Open Up Our Dreams

What would it feel like
to run up a mountain and then
run back down again?

To tell about what it looks like from the top
and let others know, yes!
You can do it too.

To listen to the stories people
have to share
and pass on the wisdom we gain.

To put aside agendas
and imagine again what things could be like -
and live into those possibilities.

To wake up knowing
our feet can walk on water.

To know like a child knows,
that nothing is impossible.

We can open up our dreams,
and not give up for one moment.

We can accept only what is energised
through love
and see all lies lose capacity.

Only God can show us how
powerful we really are.
Only we can
believe it.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 31 Prompt - only

Photo credit unknown

Holy Disruption

A man with a halo of white hair
spoke about holy disruptions
on Sunday.

We were visiting the Lutheran congregation
in Cape Town, on Strand Street.

The Eurochor had come to sing
beautiful and hope-gracious praise,
and he spoke of the angels we meet
in the strangers we face.

We have grown in the vine.
We have had our withered branches
cut off.

We have felt a promise of fruitfulness
surge through with juicy sap
and learned to be grateful
for the things that have fallen away.

A holy disruption
is necessary.

It is good to be disrupted:
to have your feathers ruffled,
to be shaken up a bit,
to see things in a new way.

When you are hurled into the sky,
it is then that
you will find your wings.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 30 Prompt - cut

Photo credit unknown

Listen to the Eurochor

The Day we Arrived

The ever over-the-horizon destination,
to-do lists.

The achievements
that are worked towards -
achieved, and do not satisfy.

Somewhere over the rainbow
there is no pot of gold,
because it is buried
deep within our hearts.

Hidden under a prism of promises,
waiting there to be found.

There is no ultimate destiny
with a greenness of grass
that is greener than the grass
under our feet.

It is God we will find
in the challenges we have
before us and it is God we have
in all of our gratitude.

Today, is a date to mark down
on the calendar
as the day we arrived.

There is peace in the accomplishments
you have achieved for us.

Our dreams flow out
of your heart of belonging.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 29 Prompt - date

Artist - Richard Kretch

Your Face at my Table

We stand at the door of your knocking
and open wide
to the light of your dawn.

Come, we will sit down.
We will be together,
enfolded in peace though there
are many uncertainties at play.

This is the true
bold reality we live for,
your face at our table as yet unseen.

This is the banquet
We have waited to share with you.

Come, let us eat, let us drink.

And we will be filled,
our thirsts will be quenched,
our hungers will rest
in the delight of your feast.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 28 Prompt - eat from Five Minute Friday

Credit unknown

Listen to: His Banner Over Me (Kevin Prosch) with Jeremy Riddle

For Sophia

6 years ago, the rose creeper
flushed a pinkness of flowers into the garden,
welcoming you home.

My Little Girl,
in the hospital with you in my arms.

We knew your first name
from the dream I had.

But we were trying to find a second name for you.

And when we settled on it,
we felt that peace would be your heritage.
So we called you Wise
and we called you Dove.

Do you know, from the windowsill
on that very day
a dove, whiter than white can be,
flew into the air?
And I knew that God was there
in the feathers telling us something
big
in a small way.

I don't really remember the bouquets of flowers.
But I do remember the roses spilling
the air with joy,
so glad they were that you came home.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 27 Prompt - bouquet

Artist - Yellena James

Your Delicate and Precious Intentions

Smiles are followed by indigestion
after some conversations.
And we feel the Spirit nudge
us with fingertips of
a summery breeze,
lifting our preconceived ways
of doing things into the air.

Some days are meant for
re-evaluation.

When we recognise the wind
that blows around our chest
and the restless rise and fall,
as something more than just
happenstance digestion,
we are on the verge of fresh revelation.

Some days are meant for
confrontation.

No more doing things the way we always did.
No more lapsing into familiar patterns
that just don't work for us.
Or them.

We feel our warm thoughts rise like warm air
is meant to,
and we know, we are going to have to pick up that phone,
write that letter, make that face to face appointment.

There is no going back.
Take the bull by the horns they say,
before the bull in the china shop of your delicate
and precious intentions
crashes them all to the floor
once again.

God is with her (you love that scripture)
she will not fall (yes, say it again),
God is with her at break of day.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 26 Prompt - confront

Photography - Matt Wisniewski

Dark Place of Trust

Gideon managed really well
when he needed sure confirmation.

There were undeniable miracles.

Even so, his heart must have
trembled on the first, yes God
I will.

We want a sign:
audible voice from the heavens,
word of knowledge,
and a wonder:
dove to alight on our shoulder
with a message sent.

A fleece will also do.
To prove that what we feel
is really what you are asking of us.

But Thomas reached in on the wounds
in your side with the words:
Blessed are those who do not see
and yet believe.

So are we blessed then,
when we forgo the need for signs
and enter more deeply into the dark
place of trust?

It is love that has been waiting
there for us
in our falling.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 25 Prompt - sign

Artist Gabriella Barouch

Listen to Trust by Kristene Mueller

Angels on their way somewhere

The signs of the times
point in many directions.

