Rise This Day

Love Makes a Family

Here's a video called "Love Makes a Family" that has been distributed by MoveOn.org.  Of course we know that MoveON is left-leaning political action committee (which I firmly support) but the content of of this clip applies to all of us, no matter what our political stripes may be.

Actually, the term "Love Makes a Family" goes back to the late 1980's when the Quaker GLBTQ community produced a VHS recording (before CDs and DVDs....imagine!). Bonnie Tinker, a Quaker, in 1992 created an organization by the same name that continues today with education materials and various media that has make real inroads in helping people to overcome bias and homophobia, and to be more tolerant of same gender marriage in the wider population.  (Sadly, Bonnie Tinker died in an accident in 1999, but her work lives on.) That MoveOn is also calling their video "Love Makes a Family," is an example of how the meaning, and the term inself, have spread near and far.

Enjoy.

Thanks for watching, and visiting Rise This Day.

Kevin Lee

Wisdom of Elders

Because I work primarily with young people, who sometimes comment that my take on certain things contains some measure of wisdom, which in truth, only makes me long further for more elders in my own life, whom I too, in reality, look to for their wisdom. So go figure!

I recently came across two very brief clips (about a minute each) which touch upon wisdom and life experiences as it comes from elders. Each clip is part of what is called the "Legacy Project" at Cornell University. The series contains many short videos, but these two, I feel, contain nuggets that I and perhaps you might find of use.

The first clip, below is by Francis on happiness. The second clip is by Dr. Monty on overcoming adversity. Take from them what you will.

Thanks for visiting,

Kevin

Music Within

There is a sound that comes
from those who make it
and from that which never has to
make a thing…it just comes
in the sound of relentless waves and wind
against the sand as surf that somehow brings us home.

But for those moments when wave and wind
are not at hand there are those who store such things
inside their bones and with string and voice  and mallet reach
and out it comes… a gift of sound and holy communion.

And though I prefer the wind and water and the wave,
the other, of breath taken and released, of fingers dancing,
each powered by the soul, remains, just as sacred, needing
nothing more than those who dare to hear.

 

Text and images by K. Lee

About the images above

Monday

 

Monday

It’s a funny thing about Monday,
how we quietly dread its arrival,
as if it were the end of something

instead of a beginning.

But Mondays are fresh, new
and free of clutter that was last week,
that filled things up and left no room
for anything and everything to come,

which makes me wonder why we hesitate
to grab each Monday with both hands
and fill it with our promise.

 

 

Text and photo by K. Lee

Something about Steeples

 

Have you ever wondered why we pay so much attention to steeples?
Our local paper ran a story about a storm damaged steeple that had to be removed for fear of tumbling over. It sat, unceremoniously, on the side lawn of the church while funds were raised to make repairs.

Months passed, funds poured in and soon a work crew that specializes in such things arrived to remount the spire to its former glory. It was news. Front page news. It didn’t seem to matter what the denomination of the church was either. It was just important, a symbol and benchmark of community, to get that steeple back where it belonged.

On the highway I like seeing steeples that dot the landscape as I travel. And I’m aware that I look for them as I round a bend on an unfamiliar road approaching a little village. Sure, there are churches, but it’s their steeple that I want to take in most. 

Of course we know their purpose is to coax our gaze towards the heavens.
We know this and still we look, a little pause, a quick diversion and mini respite before
our earthly cares carry us onward.

There’s just something about steeples that draws me upward and feels just right.

Kevin Lee
Photo and text by K.Lee

Children’s Questions to God

Last year, at a retreat for Quaker children, third floor, corner room, way after lights out sat five or six children with flashlights asking and writing down questions to God. The pace was fluid and free, playful too, and without adult interference.

How and what they wrote would make any parent proud and every Sunday School teacher fulfilled. Scholars could ponder these questions for decades.  

Some of my favorites to share with you today are:

If God dies will the world blow up?

Does God ever get lonely?

Does God hang out with other Gods?

Does God ever get hurt?

Did God ever have candy?

When this little band of Quaker heavyweights asked me to read their Questions to God, they asked me if I would put them on my “bloggy thing.” I said sure, I will. Elizabeth emailed within hours of arriving home and asked if I had posted them yet, with another child asking the following day. Far be it from me to wait any longer!

I am struck by the weight and wonder of these questions, from the intensity of each hard-pressed word onto paper to the sheer and simple honesty of how each question rolled to the next.

 

What about us, as adults? What would our questions to God be like? Or would we be too afraid, fearing answers might never come, of if they did, we’d fear the response?

Kevin Lee

Some Rhythm for Monday

You'll just have to take two minutes to watch and listen to this little clip! (Hint: If you can use headphones, it will enhance the experience, but it's still good without.)

 

Selection by Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson, "The Piano Guys"  

So there! Go have a fabulous Monday!

Kevin

Riding High…

"The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shape of things, their colors, lights and shades; these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts."
                                        - Gravestone in Cumberland, England

__________________

I have driven to Boston and back a thousand times and could never have seen this
until I rode, lying flat, in the back of our van as Betty Ann drove us home following
a back treatment.

A late summer tropical storm had swept many of the highest leaves from trees some weeks before, and as we stopped at a red light riding back into town there it was, one lone towering old oak tree with one ramrod straight branch shooting straight up past the rounded weathered tree’s crown.

Every upper branch and twig was swept bare of any remaining leaves, that is
except at the very top, the highest possible point
were three leaves, waving and carrying on and doing what leaves do best,
were glistening in the late October sunshine.

I saw them, all three, for the span of a red light and followed them with my gaze and momentary  meditation up on one elbow, until they disappeared from sight.

These three. Unwavering. Steady and determined to carry on no matter what became my lesson of the day.

Kevin

 

"A River So Deep"

Here's a great upbeat song and video by the incomparable Billy Joel singing his classic song, "In the Middle of the Night." The video, from 1993, is simple, unadorned, and to the point, a rarity in video-land today.

If you don't feel better after watching this clip, you need to watch it again, and again, and again until you do! Ha!

Have a great Monday!

Spiritual Symbols

My friend Nancy from Vermont sent me this image of human hands making a Cross. In her note she said, “I’m not big into religious symbols but I thought this one was really cool.”

And this got me thinking. I replied saying essentially the same thing, then went on to confess that I also enjoy and find spiritual significance in many religious symbols, including Crosses, wood, water, light and  the human form itself, especially the hands. Just why, however, I cannot say for sure. When we consider the sweep of symbols that have served to bring people closer to whatever they call holy down through the ages, it leaves me convinced that symbols themselves, no matter what religious tradition they may represent, have an inner power and purpose beyond what we know or can explain.

Spiritual symbols, of course, are everywhere. And one person’s spiritual icon is another person’s nuisance and dust collector. Just why it is that mandalas, no matter what their size or color, cause me pause with unexplainable wonder, while the person standing next to me apparently sees and feels little, remains a mystery. Yet this same friend reverently displays his Catholic “Dove" of Peace” bumper sticker on his car, a reminder to many of the Holy Spirit coming downward into humankind, but all I keep thinking is that the poor bird is going to just crash into the ground!

There are, sadly, so many symbols out there that remind us of pain and suffering, from sculls and crossbones to swastikas, that it seems to me we can use all the positive, spiritual and life-affirming images, icons and statues we can find and ponder them with at least appreciation and perhaps wonder.

So what form or symbol holds you spiritually? Is it something you drive up to, get out of the care and walk up to? Or does it fit in your pocket or does it hang around your neck?? What makes it holy, and real and Spirit-filled for you?

Kevin Lee   

 

 

Note: Hand On Hands and Water and Leaf images by K. Lee