Here comes the sun

Pathos and hope, blues/folk and classical - Here Comes the Sun in 3/4.

Thanks Melody for this video and your encouragement - I've been reading Marva Dawn's Truly the Community. One of her key themes is the importance of joy in the individual and communal spiritual life. This is not meaningless smile from antidepressants/drugs rather the experience of joy even when you can't find your first job, joy when nothing seems to be going right, joy in the sadness of passing of Auntie Olive. This is tough joy because it rises out of the thorns of life.

Teresa of Avila, one of those medieval spiritually insightful writers, talks about the human soul as garden watered by God. Firstly by hauling up water from a well, then by windlass, then the discovery of streams in the garden and then as rain. But the object is not collecting water revelling in the experience of God but water is for the flowers. The flowers are the virtues which include Faith,Peace and Love - and joy. Even when I can't feel the presence or love of God the virtues are there to affirm the presence of God. This virtuous joy isn't something I can live inside, the way I tend to live in my feelings, but joy like a warm jacket on a cold day.

Hope and Forgiveness

Our most painful suffering often comes from those who love us and those we love. The relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, teachers and students, pastors and parishioners - these are where our deepest wounds occur. ... The great challenge is to acknowledge our hurts and claim our true selves as being more than the result of what other people do to us. Only when we can claim our God-made selves as the true source of our being will we be free to forgive those who have wounded us. Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

Yet there are always those around to encourage us. To bear us up in the difficult times. There is the greater community and wisdom from those I mentor. Thank you Janice, Wayne, and others. There are the continuing signs that I am in the right place - those internationals who affirm this path for this season of life. I move forwards being careful not to live in the feelings nor the thoughts but the grace of God.