Sitting In the Kingdom of Heaven
I sat in the Kingdom of Heaven today And had tea and biscuits
With Jesus and the Angels;
St. Teresa of Avila, who wore red slippers And asked for extra honey with her biscuit, please;
And St. Brighid, who brought jam and her weaving, For she liked to stay busy.
Bird songs and the roar of hummingbird wings
Wrapped our joyful chatter
In glorious praise anthems,
Holding us in their rhythm of harmony
As we munched our snack
And clinked our tea cups
From dainty china dishes I’d carefully unwrapped
From a long-ago childhood memory.
There were red roses on the white tea cups
Just like the roses in the garden
Where we supped,
Along with the hummingbirds
Who fed our Souls with their musical wings,
As we fed them honey nectar from our tea cups
And threw biscuit crumbs to the birds
To thank them for their love songs.
It was a glorious day in the Kingdom of Heaven, Full of life after a fresh summer rain ~
Hints of the most recent rainbow
Still lingering in the air
And on the wings and breasts of the song birds.
Jesus didn’t seem to mind
My childish questions …
We talked easily ~
He seemed as if a big brother ~
One wizened from many journeys …
Perhaps One who had just returned
Home
For a lingering visit
To see His little sister,
To check up on her and make sure
All was well with her
As she struggled with her childish ways.
The Angels at the table
Sprang to life,
Leaping off photographs of Light Beings that lay next to me,
Spiraling into fullness from my childish imagination,
Joining the stone angel who was likewise animating
From the inanimate devotional object that too long
Sat on my altar shelf.
(Photos of Light Beings by Sharon Payne, Waco, TX)
They joined into the conversation just as easily,
As if gentle Guides …
There to whisper advice,
To urge me to Pay Attention!
And to sometimes h-o-l-d m-y t-o-n-g-u-e
At opportune moments.
St. Brighid joined in close,
Showing me secret signs and symbols,
Which Ancient Mother Earth
Once showed her long ago.
She fed my childish curiosity
And urged me to protect
Pieces of my childish innocence
In secret, hidden pockets of my Inner Being.
St. Teresa begged me to laugh heartily
And to pray often ~
Or was it to pray heartily
And to laugh often?
I got confused,
Because she seemed so deliriously Joyful!
And in the same moment
Enraptured in a state of Prayer-FULL-ness
That I cannot imagine
In my childishness
To ever attain.
But somehow, anything seemed possible,
There at that tea-and-biscuits table
With St. Teresa, St. Brighid, Jesus and the Angels …
In fact, Everything seemed possible!
Because it was, after all,
Where different Laws govern ~
Laws I didn’t have to understand yet ...
For I was just a child
Having imaginary tea and biscuits,
Playing with wild birds and hummingbirds,
Listening to celestial music
Made of birdsongs and bird wings,
And somehow knowing,
As I ate biscuits and jam
And drank tea with honey …
That All I truly need
To be fully nourished
Is to draw deep from the Breath of God ~
For It alone
Will Feed the Holy Flame Within
And keep my Divine Spark
Ever burning.
That was part of what Jesus taught me …
What the Angels whispered …
What St. Brighid nudged me to see in the signs and symbols … What St. Teresa begged me to hear Through the laughter and the prayers …
As we sat together around that table
With our Rose tea cups, drinking,
Eating, talking, whispering, and
Laughing.
Or maybe it was all the
Imaginings of a child …
Playing …
Dreaming it all up …
Confusing the Imaginal Realm
For Reality.
For either
I sat in the Kingdom of Heaven today And had tea and biscuits
With Jesus, St. Brighid, St. Teresa of Avila, and the Angels,
Or I did not.
~ By Karen Wood
(written late August 2011 in Angel Fire, N.M.)
