Love rivers
Recently I heard and read two things that made beautiful images in my mind. I want to share them with you.
One was a poem that Amanda Held Opelt read at her sister Rachel Held Evans’ funeral [1].
Deep & Blue
by Rachel Held Evans
Flying a kite,
like fishing upside down.
I gaze into the infinite, dizzying blue
and wonder what’s swimming around up there,
catching invisible currents of air
that tug and tighten up my string.
I’m glad we live in in between,
not the top or bottom of anything.
I also read this poem in a newsletter I receive every day from the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Richard Rohr:
Effortlessly,
Love flows from God into [humans]
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
. . . Thus we move in [God’s] world
One in body and soul, . . .
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings—
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in Love
Must sound.
—Mechthild of Magdeburg (1207–c. 1282/1294) [2]
“Flying a kite, like fishing upside down.” “Like a bird who rivers the air.” We sound a note when the Holy Spirit touches us like a harpist touches the strings. Wow. Words. What a gift they are.
My phone and photo sharing site have lots of photos of the sky. Beautiful clouds in a blue sky fill me with joy. I never thought of the sky as a river. The kite and the bird “river the air.” (Since when is “river” a verb? Love it!)
Love rivers from God to me. Love rivers from God to you.
Love flows from God into me, into you,
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
[1] Rachel Held Evans Funeral (33:40)
[2] Mechthild of Magdeburg, “Effortlessly, / Love flows from God into man,”
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, ed. Jane Hirshfield(Harper Perennial: 1995), 93. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
