The sky invites
The sycamores to dance.
Bare branches
Bend and sway
Curtsying to one another
In proper fashion.
Meanwhile the leaves have flown.
They turn up around back
Loitering by the steps,
Rabble rousing and wild dancing…
Waiting for the night wind
to whisk them away.
I’m very thankful that the leaves in the country don’t require raking, piling, bagging, and stacking. The night wind just whisks them away…
This is reposted from November three years ago, because, yeah, leaves…
Just this morning my Bible reading brought me to chapter one of 1 Peter, where two verses jumped out at me: Be holy because He is holy (1:16) and …love one another deeply, from the heart. (1:22) They loomed large because they feel so impossible for me these days. I confess to having difficulty in loving my neighbor–and I use the word neighbor loosely. Kind of like asking Jesus, Who is my neighbor? and getting the reply that you know, but you don’t want to hear… What! Those people who call themselves Christians, yet still voted for Trump? They are my neighbors? Yes. That’s really how I feel… (And that is, realistically, almost half this country???)
My ruminations led me to remember the book Adopted by Kelley Nikondeha; so I pulled it from my bookshelf and started paging through it again, a couple of years later, in this time of Covid-19 and anger and racial division and conspiracy theories and chaos.
It didn’t take long to find the chapter I remembered, “Repair.” She writes about a Jewish term, tikkun olam, which means “repair of the world.” Tikkun olam calls us to do what we can to sacrificially act for the good of our neighbors, even if those neighbors might be our enemies. Even if those neighbors are belligerent about mask wearing; even if those neighbors have a nasty-language-sign in their yard; even if they somehow think the person in the White House is good for the country. How can I love them when I think what they believe is abhorrent? (For a Jewish discussion on the concept, you might enjoy this article from My Jewish Learning.)
Nikondeha then relates several stories of the Batwa tribe in Rwanda who, when faced with having their harvest of carrots stolen from their neighbors, gave them potatoes too. When they were falsely accused of stealing cabbages, they gave twice as many cabbages back. Can you hear in these stories of one of the most difficult messages from Jesus:
…But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. — Matthew 5:39-40
Perhaps we ignore this instruction because it is just too difficult to wrap our heads and hearts around? There are many difficult “red-letter” passages in the New Testament, but none so absolutely unachievable as this one. Don’t fight back, instead say yes, here, hit me again. Someone is suing you for $5,000? Give them $10,000. Your neighbor’s car just died? Give them your second car that you just finished paying off. Forgive the person who treated you so grievously a few years ago that you haven’t spoken to each other since. Wait; don’t just forgive them, invite them to a luxurious feast at your house…
It’s radical, this concept of tikkun olam. But just think of what needs repairing in this world. More accurately, in our own small worlds–our families and our communities.
I suggest that another reason we ignore the reparations that we need to make is because they are SO HUGE as to be daunting. This is not only Love your Neighbor (which is hard enough!) but this is Love your Enemy. How can we do this? Where could we start? The poet philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Yes, this is the road right outside my door…
Jesus’ version of this thought is recorded in the gospels of Luke and Matthew–the parable of the mustard seed: “For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) ESV
Although probably no one actually stole your carrot or cabbage crops, it is likely that someone stole your political yard sign. Or it is likely that your neighbor (or family member) voted for the other side. I suggest that to repair America, we need to take that first step toward tikkun olam. And the road begins right outside our door…
Yes, this is a cat post.
Filled with adorable pics and anecdotes that only a cat lover will appreciate. Just a warning so all others can stop reading now…
When King Henry the First died in November, we had no intention of getting another cat anytime soon. Not only were we grieving his sudden dying, we had planned a Scotland vacation for ten days in June. All our cats had chosen us by just appearing and staying and loving. We were sure our next cat would do the same.
But 2020 disrupted life as we know it. Maybe for a long time to come, who knows? So mid-April, mid-pandemic, we made an appointment to visit the local humane society. We had viewed the cats online first (Who would have thought we would Ever. Do. This.) and I had liked the little one-year-old grey tabby named Teacup. When we phoned, they told us she was reserved for another family. But please come and look at the others.
