2024.10.06 CONNECTEDNESS. Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

“Everything that is in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth, is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness”  Meister Eckhart, German mystic (1260-1327) 

Everywhere we look we see images of violence, in our homes, on our streets, in our schools, and in our weather!!  We see it in advertising, in films, in the news. We see it in strife within companies, communities, and nations, and between them. We find it expressed physically, sexually, emotionally, and psychologically—and Now in the chaos of OUR WEATHER. It is everywhere and we feel powerless in the face of it.

Let’s just stop it. Let writers and actors and all those who portray violence. Let the media stop presenting stories about it. Let parents and teachers and brothers and sisters, men and women and children STOP. Let the political economic, judicial and religious institutions STOP.

Let us all spend time in silence, stillness, meditation and prayer each day, drawing on the spirit within us to lead us into kindness, openness of heart, goodness, well-being, generosity and good will.

AMEN SO BE IT. 

  

 

2024.09.29 FOUNDATIONS, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

“Foundations” refers to many things, one of which is a woman’s undergarments. Below is how I see the “foundations” of this United States of America—with a place for ALL of us AND those who desire to join us legally, respectfully, and with pride.  My piece below was recently  published in online journal, Persimmon Tree. It publishes works of women OVER 60 only.     Love that foundational requirement!   

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This is the first United States presidential election in which I, a Democrat, will be voting intentionally against the Republican candidate!  I will also be voting for Kamala Harris, not simply because I’m a Democrat, but because I think her plans are closer to my values about socio-economic justice for all people, and especially for the reproductive rights of women, including, and specifically, making decisions about their own bodies.

 

States are biased by the politics of their geography. Some decisions require broader consideration. We need federal legislation to ensure women’s legal rights, specifically a woman’s right to choose abortion with medical assistance as appropriate for her health and her circumstances.  I appreciate Kamala Harris’s openness and honesty about her views—not simply because she is a woman herself, but because she respects and honors the pain of exclusion any human being of any gender, political party, geography, religion, race or ethnicity feels when robbed of personal freedom for any reason. Any reason.

 

I know all the pain of such decisions. I once sat with a young woman who took seriously her own right to life and freedom. We wept together, because this is a matter of personal wellbeing of mind, body, and soul. Either way one decides there is profound grief, and need for kind and compassionate guidance from an unbiased guide.

 

It is neither sin nor crime to choose one’s own good—as an individual or as a nation. 

NEITHER WAR NOR VIOLENCE solveS or resolveS OR evolveS   ANYTHING OR ANYONE.  

2024.09.22 ADVICE FROM A HONEY BEE, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

 

CREATE A BUZZ

SIP LIFE’S MOMENTS

MIND YOUR OWN BEESWAX

WOTK TOGETHER

ALWAYS FIND YOUR WAY HOME

STICK CLOSE TO YOUR HONEY

BEE YOURSELF

 

These are the things children or teens do best. Can we do these things as we age?

I bet I can create a buzz. It might shock innocent souls but hey! 

Ain’t that the point, honey? 

                Courtesy of Mercy Associates, Mercy Day, 2024

2015.09.15 FOLLOW? Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

I love traveling along with Jesus in Mark’s gospel, the first one written. Mark gets excited easily as he sees and hears and learns new things. He moves along fast, hopping from place to place. His astonishment is catching. Jesus is going where? Saying what? OMG!  Why does Jesus tell them not to tell?  It’s almost as if Jesus himself hardly knows what he’s doing or exactly why? Some leaders love crowds. Not this one! He’s a follower himself. 

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Notice the comeuppance the Syrophoenician woman received when she begged him for healing. He has neither time nor inclination NOR divine commission to do this.Why? Because this woman is NOT one of his people, those with whom he is affiliated, those to whom he has been sent.  

He sends her away, saying, “Let the children of the household satisfy themselves at table first. It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” 

She counters: “Yes, Rabbi, but even the the dogs under the table eat the family’s scraps.” 

Jesus replies: "For saying this, you may go home happy; the demon has left your daughter.” When she got home, she found the daughter in bed and the demon gone.” 

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Jesus moves along and is hard to follow. But you’re a reporter! He’s news! BUT there’s no travel plan, no AAA. Why here? Why now? Does he know what he’s doing?  It’s impossible NOT to follow and just as impossible to follow. What do you do?  I’d follow.

    Pretty soon some others brought a man deaf and with speech impediments to him for healing if possible. This time Jesus did much more than place his hands on the deaf man, though first he took the man aside and away from the crowd, placed his fingers into the deaf ears, spat and then touched the mute’s tongue with his saliva.  Then Jesus looked up to heaven and, with a deep sigh, said Ephphatha!—that is, “Be opened.”  At once the deaf ears were opened and the impediment cured; the one who had been healed began to speak plainly. 

   

Why did Jesus move away from the crowds?  Did he know what he was doing? What if it didn’t work? His healing gesture was so radical, so intimate, even dangerous. He looks to heaven and “sighs” deeply. Is he looking to his Abba for an assist? Assurance? Help? Ephphatha!  Jesus “ordered” them to tell no one. They raced home to tell. Wouldn’t you? 

