The Glory of the Ordinary
Fifty years ago I had a dream in which I was given a new spiritual name and new spiritual practice. They were both called by the same name, in a language I did not know. I asked a native speaker to translate and awoke with the words The Glory of the Ordinary ringing…singing… in the cells of my body. In her visionary book The Glorians, Terry Tempest Williams re-sanctifies Earth, rewriting a sacred text, Psalm ninety-one, beginning in this way:
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Holy Ordinary will rest in the shadow of the Glorians. We will say of the Glorians they are our sanctuaries and our fortresses, they are our wonders in whom we trust.”
A visitation from the Glory of the Ordinary arrived outside my door recently; it is a wonder in whom I trust. This is my sacred Psalm:
Animalia
I.
She hears a small thud
against the window.
Sparrow huddles,
breath coming fast,
blinks as the woman
bends to hold her.
No flutter of wings
quieter still
inside the basket.
The woman pulls
soft flannel close,
steps back inside.
II.
Forest animals
she bows to by day
return to her
under moonlight.
They inhabit her dreams:
She holds a wedding
bouquet of living snakes.
Bees deposit honey
into her lap.
Birdsong becomes
elixir in a crystal vial.
A stag with diamond antlers
stands in shallow creek water.
Her house of dreams
is a living bestiary
herds, packs, flocks, schools
species, times, seasons, eons
are waves on the sea
rising, merging, rearranging
patterns of furred, finned
feathered bodies
surfacing and receding
III.
When humans stood to walk
face forward, gaze level
the underside
~ belly, womb, heart ~
were exposed
vulnerable for the first time.
Rolling over
wolves submit
with a lowered head
tail tucked
underbelly soft and visible.
The woman rounds
her body, bends low
forehead on the ground
to bow bare
before the Sacred.
IV.
One sparrow
the weight of feathers
and a heartbeat
launches into flight
from a basket rim.
From my book of earth poems, A Litany of Wild Graces ~ Meditations on Sacred Ecology
Forward Wild Graces to a friend
There they’ll find Nesting Circles of Belonging ~ Family, Nature and Cosmos.
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Photo by Michael Heng