Yesterday, I wrote our church’s Easter benediction:
And now, my dear brothers and sisters,
as it was said in the very beginning,
let there be light.

And more than that, let there be life.
Let there be resurrection.
Let there be hallelujah. Let there be dancing where there was once only mourning.
Let there be daylight where there was, for so long, only dark.
Let there be cool, clear water after a drought, nourishment after starvation, love after aching loneliness.

Last week my friend @Julie_rodgers recommended Padraig O Tuama’s beautiful book In the Shelter, & specifically one phrase that has captured me so deeply: hello to here—or: I’m fully present to this here & this now, not the past or the future, not fantasies or regrets, but HERE. A wise friend of mine says that true spiritual maturity is nothing more—and nothing less—than consenting to reality. Hello to here—not what you wanted or longed for or lost, not what you hope for or imagine. Reality. This here. This now.