Standing there looking up into the air He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two people in white robes stood by them. They said, “People of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” —Acts 1.9-11 Because sometimes all you can do is stare into the space where once there was something you loved. Because sometimes there's a gap between the last step of this journey and the first step of the next one. Because grief is the grain in the pearl of believing. Because sometimes there's an empty place in you that only the right kind of silence can fill. Because we didn't get here on our own but now we're afraid we might have to. Because it's sometimes only empty air and a vast, insistent silence where we can hear the voice, the silent voice, and feel the presence, the huge unsayable presence of the One in whose absence there is such nearness. Because sometimes, God, sometimes you just really miss the skin. __________________ Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted by Tara Owens, Abbess at 2022-05-27 15:17:38 UTC