How many languages does God speak? Well, all of them, of course! I'm sure God even eakspay igpay atinlay. But what are the core languages of God? Sanskrit, Hewbrew, Arabic, and Latin come to mind because I'm a person of white European descent, exposed to the divine tongues of my culture. I bet there are core American Indian, African, Australian and Asian languages that could be put in the same category.
Then of course there's the language of music - God loves speaking that language, doesn't He? And math, too. I'm not just talking about numbers but also geometry, etc.
I'm sure God also speaks American English, though if he does, it's a dialect I have a hard time understanding. Not that He doesn't try - I feel there are divine messages being whispered into my ears and heart on a regular basis. Part of my problem is that I'm "hard of listening" as my friend Yarrow would say. But another obstacle to understanding is that God really speaks Big Picture, a language that's often difficult for my small, tense, human mind to grasp. I get hints and glimpses of the Big Pic, but then they vanish like dust in the wind.
This morning the guy who tends the garden at Sylvia Sumter's Unity Church told me that a crow had flown down from out of the nowhere and pecked him on the shoulder three times! He was pretty freaked out about this - and who could blame him? Being pecked by, for instance, a mockingbird is unsettling enough. Crows are very large birds who tend to keep to themselves (though they seem to enjoy cawing at us from time to time.)
The Unity Church gardener told me after the third time he was pecked, he finally sat down to talk to God, to pray about it. He said, God. I know you're trying to tell me something, but please don't gimme no parables!
I've been thinking about this ever since. Oh yeah, God talks in parables a LOT. No wonder our communication is so sporadic. As a literalist, the unfolding of 'real life' parables leaves me completely confused. I'm sure from God's point of view, they're beautiful crystals of great wisdom from which I could continue to learn and grow long after uncovering the first layers of meaning.
I should try to also keep in mind that sometimes a crow is just a crow - in a bad mood, maybe, or nervous because her nest is a little too close for comfort. It's good to try to listen when God has something to convey, though, don't you think?
11 comments:
G-d spoke directly yesterday and suggested you be
light hearted--
seems to me
sometimes not trying
just being
is the universal language
which puts all in sync
and
don't ask me how to do this
i give far better advice
than i take
and advice that i don't often
use myself
much love to you
suggested you be
light hearted--
D U H !!! You are so right, Deborah.
See? I see a sight like yesterdays' puddle and think wow this is beautiful. But I wasn't able to divine the message. Thank you! See? I really don't understand God's language(s).
You were the one who first told me to wrap my heart in light. It's so healing! i've been doing it ever since. It's an ideal, all purpose, can never hurt spiritual prescription. You really are Top Rabbi!
Lightening up my heart, asap.
I think God was saying, "Get away from that bird's nest!"
I think God is ready to talk any time we are ready to listen. For me it's a sort of communication that doesn't need language.
As for the bird, I think Steve called it!
I think there are always many levels ongoing in any situation. So for the bird, yes, "get away from my nest" was the meaning. But I also believe the world spins out divine messages whose meaning coexists with the simply crow truth. For the gardner, the triple crow peck is now part of his mythology.
Rites of passage are always accompanied by amazing natural world events. Birds are often involved in my rites of passage. One brushed past me recently just after I finished praying. Its wing brushed my crown chakra - I mean really, c'mon. You can't make things like that happen.
I remember one period of transformation for me, just before I left DC the first time I lived here (1980). For a whole weekend, a bird kept trying to fly through my bedroom window, bonking itself literally dozens of times. The day I left the city, the bird was dead, at the bottom of the window.
It's not like the birds decide to teach us a lesson, what I believe is that the world is stitched together so congruously that nothing happening in my inner world can be disconnected from the outer world.
Wish I was better at translating the natural panorama that accompanies life changes. Oh yeah!
Though ... as long as I have people like my sisters around to interpret the signs and portents, it doesn't matter if I can't do it! I'm very lucky.
I'm totally fixated on the crow coming and pecking the caretaker 3 times on the shoulder...for me this is mighty heavy juju...
well, yeah maybe a crow is just a crow, but a CROW is a CROW....to this mouse I'd say look at what the crow signifies brother caretaker!
i was in my office last week and a magpie came down the chimney.
we were both in a bit of a flutter!
i managed to get the window open but it opens from the bottom and magpie was trying to get out from the top...so i went away and left him to it, and he was gone when I came back.
thats my bird story.
No wonder they've always been seen as a messenger that moves from the earth plane to the heavenly plane.
Also fun to think about them as modern day dinosaurs - which they are! They really are.
I love this post for so many reasons and on so many levels. Looking for deeper meaning in the everyday, connecting with the divine, attempting to understand the bigger picture and also taking time to sit quietly. It makes me want to break open my Joseph Campbell books and settle in. When you write things like this Reya you just give me yet another reason to adore you.
Gary thank you! I love you!
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