Weekend Edition: Peace

For this Saturday I offer music and poetry, which I hope will help you breathe more deeply and come into the present moment with mindful awareness.

The music is by Cantus, a professional men’s a cappella vocal ensemble based in Minneapolis. Their rendition of “Finlandia” was recorded in mid-March as part of Cantus’ Covid-19 Sessions. Thank you to Pat C. for sending me the link to this video, as well as the photograph below. Here’s the link: Cantus And here is the text, by Lloyd Stone:

This is my song, O God of all the nations

A song of peace, for lands afar and mine

This is my home, the country where my heart is

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine



My country's skies are bluer than the ocean

And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine

But other lands have sunlight too, and clover

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine

Oh hear my song, thou God of all the nations

A song of peace for their land and for mine


                     (Photo credit: Pat Crane)              

Jan Richardson is a writer, artist, and ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. She is known for her distinctive intertwining of word and image, often in her varied blessings. Here is a blessing that could speak to us today. It’s from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief. I am grateful to Raya for sending it to me.

Blessing in the Chaos
To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,
that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
        ~Jan Richardson

Peace for our world and peace in our souls. May it be so.

Until tomorrow, stay home if you can, and stay healthy.

Love,
Nancie/Mom/Mimi/Grandma

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