2024.09.08 Mercy-FULL, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, Blog post

This morning I awoke with a little fantasy image of a bunch of lively Jewish children at a beach in Israel looking out at the Sea of Galilee. The children had met Jesus on the beach and were all excited that this guy was having a cookout for them and serving them hot dogs with mustard. Imagine. The kids were thrilled, covered with mustard and ketchup, plus this Jesus guy’s offering them forbidden beach food in the morning! 

He also had given them each a hug, even the one who was scared of disobeying the Law. Jesus told them that God loved each of them for being special, and loved every single morsel of this whole world the same.   TOTAL MERCY. 

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I have been an Associate of the Sisters of Mercy for over thirty years now and very grateful at 86 still to have a mind that prays and reads.  

What I am reading just now is Sister Elizabeth Johnson's book, "Come, Have Breakfast”  Orbis Books, 2024, written “For people who band together at the international, national, and local levels to protect Earth's land, water, and air and all living beings . . ."  

What I love the most about Sister Elizabeth's book is her, let's call it, panoramic view of all Creation as if the eye of a needle were actually big enough for a whole herd of camels to pass through, or the entire spiritual community of Life to be seen—not to mention that the risen Jesus, certified long dead, yet still serving breakfast as a cookout on the beach.    

Such enormous envisioning forces me to expand my image of Divinity itself and envision God not as expendable but expandable. 

I grew up in New York City, my child's eye view was crowded out by skyscrapers. Nevertheless I trained my eye upwards until I saw God in the spaces between those buildings, leading me in time to write a book called The God Between Us, and to see Creation itself as accompaniment not possession, God being quite free of gender, color, class, caste, ethnicity, species, and even, yes, any one brand of religion. 

Thank you, Sister Elizabeth, for such mercies and Mercy. 

* * * *

And thanks to all: my spouse, all our children, all my friends and family, and that Amazing Grace always near and present to us all through it all.      

2024.09.01 Done. Begun. One. Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post.

I’m detaching from the political scenario—not because I don’t care but because I do care. 

We watched VP Harris’s interview on CNN. Her address got almost lost, bobbing up and down amidst so many ads it was annoying. I know that I will vote and for whom. I can get all the info I need from newspapers, from general news from the public television we watch nightly, and from people in this retirement community whose politics shows on their faces and in their behavior, or if not, in their excesses of commentary or their avoidance thereof.  

Political “debates” are silly, because they are not debates over issues, but simply political sales pitches thrown back and forth. 

Both candidates have been clear about their own values, and plans. I admit I have noticed former President Trump wobbling and stumbling over words and focus. Could he perhaps be too old for this job?    

Watching a TV astronaut drama last night, I saw a cosmic view of the Universe.Yes, I knew it was an image for the show, and yes, my heart sang the hymn we sang as children.

LORD OF ALL TO THEE WE RAISE

THIS OUR HYMN OF GRATEFUL PRAISE.

I vote for good cartoons, laughter among friends, family, all guests, invited and uninvited, my own ongoing talks with the God who listens without a lot of palaver. 

Presence. Breathing. Hope without fear.

2025.08.25 Ingredients of the Holy, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

Start by looking in the mirror—over and over. Smile at yourself. Salute yourself. You’ll see yourself as beloved, in truth.   

As it’s written in the New Testament, Ephesians 4:14-15: “Speaking the truth in love, grow up in every way into Christ.” The author of these words has never been fully established, just as Christ is not tied down to the earthly Jesus, nor to Job’s healing vision—frighteningly, openly, inclusively divine, all holy. 

Do you remember that little phrase “Bloom where you’re planted”?  I always thought it was hopelessly corny and immature. Now I wonder.

Of course that phrase must be in the Holy Bible, somewhere— a selection of writings all of them equally holy. Paul, thanks to his verbosity and long-winded speeches could even see himself as speaking truth in love, because he was a plodder determined to seek and find Divinity in everything and everyone, including himself.    

Each person makes his/her/their path, takes that path, veers from that path, returns to that path, and so on. I have tried many times in my own life to discern and tie down the HOLY. I have sought advice from many sources—all of them helpful yet none of them permanently perfect. 

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The HOLY is of God, and therefore compels me to seek it in all things, great and small. 

-Gazing out the window a friend sees the trees moving and imagines that God is waving at him.

-A young child kneels at the altar rail, discovers he can’t see, looks around seeking guidance, places one small hand on the railing, pulls himself up to stand on the kneeling cushion, sticks his other small hand out to receive a communion wafer. There is a moment of hesitation, then the priest winks and places a wafer that looks nothing like bread into his small hand. The child fists the bread, pops it into his mouth, then turns and runs back down the aisle.

-The 2024 Democratic Convention, gathered and viewed from above—every color, gender, ethnicity, political persuasion, religion, class, on and on.

-Here is a photo of a very large Weeping Beech tree that stands at the entrance of Mercy Center in Madison, Connecticut. It's lush in the summer, however, whatever the season or the reason, this tree stands to welcome all of those who seek the Holy in silence or through a spiritual direction program. The tree tells me I am in a holy place, that all who come here seek and find holiness, and also that all seasons and seekers are holy in the expansive language of our One Holy Creator/Creating God. 

Below stands this tree in winter dress. Holy, eh?  

Finally a tiny baby, holy sloth, held up by a human hand.