We weren’t allowed in, but we sat on the back deck and they brought us out cats one at a time. We looked at all ages and all colors, and it turned out Teacup had not been taken after all. She was a teeny, tiny kitty who had been in a home of thirteen cats. No, they assured us, she hadn’t been abused; thirteen cats had just turned out to be too many. (!) We laugh about her ravenous hunger now, blaming it on her being the tiniest of thirteen and never being able to push her way in to get any food. She will eat anything from pizza to grilled salmon to tortilla chips that have fallen on the floor. She will clean out any bowl, no matter its contents. At dinner time, she sits and begs food like a dog. When the refrigerator door opens, she is there. I’m sure that someday she will step right inside…
How can we resist this?
Our other cats came to us as 3-year old male adults with plenty of experience. They were loving lap cats who didn’t play much. Mini plays with everything. Miss Mini was born to move stuff around: she knocks pens, combs, rubber bands, earrings, hair ties off tables to get them on the floor so she can play one of her favorite games–hockey. We find leaves brought up from the basement in every room, pieces of paper moved from tables to the floor. She skitters around the house like a small tornado leaving the rugs in the bathroom in disarray and attacking feet as if they were stink bugs. She runs between legs with abandon and camps out in front of the refrigerator door or the cupboard where she knows her kibble is kept.
Both our other cats were worldly strays–tomcats who loved the outside. At the Humane Society they tried to make us to promise we wouldn’t let Teacup outside. She’s timid, they said. She won’t like it and it will put her in danger. We didn’t exactly promise, but we said we would be careful with her. Mini desperately wants outside. She sits at every door and tries to escape when the door is opened. But each time she manages to escape, she suddenly realizes she hates it outside. After the first disaster, we realized that just shaking the treat jar gets her back inside where she belongs. But lately the falling leaves have been driving her crazy. She wants every single one that she sees flutter by the door. Mr. H.C. actually let her out the other day so she could chase a flying leaf. She brought it inside and batted around the floor until it fell apart.
This is a favorite box and when she crouches down in it, she cannot be found…
And yes, she is a snoop. She loves to sneak into Mr. H.C.’s workshop–it’s a dead giveaway–her whiskers are covered in cobwebs or sawdust… Mini has never met a cupboard or closet she didn’t love. She used to bury down at the bottom of the bed underneath the sheets. We have broken her of that habit, but we often have to wander around calling her because 1. She might have snuck outside when the door opened, or 2. She has a ton of hiding places where she could be catnapping illegally. Mini still has one bad habit. When she thinks it is time for Mr. H.C. to get up, she jumps on the bed, attacks his hair, and then zooms out of the room as if he won’t know who did it. This is repeated until he gets up and feeds her. She does not do this to me. (She must know it wouldn’t work…)
Mini on her favorite chair.
Our male cats were the strong, silent type. Not Mini. She talks all the time. She meows when it’s time to get up, she meows when it is time to eat, she purrs while eating, she mews to remind us that she needs a dessert treat, she yowls to remind us that she Really REALLY wants to go outside. She greets us when we come home, she answers when we ask her questions. We carry on regular conversations all day and she usually has to have the last word. Yesterday morning she sat in the living room caterwauling for reasons known only to her. She runs for the joy of running; I think she talks for the joy of talking.
When a cat lives in a house that is still being renovated, she either has to take to the basement when the air compressor starts up (that’s what Henry did) or just be brave and become a construction cat. Mini, the skittish little kitty is fearless and nosy about all construction messes–she loves it when nails fall on the floor. She jumps on the desk, knocks off rolls of tape, and chases them all over the room. Yesterday I found her carrying a pair of tweezers around the house. Today she stole a fuzzy new mini roller cover and carried it around as if it was her own little kitten. (It was a fuzzy white little thing, after all.) And like all cats, she loves the fact that the furniture in the room gets moved around daily. And of course, after work, there’s always time for the nap.
Proof she loves her leaves…and the porch.
On this last most beautiful day of Autumn, I relented and let her run out on to the porch when I went out to give the herbs one last watering. She was good for awhile, chasing the leaves and soaking up the sun. But then her curiosity got the best of her, and she just stepped right over the porch rails onto the 3″ ledge that runs all the way around the porch. She just sidesteps on the ledge, and soon, there she is on the steps that lead to freedom.
She is our little pandemic kitty, and she does her job well: She makes us laugh.
the circle of life 