About noise:
Common noises are not always what they seem to be. They can also be the eloquence of God. It is all in the richness of listening. If we develop our deeper metaphysical ears, we may hear the music of divinity in uncommon places.
I’ve known a great deal of noise in my life, but I have also spent much time trying to tune my inner ear—the cochlea of my soul—to hear the Divine in the thick of my days, in the quarrel with my husband, the conversation with my teenage son,...—these scratchings upon my window.
There is an integration in the contemplative journey when dualities collapse, when the noise and the music become one sound.
About love expecting nothing in return:
Towards the end of Firstlight, Sue Monk Kidd relates a story of an older gentleman who sent letters and gifts to her, never once asking her to respond back. His last letter contained this message:
“By the time you read this,” Mr. Card wrote, “I shall have gone on to my next great adventure. This last letter is to thank you for letting me love you...”
Today that letter—which he’d requested be mailed to me at his death—portrays the highest form of love: to ask not how much do you love me, but rather how much can I love you? To love without expectation.
About prayer:Her 5-yr-old son crawled into her lap. When she asked what he wanted, he replied, “Nothing. I just want to be with you.” He laid his head on my arm, content to be near me, to curl up in my circle of lamplight and be in my presence.
The most beautiful prayer is to sit with God that way. To pray, not because I want something, not because I’m in trouble again, but because I simply want to be close.
About the heart of God:
She closes the book with these final two sentences:
Ultimately, we are reborn to love because in this expanding, gracious space within us, we arrive at the astonishing presence of God at the core of our life. We blunder into the heart of God and find our own.
It was easy to find my own heart in the heart of God through Sue’s beautiful writings.
2 comments:
I read Firstlight during my first Spring Reading Thing in 2007. You've chosen some nice quotes from the many meaningful things Kidd has written.
It was hard to choose what to quote--she has written some very insightful things. She is an author I definitely want to read more of.
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