#twilight

labyrinth: discovering beauty and grace in the maze of our ordinary days

/ Joy Lenton / 16 Comments

labyrinth - discovering beauty and grace in the midst of our ordinary days @poetryjoy.com

Life can feel like a maze. A place strewn with pathways that lead us astray. Somewhere with  high walls and hidden depths, where we can easily lose ourselves. People who have once loved us can drift away, out of sight. We wonder if we’ll ever find our way back to the calming centre of things.

Living can overwhelm our senses. Too much noise. Too much light. Too much haste and hurry. Too many people. Too much of everything. We just want to stop. Get off the merry-go-round and find ourselves. Breathe freely again. Relax.

Let me take you back to a Centre of calm and peace that never fails us. Come with me on a gentle, poetic labyrinth prayer walk that leads us straight to the heart of God. And appreciation and gratitude for where we already are.

Labyrinth

gracious God,
unfold your life in me

unfurl it turn by turn
that in each curving spiral

I may pause and see
the labyrinth of your love

the wonder of your grace

a touch of heaven above
the beauty of your face

infuse these ordinary days
dull as they may seem

with deep holy joy
extraordinary peace
rich gratitude and praise
© joylenton

labyrinth poem (C)joylenton @poetryjoy.com

Let us pause. Breathe. Pray. Savour the silence. And experience one of the most holy times of day. Twilight is a thin place where heaven appears to touch earth with greater intensity. In the dimming of the light we can experience restfulness and peace. Allow these words to soothe your soul. Let us greet this moment with gratitude. Then extend that feeling to the richness of love and life God gifts us with each day.

Twilight

every day
invites, offers us a gift
time to wonder
we get ready to receive
a moment to ponder

eyes lift
conscious of a slight change
something shifts
sun tips her hat toward the horizon
while the scenery gets rearranged

ethereal
suspended fine as mist
twilight
hovering between day and night
softly spilling heaven’s secrets

a thin veil
brief lifting of the curtain
gossamer-fine
nothing feels so certain
while heaven touches earth

prayer comes
with tender dying of the day
vespers
gratitude rises to our lips
we savour what’s before us
© joylenton

labyrinth - twilight poem excerpt (C)joylenton @poetryjoy.com

We close with a song expressing wonder over the freely given, undeserved goodness and grace of God.

I’m honoured to be sharing my words with Chronic Joy’s Poetry Prompt, based on A harvest of Grains, initiated by Tweetspeak Poetry.  The topic is “gratitude” and the theme is to reveal our appreciation of the holy ordinary. Come join us here?  🙂

luminous: seeing light in our darkened times #thedailyhaiku 5

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

 

Dusk is a Celtic thin space time of day, a place of transcendence where heaven appears to touch earth and light fades gently, giving off a luminous quality that feels almost tangible. It’s the real twilight zone that offers us a needful break and breathing space between activity and rest.

Piercing daylight, as it turns to softer shades of muted pink, faded gold, indigo and silvery grey, is where we see light before it vanishes, swallowed into depths of night. The last golden glow we glimpse in a day is a visible reminder of God’s continual presence with us, despite darkness encroaching and seemingly covering up the light we had.

luminous

all is luminous

in this liminal space where

dusk’s soft light appears

©joylenton

enjoying God’s transcendence and immanence

/ Joy Lenton / 15 Comments

write31days-journeying-into-joy-transcendence-twilight

 

Twilight whispers, invites us into silence, speaks softly of things beyond our ken. It suggests a thin place in Celtic mythology, where heaven appears to be touching earth, a time when time itself seems to stand still, heralding an opening between this world and the next.

During twilight, day hasn’t quite yielded to warmer shades of sunset. This is a subtler moment to still our souls, pause and ponder as we await night’s stealthy presence. Twilight isn’t signalling a full stop to daylight so much as inviting us to stop for a while. It’s a moment of holy transcendence, an awareness of deeper things.

I always want the light to linger longer. Maybe it’s an inner yearning mirroring a soul’s desire for God. Perhaps it’s a way of seeking to acknowledge His immanence with us, while allowing room for the mysterious otherness which twilight brings.

Thin Veil

Twilight whispers soft secrets

It is the poet’s pondering

hour, where thin veil conceals

Mystery and showers us

with sweet incense from above

A breathed out benediction

reveals God’s unfading love

©JoyLenton2016

Our joy can appear to dissipate like autumnal mists, lost in the ether. How do we hold on to such a precious gift, grace and Holy Spirit-given fruit? Maybe we need to see how joy is always replenished in God’s presence, while we hold onto the Holy in our daily and make space for Mystery.

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Our heartfelt praise and gratitude can bring  a glow of joy to our heavenly Father’s heart as well as helping to oil and enhance our own. We can increase our ability to sense heaven’s presence by paying closer attention to those things which speak out God’s nearness with us, maybe by trying some of the suggestions below…

10 ways to sense the heavenly

  • take a walk and talk with God
  • admire the beauty of creation
  • take a photograph
  • sing songs of praise
  • light a candle and meditate
  • write a poem or gratitude list
  • draw or paint a picture
  • spend quality time with loved ones
  • sit, breathe and rest in His presence
  • contemplate, listen and pray

I close with some insightful thoughts from a dear friend of mine in response to following this series:

“How neglected joy is in comparison with the other fruits of the Spirit! It seems to me that we strive for love, hope, mercy, compassion far more than joy… Could it be that joy is the natural by-product of all fruits developed and given because of an intimate communion with Christ and love for God?” ~ Yolanda Green

Her words confirm to me the importance of journeying into joy, its deep significance to us as Christ followers who seek to emulate and reveal His character in all we say, think and do.

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Welcome to #day30 of #31days of journeying into joy! Our time together is almost at an end.

It’s been a blessing and a joy to share these thoughts with you. Please join me tomorrow for the final post in this series.

 

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