Many a soul has felt the
overwhelming need for a map
that would lay out the path
in such a way
that GPS would not be necessary.

We want to tap into the glory
that fills the earth
as the waters do the sea.

We want our eyes opened
like the servant of Elisha,
to realise there are more for us
than against us.

We would like to see flaming chariots
and to hear the words:
"You need only to be still,
the Lord will fight for you."

Much goes on behind the scenes,
we have no notion of.

Angels walk the streets
in the centre of much commotion
and no matter what the eye may see,
greater are those with us.
Greater too the one who resides
within us.

Our prayers do matter.
The livening presence of God works through us
into a place of first love compassion
for the world, it was always
intended for everyone.

We can see our prayers fly alongside
the angels on their way somewhere
to help someone who really needs it.

We do make a difference.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 24 Prompt - global

Artist - Elvira Amrhein

Listen to Calling all Angels - Loft Sessions with Brian Johnson

Eye of the Storm

There are contentious blowouts
across borders.

What is right, what is wrong?
Clouded issues fraying patience.

Trust calls you to places
the outcome is not certain.

Lean into the chest of greater grace.
The best is yet to come.

Though clouded be the skies for a time,
one ray of light comes breaking through
and perspective changes.

Some things cannot be worked out in the mind.

Feel the weight of your knees press into the earth
with the hope of surrender.

When you release all possibility into the hands
of belonging, you find peace.

Out of chaos, you will rest in the eye of the storm;
not a breath of wind can reach you here.

Stay until you know it is time
to move on.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 23 Prompt - blowout

Artist unknown

Dare to Shine

You have felt for some time the pull
of simplicity.

A lowering of certain expectations
to make room for what comes.

The peeling of a shroud
of weighty obligation,
to step out like a newborn.

Switch off the lying voices loud.
Dial up on a whisper of promises.

Look at your self in the mirror.
Remove the labels they put there.

You can rearrange the territory
and prepare for what did not feel so safe before.

Take off the mask to let your skin
breathe in the fair light of day.
Reach out for help when help is needed.

No more running for cover -
You will dare to shine.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 22 Prompt - off

Artist - Dorina Costras

Listen to Beyond the window - Jason Upton

Kingdom Without Walls

You wake on dreams

reserved for such a time as this -
messages written on your listening soul.

Under stars not often seen
you rest beside the waters deep,
where springs unblocked have risen in the night.

The river has swept
the pathway of your travels clean.

You find a banquet lush
on tables laid beneath the trees.

Leaves have formed a canopy
over dreamers spilling wisdom
from the cup.

On each note of invitation,
a secret name engraved
calls forth the spirit, heart and mind.

We are seeking for what we already have,
buried vast within.

X marks the spot
on a kingdom without walls
inside, alive and well.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 21 Prompt - park
Five Minute Friday

Artist - Cliff Briggie

Listen to Stargazer by John Belt

Doing Nothing with God

Take off your sandals
and bask under the fire of God's eyes.

Enter the Sabbath rest
for the children.

There is a wonderfully blessed woman
who works into the night.

She is learning to forgo duty;
where tenderness holds idle hands.

Mary has made herself vulnerable,
casting aside all care of what the people say.

But there is a time and a season
for every activity under the face of heaven.

And she has chosen a burning bush
for now.

She would put aside all work dutiful,
to soak in the strength that comes

From doing nothing
with God.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 20 Prompt - weekend

Artist - Frank Wesley

Spread-Wide Heart

Some looks speak what words have no chance to say.
It takes a willing spirit to drop the keys
and resolve to take in the pages of speech
that will pour forth expansive.

You grow yourself discerning
when you draw from wisdom
by following undefined paths
to places that welcome all seekers.

The paths that take you first low
to where water runs deep,
before you take what you have learned
and declare it from the mountains.

Be with the small insignificant
things that feel like they are going
nowhere and achieving not much.

Notice where love hides
under the bling of what looks
more outwardly appealing.

There are treasures to be found
in unexpected places.

When you have gathered the
intricate lessons contained in
humble undergrowth,
you may be trusted to give away pearls.

When giving becomes to you
more beautiful than losing or gaining,
the immaculate compassion of
your spread-wide heart will take in
more than enough of goodness,
you won't have room for it.

Just spilling goodness abundant
from what you found in tiny obscure places,
when you noticed that eternity
was buried there.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 19 Prompt - notice

Artist - Roger Roberts

Listen to Iona - Treasure

Neighbours

He took the leprous and unsightly hands
of a woman kicked to the outskirts.

He took them in his own and pressed every doubt
out of mind with one word, Clean.

He saw hope where there was no
rightful reason for hope to be and yet,

I will come to your house.
I will eat with you.

With a calling forth, his words
brought life where there was none.

He takes my breath into a place air is sweet
and gives me space inside my chest
to take in beauty beyond the pain of it.

My womanly being is welcomed where
perfume breaks open on moments like these.

