Every morning nature puts on a show for us to see, especially in Sedona, Arizona.  Wednesday morning at 4:47 a.m. I walked to the Airport Mesa, a popular spot for viewing sunrise and sunset in Sedona.  I had looked on the website www.timeanddate.com and found out that the sunrise on Wednesday morning was to be at 5:17 a.m.

When I arrived at the spot, there was only one gentleman waiting.  We nodded to each other and I found a place to stand to view the magnificence I knew I would see.  It was about 5:03 by this time.  Between 5:03 and 5:10 we accumulated about 12 other persons.  Each of us was finding that perfectly magical place to stand with either our cell phones or a camera to take that perfect picture, proving that we had experienced the sunrise.  Then it happened - 5:17 came and went and no sunrise. 

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.  Don’t go back to sleep.”  Rumi

                                  “Be still and know”.  Psalm 46

Rev. Denise

I am traveling back this morning to the 80’s when I was a music/drama specialist at Ezell Harding Christian School.  One of the elementary grades studied the Native American Indian Tribes, and during that study I always taught a chant: 

“The Earth is our mother

We must take care of her

Hey Yanna Ho Yanna Hey Yon Yon”

There were other verses like the Sky is our Father, the Sea is our Sister, the Forest is our Brother, and as we sang this chant and did the Indian Circle Dance Movement, the students began to discuss what it would have been like to live their lives like the Native American Indians – “close to the earth.” 

This Sunday we will begin a two part series entitled The Earth is Our Mother.  This Sunday’s focus is that at the core of our experiences as “earthlings” there is a Dance of the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine in all of its forms.  In knowing and experiencing this Dance, we are charged as humans to keep the cadence or the rhythm as we move through our lives.  

What I realize on a daily basis is that sometimes I keep this cadence with grace and other times I resist the rhythm of the dance that I am called to experience.   When I resist the life rhythm that is within me and all around me, I cause myself stress and push against the evolving beauty that is right in front of me. 

The awesome Voices of Unity will be joining us this Sunday and Judy Bernard will be bringing her gongs to add another flavor to our celebration of Mother Earth. 

“Laudato Si”
Rev. Denise