Meaning and Authenticity

As I mentioned in my last post, we're creating a Prayer Garden with a labyrinth in the courtyard at the entrance to my church. I don't have a good photograph of it yet. This one is old but it shows the nice floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the entrance from the church office. (My little office is adjacent to the church office and has one of these windows as well.) You can see in the background part of the beautiful oak tree which will at the center of the labyrinth-- The Tree of Life ! On this tree we are hanging a multitude of wind chimes. ( Oh, the few already there are so arresting--I stop when I hear them, and I let their beautiful tones minister to me.) And all around this courtyard entrance will be flowers and plants , and a bench or two for meditation. The church is on almost 7 acres--it's a park, really, with about 40 oak and pecan trees. We'll be able to walk the labyrinth, sit on a bench at the Tree of Life, listen to the music of the chimes, look

I continue to listen to Speaking of Faith podcasts with great interest. Krista Tippett interviewed Eckhart Tolle in a way that elicited so much from him...questions about how his new-found fame is challenging him, for instance. Really fascinating. She asked him about God, and he said he rarely uses that word because it has been so abused and carries so much dead weight with it (my term). But he does believe. He believes in a power, an energy in the universe that is constructive, life-giving, creative, beautiful (again, these are my words). As I listened to him I found myself in that place again. That place where I experience something un-name-able, the utter mystery of what is. This constructive, life-giving, creative and beautiful power/energy is within all that is, including human beings. Once again I felt myself move to that place where I vaguely sense the essence of human being, that place where there are no separations; all is one, yet 'the many' are at home there