The Orchard in Hibernation Mode

Much has happened in our lives since the last post.

For all who come to read here, please know this website will stay active and we may continue to post from time to time, but The Orchard Community itself is no longer meeting. Our gatherings were always in fits and starts, small groups of 2-5 people for brief seasons that never lasted long.

And while "that's all it ever was" makes it sound like there was 'failure' involved, since it didn't grow and  become what we thought it should, what we hoped it could, what we dreamed it would -- nothing could be further from the truth.

God met us and sustained us, and still is. We are different people now, in more dependent relation to God than ever before, even if our paths are diverged from what we once saw.

And we trust that God will continue to uphold us as we walk into the future. But for now, The Orchard is in hibernation for however long this beautiful but uncertain winter wilderness lasts

For now, here is a parting thought to remind us all:

The Powerful Reason Why We All Have To Keep Getting Out of Bed -- That Changes a Broken World

Go read the full post -- you'll be glad you did. And here's an excerpt to whet your appetite...

Nothing is more necessary than finding God and falling in love and deeper into Him. 

Love decides. 

Love decides everything.  

What you are in love with decides what you live for.
What you are in love with decides what decides what you get out of bed for. 

Fall in love with the Hands that shaped your heart, that cup your face, that trace your scars, that caress you with grace. Fall in love with His face in a thousand faces, in the baby that meets you at the crib rail and the teenager that doesn’t want to budge and man that find that never fails to put feet to the floor and find his Levis and the back door to brave the world for Love. 

Fall in love with the One who fills your lungs with this breath and all these people and this sky and all this light, all this glorious light. 

You have to fall in love because this will get you up and keep you going every day. Because —- Love decides. 

Go fall in love with grace and mercy and the only One who has ever loved you to death and back to the realest life —- because the world is begging us all to get out of bed and sacrifice for someone hurting, for someone different, for someone forgotten or marginalized, to hold the hand of someone who doesn’t look like us, to lean in and listen to someone angry and grieving and doubting the likes of us, to give a bit of ourselves to those who feel like they aren’t given much real space at the table. 

Fall in love, stay in love, stay sacrificing, and you live the most satisfied. 

What you are in love with in your life — decides everything about your life. 

Love decides everything. 

The sun can rise, and we all could rise, falling around each other, falling all around, healing rising.

The God Who Fell From Heaven

I first posted this a few years ago, and it is so wonderfully
compelling and poignant, I had to share it again:

A PRAYER TO THE GOD WHO FELL FROM HEAVEN
~ By John Shea

If you had stayed
tightfisted in the sky
and watched us thrash
with all the patience of a pipe smoker,
I would pray like a golden bullet
aimed at your heart.

But the story says you cried
and so heavy was the tear
you fell with it to earth
where like a baritone in a bar
it is never time to go home.

So you move among us
twisting every straight line into Picasso,
stealing kisses from pinched lips,
holding our hand in the dark.

So now when I pray
I sit and turn my mind like a television knob
till you are there with your large, open hands
spreading my life before me
like a Sunday tablecloth
and pulling up a chair for yourself
for by now
the secret is out.

You are home.

The Peace of Wild Things

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

No Matter The Season

As Summer comes into it's fullness here in Oregon,
we remember how long Winter lasted; how rainy Spring seemed.
We also begin to sense just the faintest chill in the evening air.
Daylight begins to shorten, and we know
the Autumnal changes are not far away.

In this time-between-the-times
liminality
we cherish the goodness of what and who
is here and now; with us.
And we bask in The Orchard Master's faithfullness
to us and to all
no matter the season...

O Blessed Spring

(the gift of love)

by Susan Palo Cherwien

O blessed spring, where Word and sign

Embrace us into Christ the Vine:
Here Christ enjoins each one to be
A branch of this life-giving Tree.

 

Through summer heat of youthful years,
Uncertain faith, rebellious tears,
Sustained by Christ's infusing rain,
The boughs will shout for joy again.

 

When autumn cools and youth is cold,
When limbs their heavy harvest hold,
Then through us, warm, the Christ will move
With gifts of beauty, wisdom, love.

