I hope everyone who finds our podcast this week is doing okay, that you are staying warm. Bill did not have power until late Wednesday, so we are delayed getting this podcast out, but wanted to have some way of connecting, even if among the ether.

We were wondering if some of you might be thinking, “What more can we say about God?” When contemplating mystery, however, the threads are endless, and as we are evolving along with everything, so are our ideas about mystery. Poet David Whyte suggests that humans are the one species who do not know what it is to be themselves, that we are, in some ways, living in exile. John Tucker, with whom we will be doing a webinar March 9th, suggest that this sense of exile may well be because we cannot face Absolute Grief, or the fear of death. In fact much of theology has helped us to avoid our grief about death and a lack of understanding mystery. We seem to be able to touch the edges, but so many of us want to remain wrapped in a protection of bubble wrap.

Join us as we explore mystery and toss about our inspirations from Zero Theology, as we being to imagine living an authentic religious life that has nothing to do with belief and everything to do with living into an interconnected reality.

To register for the upcoming webinar with John Tucker, click HERE. In the mean time, we recommend reading Zero Theology.

The poem read at the end of the podcast is “When I Am Among the Trees” by Mary Oliver. She is for sure a patron saint of putting mystery into words.

When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches. And they call again, “It's simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”

I hope you find ways to be warm, to be light, to shine this week.