Sipping Our Tea, We Stop the War

 by Student Liza Fox

“Sipping a bowl of green tea, I stop the war”-

Paul Reps, Zen telegrams

“Be opened”

Mark 7:34

(Audio Recording of this Blog post with image of St. Francis)

I close my eyes, breathe in gratitude, and right there I am connected to the universe. Presence arrives. I am Opened.

Isn’t that the most incredible miracle? How we are never separated? We are just a breath away?

What is happening right now?
Your heart, my heart, both beating at the same time. Our cells regenerating. The fire regenerating the earth, the earth receiving the rain, the rain feeding the seeds who are nourished by the ash, the seeds creating new life. I am healing with each breath. In ways I don’t understand and often in ways that I do not “like”. Be opened.

What have I forgotten?

I have the opportunity to love and to forgive at any moment. The harsh word, the self abandonment, the parent, the child, the person we perceive as different, the group we judge…God…myself. This is the holy miracle of incarnation! I can begin anew each moment. Each moment is a miracle healing waiting to be received and acknowledged. Ultimately there is no intercessor required. Just a willingness to be uncomfortable. To be opened.

How can I source intimacy right now?

As I breathe in I expand in gratitude for the unquestionable truth of my interconnectedness with all things, all beings, all of creation. And as I breathe out I release the ways I close my heart from loving God, myself and loving you. Each of you. I am opened and co-create reality with each intentional breathe.

How can I “stop” the war (the fire, the conflict, the…..)?

As I breathe in I acknowledge and hold compassion for everything that blocks me from God: The fear and the shame. The blame, rage, terror, hurt, confusion. The “I don’t likes”. As I breathe out I release being right, controlling, denying and deflecting responsibility. I release the doubt of my inherent innate miracle. And my doubt in yours. I remember: Everything is God, everything is a miracle.

As I breathe in: Thank you God.
As I breathe out: For everything.

Sipping our tea, we stop the war. The war within. The war of separation. And we are opened.

October 4th is the Feast of Sant Francis. Francis’s Canticles and Rep’s haiku remind me of how to “stop the war”. Thank you St. Francis, for your courage, for your faith in Clare, and for your commitment to God.

“Prayer of St Francis - Santiago Lusardi Girelli” on Vimeo