 

As winter comes, as winters must,
We breathe our last, return to dust;
Still held in Christ, our souls take wing
And trust the promise of the spring.

 

Christ, holy Vine, Christ, living Tree,
Be praised for this blest mystery:
That Word and water thus revive
And join us to your Tree of Life. 

Blest Community

Blest Community

by Loretta F. Ross

O Most Holy Trinity
Undivided Unity,
teach us the gentle deference
of your dance of surrendered love
how with infinite tenderness
and utmost esteem
you so gently
adoringly
are present
to one another.

Teach us your perichoresis,

your grand circle dance,

where you eternally birth joy

from the womb of reverence.

Teach us your unending,

enfolding regard

for the pure holiness

you hold and behold.

You,

sweet breath and the lungs of creation,

eternally giving,

empty

and eternally receiving

are filled.

You release and bind,

but never push nor pull.

You hold accountable,

but never blame.

You incline yourselves to one another

as a grove of green willows

bending in the breeze

bowing to each other's grace

known and cherished

on the broad plain of mutuality.

Deepen our trust, O Blest Community,

that we may enter such intimacy.

The God Who Fell From Heaven

A PRAYER TO THE GOD WHO FELL FROM HEAVEN
~ By John Shea

If you had stayed
tightfisted in the sky
and watched us thrash
with all the patience of a pipe smoker,
I would pray like a golden bullet
aimed at your heart.
But the story says you cried
and so heavy was the tear
you fell with it to earth
where like a baritone in a bar
it is never time to go home.
So you move among us
twisting every straight line into Picasso,
stealing kisses from pinched lips,
holding our hand in the dark.
So now when I pray
I sit and turn my mind like a television knob
till you are there with your large, open hands
spreading my life before me
like a Sunday tablecloth
and pulling up a chair for yourself
for by now
the secret is out.
You are home.

Two Autumnal Poems

I love seasonal changes. Especially the switch from Summer into Autumn, then into Winter. The emotional range is part of what makes these changes so endearing to me. These two poems help express that range.

Autumn Movement
by Carl Sandburg

I CRIED over beautiful things
knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is
a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is
torn full of holes, new beautiful things come
in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
and the old things go, not one lasts.


Autumn Song
by Katherine Mansfield

Now's the time when children's noses
All become as red as roses
And the colour of their faces
Makes me think of orchard places
Where the juicy apples grow,
And tomatoes in a row.

And to-day the hardened sinner
Never could be late for dinner,
But will jump up to the table
Just as soon as he is able,
Ask for three times hot roast mutton--
Oh! the shocking little glutton.

Come then, find your ball and racket,
Pop into your winter jacket,
With the lovely bear-skin lining.
While the sun is brightly shining,
Let us run and play together
And just love the autumn weather.

Lenten Feasting and Fasting

This is from the Friday morning eucharistic ceremony @  Mount Calvary (courtesy of our good friend Fran -- blessings on your head!)

Lenten Feasting and Fasting:

Lent is more than a time of fasting;
it can also be a joyous season of feasting.

Lent is a time to fast from certain things,
and to feast on others.

Fast from judging others

Feast on the Christ dwelling in them

Fast from emphasis on differences

Feast on the unity of life

Fast from apparent darkness

Feast on the reality of light

Fast from thoughts of illness

Feast on the healing power of God

Fast from words that pollute

Feast on words of purity

Fast from discontent

Feast on gratitude

Fast from anger

Feast on patience

Fast from pessimism

Feast on optimism

Fast from worry

Feast on Divine Providence

Fast from complaining

Feast on appreciation

Fast from negatives

Feast on affirmatives

Fast from unrelenting pressures

Feast on unceasing prayer

Fast from hostility

Feast on peace

Fast from bitterness

Feast on forgiveness

Fast from self-concern

Feast on compassion for others

Fast from personal anxiety

Feast on trust

Fast from discouragement

Feast on hope

Fast from acts that tear down

Feast on acts which build up

Fast from thoughts that weaken

Feast on promises that inspire

Fast from idle gossip

Feast on purposeful silence

Fast from problems which overwhelm

Feast on prayer that undergirds

Say Yes

Hat tip to Jen Lemen

~ Keith

Summertime

Today is the Summer Solstice. More than just a day of the year, it's an actual moment in time -- this year it is at 2359 UTC. I think that's cool: a moment in time when the "sun stands still". On the negative side: with time zone differences, that means for me the sun will stand still just 1 minute before 5:00 pm on a Friday!

