The cedar waxwings arrived yesterday. Waxwings are wonderful, mysterious birds. Here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, their visits are brief. They come to our backyard for a few hours in February, and then they journey on. If we are lucky, we get to see them. I was a lucky–blessed–to get to be near the waxwings this week.<\/p>\n
The fleeting visits of these beautiful birds each winter remind me of the profound wisdom of creation’s rhythms, creation’s liturgies, if you will. In the midst of the chaos and conflict that so often accompanies human calendaring of events, it can be life-giving to pay attention to creation’s biorhythms and their reminder of God’s goodness and grace.<\/p>\n
I crafted this poem as a prayerful imagining of what kind of internal spiritual resistance is needed if we are to reclaim for our often contentious times healthy heart and head space so that we can do our part to cultivate communities of Gospel hospitality, healing, and hope.<\/p>\n
Biorhythmic Resistance<\/em><\/p>\n
The waxwings visited today. They \nknow when at winter\u2019s spring-ward edge<\/p>\n
to harvest our backyard cedar\u2019s bounty \nof berries. Sometimes the grace of<\/p>\n
February wildness tugs my eyes skyward, \nand I see them, masked urban foragers<\/p>\n
warming naked Jack Frost trees with \nephemeral browned-butter flames.<\/p>\n
They dapple still-cold skies with tails \ndipped in sunflower yellow, and then<\/p>\n
they are gone, leaving no sign they \nwere ever here at all. But as I watch<\/p>\n
them fly away, an ancient promise \ncaresses my face. When uninvited<\/p>\n
strangers occupy our terraces, hold minds \nhostage to chaotic rhythms, desperate<\/p>\n
to rewire fragile dreams to their own \ngravitational forces, this is how we<\/p>\n
resist. We synchronize our wings to \ncreation\u2019s pace, breathe in and out<\/p>\n
the spiraling balm of hope. And then we \nlive as people who remember, who<\/p>\n
know in the marrow of our bones: \nthe waxwings will visit again.<\/p>\nPhoto by Jill Crainshaw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The cedar waxwings arrived yesterday. Waxwings are wonderful, mysterious birds. Here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, their visits are brief. They come to our backyard for a few hours in February, and then they journey on. If we are lucky, we get to see them. I was a lucky–blessed–to get to be near the waxwings this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":50804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3119],"tags":[1391,61,99],"class_list":["post-50803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","tag-creation","tag-prayer","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
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