Watching the Wheels

 

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

 

Wild Geese-Mary Oliver

 

I heard a really great sermon a few weeks ago, and its been bouncing around my brain ever since. Starting with the poem Wild Geese by Mary Oliver, it went on to equate balance in life to riding a bicycle. I love sermons that touch my soul and make me think  There was the talk of how a wheel is like our lives.

 

The wheel is our spiritual wheel. Each wheel has a hub. What is yours? Mine are my boys. They are the centers of my universe. They are my morning, my night, my darkness and light. They are the reason for me to go and do what I do.

 

The rim is what holds the wheel together. In this example, it represents mindfulness. There was talk of spiritual disciplines in the sermon, and how they hold us together. At this point, I was about ready to break down sobbing. I have been in a spiritual desert for the last several years, in bad need of an oasis. In this sermon, I found mine and I drank and drank and drank. I started meditating again. I have a space set aside in my room for it. I have deepened my yoga practice and using that as a moving meditation. I am working on being more present and aware instead of numbing out. I am keeping a scripture journal, and reading them with new eyes and fervor.

 

The final part of the wheel are the spokes. They help keep the wheel in motion. What is it that keeps me in motion? My faith, my spiritual practices, eating healthy, my social network, my job, yoga, working out are all my spokes. They help keep me moving forward ever onward.

 

The preacher intertwined the notion of balance into the children’s message. I loved watching the Little Man jump on one foot. Then hop on his tippy toes. He made me giggle with his wobble. The message was the perfect reminder to keep the balance, mind body and soul.