Most people think of today as the first day of Summer. For others, it marks the mid-point. Like life for the poor characters in Shakespeare's famous play, midsummer is sometimes tumultuous. Think about summer rainstorms.When they're building up, and the sky begins to darken, everything seems ominous. The wind sometimes begins to blow -- other times it stops completely and everything gets eery.

Summer storms
come and go, but
in the midst of them
it seems
they'll last forever.

I suppose "sun stands still" is an apt description with regard to how long the daylight lasts, but this whole "stopping" idea fits very little else. Sometimes life gets untethered and I feel adrift, longing for some constancy.

Right now our front and back yard are both torn up; in the middle of a reconstruction project. The finished result will be peaceful and green and inviting. Right now it is just a bunch of dirt that keeps getting moved from one place to the next. The front walkway and the back patio are now almost complete. Or I should say were almost complete. The front walkway has to be completely redone. The workers somehow misunderstood our directions. They got the right kind of pavers, and installed them in the right pattern -- but the pattern itself is oriented at the wrong angle. So the whole thing has to be picked up, the already-cut stones discarded, the uncut stones re-placed (after re-preparing the pathway's foundation of sand and gravel) and then the borders re-formed from newly cut stones. There's about a 0% chance of being able to re-use any of the already cut stones.

Two steps forward
One step back

As another example: where we live in Salem, Oregon, the weather has been pretty goofy this year. The other day I was driving around and it was sunny. Then it became overcast, then it started to rain. Then, while still raining, the sun came out again. Then the rain stopped and it was just sunny again. OK, OK, I know what you're thinking: "Duh -- it is Oregon!" but what made it weird was -- it kept cycling like that...every 10 minutes or so for about an hour:

1. Sunny.
2. Overcast.
3. Rainy.
4. Rain with Sun.
5. Repeat over and over.

At first I wished God would make up His mind and just pick one. Then I thought it was kind of cool how it kept repeating.

As I've thought back on that experience and shared the story with a few people, I finally realized God was speaking to me through that hour of weird weather:

Keith, I never change, but life all around you is always in a constant (often cyclical) state of change and growth.

He is Creator and Life-Giver -- and He never changes. So He is always creating and always giving life.

I don't know if He designed it for the sun to stay out really late so we could get more done since there is so much going on -- or if we overly-busy humans just naturally try to do more since it is light later. I've never been one to feel guilty for sitting on the couch reading a good book on a bright sunny day, but at this time in my life I'm trying to listen as He teaches me about real rest for my soul. Apparently it has little or nothing to do with inactivity.

It is Summer here in The Orchard. Many things are in the midst of change, but I'm learning that is an OK thing.

Spring Stillness

Yesterday was the vernal equinox.

Now it is Spring.

The world around us is alive with color and sound as buds open and small birds move in for the season. Amidst this activity it is easy to get caught up in the busyness of the world around us, and bow to the tyranny of the urgent.

This morning I was reminded of a better way:

The world gives itself
up to incessant activity
merely because
it knows of nothing
better.
The inspired man
works among
its whirring wheels
also; but he knows
whither the wheels
are going,
for he has found
the centre
where all is
stillness...

~ Paul Brunton

Friends with Ordinary People

A poem I read recently helped me get words on the type of people we want to be:

The House by the Side of the Road

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the peace of their self-content;
There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran;-
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by-
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban;-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road,
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife.
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears-
Both parts of an infinite plan;-
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road
Where the race of men go by-
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish- so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat
Or hurl the cynic's ban?-
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

~ Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)

When others are happy, be happy with them,
and when they are sad, be sad.
Be friendly with everyone.
Don't be proud and feel that you
are smarter than others.
Make friends with ordinary people.
~Romans 12:15-16