Every soul is seen with eyes that see,
without constraints or definitions narrow.

Love has shaped every person born.
We are all neighbours.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 18 Prompt - neighbours

Artist - Nicole Roggeman

Music on Those Words

The music incorporates
the instruments of every culture
that has ever existed.

Worship to the listeners
sounds like love carried on the wind in a cry.

His shoes syncopate a beat
that invites a body to respond,
or not, as they please.

He placed the essence of himself
in the shoes of the other -
God made man.

Love felt the sting of all evil inclination
and every response we imagined he would take
passed him by.

Study the nature of God in the words:
"Father forgive them,
they know not what they do."

The music on those words
can reach every corner of the soul
of every human being.

There is no unreachable place.
There is no unreachable heart.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 17 Prompt - study

Photography - Jeffrey Vanhoutte

The Veil Grew Thin

Before we were born,
we were known.

And there was a day your words
filled the atmospheres with light
for the very first time.

There is always a before.

Before you were conceived
in confines of a womb,
Bright Morning Star.

You became little -
Precious Baby, God so small;
rejected from an inn to the hay
on a night the veil grew thin on hallelujahs.

God in the form of flesh contained
in a vessel of earth-bound love
for your human travels.

All of your omnipotence
given over to the brunt of nail,
body against wood and thrusting sword.

For our smallness to be lifted in
the fullness of infinite grace,
and so, to live forever.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 16 Prompt - little

Painting - Brian Kershisnik

Move into Prayer

You filled a space in your diary
for a date with yourself today.

You switch off your phone.
No demands on your attention.

You decide to walk down to the park -
you know of a place not many go.

A glade of trees among trees
and leaves in a state of holy ebb,
where a stream flows beneath it all.

Into the peace, you quietly tread.
Every voice silenced, one by one.

Each thought sighs into the ground
as a seed on your breath.

Your hands are ladles
for water scooped from a river
that quenches, a parched mind.

This is your cathedral -
worship, a humble song
under the cavern of green light

You move into prayer, slowly.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 15 Prompt - move

Artist - Odon Czintos

Beautiful soaking music by Julie True & Grace Williams

Free download of the first ten episodes of Catching the Light available on Noisetrade

Sacred Trust

My Dear Child,

You have been feeling drawn out
on the worn threads of yesterday's carpets.

You have wondered at the way
time seems to run under the river.

There have been times of walking
for long stretches through dry lands.

You have kept your eyes out
for signs of life on dew-kept nights.

But I led you to the sea instead.

At first you kept watch as the waves
invited you ever so gently.

You didn't know which way to turn
anymore, so instead you dived straight in.

There is another world of hidden dimension
in the deep heart of my life kept for you.

Like the reef that births colour with
verdant flashes of fish through coral.

In the right element you will thrive,
my Beloved Child.

In the deep heart of my life
where I keep you, close.

You are growing even though the
tides wane on the moon's pull.

You are going places in my Spirit
you will only find when your spirit is stretched.

I pour every grace into your life known and unknown
and I am working behind the scenes.

The gift of your trust is sacred;
every prayer and tear is to me, perfume.

I love you with a love that always grows,

Your Heavenly Father

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 14 Prompt through Five Minute Friday - mail

Artist - Charlie Mackesy

Watch and listen to the Father's Love Letter

Wait for Resurrection

Leave every watch and clock behind.
Go to places the earth receives
the barefooted pleasure of you.

Where you are able to
notice yourself as a breathing,
living human being.

Emotions may rise and fall
with the spending of a day
on what seems like nothing.

But there are tears here
that come on laughter and on pain.

And there are tears of another kind
when beside the tomb of evil fruits,
you walk straight into a man weeping.

Interpretations of reality
are determined by your
outlook on life accumulated.

But sit with God
from the viewpoint of things eternal
and you realise love must still be greater.

Awareness steeped
in veins of blood that ran
for all mankind,
transforms our ability to
really see.

We are changed by the tears God sheds
at the mouth of every tomb that
waits for resurrection.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 13 Prompt - aware

Artist - Daniel Bonnell

Listen to Resurrection - Nicol Sponberg

Spacious Skies of Grace

You form the clouds
cirrus, alto stratus, cumulus.
You taught me to look up
when the ground holds my attention.

The sound of a jet blisters the air
too fast for the eye to see.

But clouds are shapes
waiting for translation.

When the news I hear
delivers with it a yoke of injustice
on the weight of dread,
I look for a bird to
trace my piece of sky.

It is not for me to carry such loads.
It is not for me to bear the outcomes
of every eventuality
waiting to happen.

No, I spread myself into the sky, wide.
I feel the whole of me captured, up.

You carried the pain
with the blood, sweat and tears you shed
one deeper than dark day.
And you carry it still.

Lift me through the cirrostratus
where clouds ephemeral wisp my worries
into dissipated blue.

I will grow with my soul into
the spacious skies of grace -

Miracles are waiting.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 12 Prompt - sky

Artist - Ken Bushe

Listen to Fly - Jason Upton