Sometimes I think of relationships, especially romantic ones, as the “final frontier” on the spiritual landscape. Relationship is so vital to humanity’s understanding of God and who we are in relation to God that it is built into all the major religions, from the most ancient to the most recent.
Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all have one or more relationships between God and specific individuals as the primary route of transmitting communication, expectations, love, and compassion between God and humanity. And where the concept of God is missing from Buddhism, the relationship between teacher and student is valued as the primary route of transmitting truth.
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual and divine grace. When we approach one or more of our relationships as sacrament then we are expecting to meet God there, to meet God’s love there, to express God’s love there, to be reminded that we are the Beloved’s and the Beloved is ours. Sounds like a tall order, right? That’s a lot to put on a relationship…
I believe that if we, at least once in awhile, view our relationship with another as a mirror of our relationship with God, we can be encouraged, inspired, challenged, and motivated to put more loving intention into growing ourselves up to be mature, loving human beings who relate to one another in mature, loving ways.
I ran across a beautiful song – a song that has lyrics and music that tug at the heart and the gut – that gets at this idea that one’s relationship with another mirrors one’s relationship with God. It is written by Jason Gould along with Marsha Malamet and Liz Vidal.
Sung by Jason, his interpretation of the song and the intimacy the lyrics express between former lovers is titillating. And if you read it or listen to it from the vantage point of spiritual seeker and God, the intimacy expressed becomes down right thrilling.
It’s called “Morning Prayer.”
Do you remember the sound of my name?
How it rolled from your tongue like a poem of hope and heartbreak?
Warm as the sun and soft as a prayer
When morning comes does the sound of it still fill the air?
I know that our love was a moment of grace
And with one touch I was forever changed
Closing my eyes I can still feel you near
We bathe in the light of a flame that has burned for 10,000 years
I’ll wait
I’ll wait until time disappears
I’ll wait right here
Will you forgive me all my mistakes?
Will you come lie with me and sing my soul back awake?
I ache to see you walk through my open door
To fall in your arms and know I’m not alone anymore
I’ll wait
I’ll wait until time disappears
I’ll wait right here
I still remember the sound of your name
It rolls off my tongue like a poem of hope and heartbreak
Warm as the sun it fills the air
Oh, my love, you are my morning prayer
Do you remember the sound of my name?
In an interview with David Munk at Stargayzing.com, Jason said he didn’t notice the interpretation of the song as that between a person and God until he recorded it. I didn’t notice it until I read the interview and listened to the song once again! And then fell more deeply in love with it.
You can hear Jason sing it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=torfwGPgyEg
“When she loved her husband, she was loving God. Every real love story is a love story with God.”
~ Deepak Chopra
When we slow down and imagine lover and beloved and Beloved (you, your lover, and God) ~ looking in his or her eyes is looking into the eyes and heart of God ~ being seen and heard is both being seen and heard by God as well as seeing and hearing as God ~ relationship then becomes a sacred trinity. And every moment, good or bad, becomes an opportunity to be more present and to dive more deeply into love.
In my own life I find that if I refrain from looking at this in terms of right or wrong – if I don’t use succeeding at it or failing at it as an excuse to judge myself – if I just let myself melt into the juiciness of being present in those moments when my relationship is a living sacrament, then my love, my life, my spirituality, my relationship with God and my relationship with Joseph are all fed. And I come away feeling grateful and full.
If what the Divine Feminine experts say about the 2000 millennium is true, that it carries great feminine energy because of the even number “2” and all those round zeros, then I have this idea that all the even years must carry more feminine energy than the odd years. Meaning the even numbered years are softer and more nurturing…
Well, I don’t really need to label it or me. The thing is it makes sense. My parents have been a part of my life since I took my first breath. That makes them god-like and God is ever present. Why shouldn’t they be too?
She says, “No one will respond perfectly to your grief. People – even people you love – will let you down. Friends you thought would be there won’t be there, and people you hardly know will reach out. Be prepared to give others grace. Be prepared to work through hurt and forgiveness at others’ reactions.”
As a teenager, my parents’ divorce and remarriages reconstructed all the extended family dynamics. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on both sides of the family lost a family member. We went from always sharing Thanksgiving with one particular set of cousins to sharing the day divided between two homes, sometimes with new family friends at the table. Blended families create new webs of extended family connection. For some that’s good news. For others it messes with that warm, fuzzy, dependable sense of home and homecoming.
I have had the very good fortune of remembering her more and more as she was when she was younger and vital: her laughter, her sense of humor, her sense of style, her care and concern for others, and I am so very grateful.