It’s funny, but maybe not at all unusual, what shared images come to us. This week, both of us were inspired by stories about whales. Whales symbolize peace, compassion, and love. They are mainly known for their songs, which, it is believed, they have learned from other whales or even from birds and humans. An encounter with a whale, in dreams and in life, is an encounter with awe.

In this podcast, you will also encounter my puppy, Ruby, who is also a voice of God! She is not happy that I put her in the kennel. Forgive the plaintive yelping!

Any practice of presencing ought to remind us that the sacred is intimately everywhere all the time, that there are many voices of God - from whale songs to puppy yelps. Where do you experience the voice of the sacred?

Suggested reading and listening: Padraig O’Tuama, Poetry Unbound, a production of OnBeing.

Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion

Jon M. Sweeney & Mark S. Burrows, Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart

Here is the prayer Bill reads at the end from Judy Cannato:

Incomprehensible Holy Mystery, so often I am blind to your self-communication. So often I fail to see your love that is in plain view. Help me to see. Release me from my inattentional blindness, and allow me to truly see what is before me. May I release myself and others from judgment, and may I discover in the silence who I am in you and who you are in me. Enable me to grow into a maturity that embraces the world and participates co-creatively in the life of the world. May all creation benefit from my practice of meditation. Amen.

Thanks for listening!