the words Hear, Ear, and Art it it. So, if you Hear with the Ear of your Heart, you'll make Art--can't help it. It's bound to happen! Some kind of creative act will take place--that's all it takes. Listening with the ears of your heart--makes a whole different kind of world.

That's what Henri Nouwen's little book, The Way of the Heart, is all about:

Solitude
Silence
Unceasing prayer.

Those three make for a creative life in the Spirit--ART! For me, "unceasing prayer" is "centering prayer". I practice the "act" of centering prayer, alone and in community, but I've also found that if it's practiced long enough, it becomes a way of life--we can lose it sometimes, but that centered place in the heart becomes our "home"--the place from which we live. And it's a creative way to live life.

Speaking of "home", that's my second H-word, HOME.

In Nouwen's Bread for the Journey, for December 8, he talks about the earth and the universe being included in the Great Homecoming. In this day and age, when we speak of "global warming," "climate change", "living green", "renewable resources", "pollution", etc., it's a great home to remember that the planet we call Earth, and this "space" we mark as The Universe, is included in the resurrection. How much more should our hearts be turned toward this home of ours. How much more this should this hope encourage us to co-create with that Generating Force of all life! How much more we should gratefully receive the shared responsibility of "greening" our home.

If you have ears, hear!