Soul Notes by Howard

The March breeze prompted my need for a coat. I set out for a local park, intentionally using the next hour to quiet my restless mind and emotions.  The place was inviting with winding paths that meandered through woods, meadows and streams. Walking - listening - observing - breathing - along the muddy shores of a pond I noticed the prominent foot tracks of several deer who had previously made their way to this very spot.
Psalm 42 reminds us of our innate desire for the water of God’s divine nature.  Not just connection to the natural environment that we call “mother nature”, but the deeper soul within us that longs for God’s own essence or nature. Our desire for intimacy with the Divine is as natural as deer searching for life sustaining water.  Richard Rohr says this: “You cannot know God the way you know anything else; you only know God or the soul of anything subject to subject, center to center, by a process of “mirroring” where like knows like and love knows love—“deep calling unto deep” (Psalm 42:7). The Divine Spirit planted deep inside each of us yearns for and responds to God—and vice versa (see James 4:5).”
In this time of change and uncertainty, there are many voices loudly calling for our attention.  It is important for us to seek the ever-flowing stream of God’s presence - deep calling to deep. 

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Psalm 42:1-4, 7, 11 
​As the deer longs after the water brooks, so my soul longs after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When will I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they always say to me, “Where is your God?”  When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me.  Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and Your billows pass over me.  Why, my soul, are you cast down? Why do you groan within me? Wait for God;  I will yet thank God, for God is my deliverance and my God.

References: Richard Rohr, The Lost Tradition of Contemplation - Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Martin Nystrom, As the Deer© 1984 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publishing  CCLI License # 11537482​