I continue to receive more evidence that I/We live in a benevolent universe...
The latest comes from an old soul – Mirabai Starr. Years ago, I was introduced to her by my Franciscan guru Richard Rohr. She was a featured presenter at the Center for Action and Contemplation’s 2016 Conspire gathering that I attended with my son as part of our father-son pilgrimage. Mirabai is one of several “Jewish angels” that have appeared to me at key moments in my present incarnation...but that's midrash for another moment... She is a wonderful storyteller and I could sit at her feet forever, bathing in the light of the Starr-dust that falls from her heart...
In a 2021 Shift Network Mystics Summit podcast with mindful musician Trevor Hall – who she considers an anam cara (soul friend) – while in conversation, they said that G-d comes to us in the way we most need G-d at that moment.
HOW FREAKIN GRACIOUS!!!
Like AA’s “G-d as you understand G-d,” the divine energy shows up as a mother, father, brother, sister, sunset, animal, dear friend, delicious meal, messages on bumper stickers, license plates and frames, and myriad other forms and formlessnesses...
--from my iPhone gallery...
The second 5-Starr [sic] pearl of great price from Mirabai came in week 2 of her current course on John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul (an offering hosted by Carolyn Myss). She described the relationship between the Lover and the Beloved as MANNA – but not simply the plain desert variety (1 “s”) – the one about which the people complained - BUT the “2-s” variety – DESSERT – whereby G-d comes to us in the flavor we most need at that moment...like a Baskin-Robbins version of William James “Varieties of Religious Experience.”
31-derful!!!
HOW FREAKIN DELICIOUS!!!
“Taste and see the goodness of the LORD.”
These mystical awarenesses are helping raise my culinary consciousness and trust the process...trust the recipe...
And they further support my claim that in the Kingdom of G-d, chefs hold a higher place than clergy. Taste and see for yourself...
The Rabbi Cooks!? (0:55)
HOW FREAKIN NUTRITIOUS!!!
The Vegan Kosher Rabbi (6:53)
--holding restaurants to a HIGHER standard than the government...Geez, that ain't hard...
On a foraging trip into NYC with our son John, he brought us to a Juice Press store. There I saw a great sign:
"Certified organic by our Hippie
Certified vegan by our Conscience
Certified kosher by our Rabbi"
Taste and See – a musical menu of metaphors...with wonder-filled nature imagery...
I’ll leave you with this...what if we viewed sacred tomes as cook books and holy scriptures as recipes???
BUT, not as portrayed in that "To Serve Man" Twilight Zone episode. I'll let you find your way there...the full half-hour episode is on Vimeo.
...we become what and who we eat...
DARK NIGHT IMAGERY
"The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. when everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life, and all that is needed."
--Joseph Campbell
VIEWER TIP: There's a Trevor Hall song "hidden" in the darkness of these images...
Moon / Sun - Trevor Hall (4:03)
Mirabai, Trevor and I, along with countless others, have been nourished and blessed by the life and teaching of Ram Dass...
"The fruitful darkness
Is all around us
In bloom
The dark within my dark
Is where I found my light
The fruit became the doorway
And now it's open wide"
Namaste,
tOM