Spring is here.

Spring is here. These Hippeastrum's are blooming in my garden this week. I’m amazed because of their size and sturdiness - they are as large as dinner plates! The Victorians believed Hippeastrums symbolised determination, beauty, success and strength. These flowers have me pondering about what makes us strong. Could it be… our availability to feel everything and yet stay open in the flow of love and grace?

In her book Social Analysis for the 21st Century Maria Cimperman uses the phrase 'Radical Availability'. 'Radical' in this context refers to root, core or essence and 'Availability' meaning more like the Spanish word 'Disponibilidad' which is a complete offering of self. Cimperman says "Radical Availability is about a core offering of self, a complete willingness to go where needed, to do what is needed. It is the disciple's way of life." She says that "Radical Availability" is born of and cultivated by prayer and a desire to be open. 

Cimperman says this way of life is something we grow into as we seek and practice living into our spirituality and our deepest values. We take a position of making ourselves openhearted and available for what God is asking of us with Jesus as our guide and our model. As we live into this, we ask God to free us from anything but goodness. Often, this leads us to sense the places of our freedom and lack of freedom, our strength and our weaknesses, our light and our shadow side. So the promise of 'Radical Availability' is both awareness and transformation.

As Rumi said:
Let us become a new spring and feel the breeze drift in the heaven's scent.
Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts and let them light our path to Love.
The glance of Love is crystal clear and we are blessed by its light.

or Michael Leunig:

We celebrate spring’s returning and
the rejuvenation
of the natural world.
Let us be moved by this vast and
gentle insistence that goodness shall
return,
that warmth and life shall succeed, and
help us to understand our place within
this miracle.
Let us see that as a bird now builds
its nest, bravely,
with bits and pieces, so we must build
human faith.
It is a simple duty; it is the highest art;
it is a natural and vital role within the
miracle of spring:
the creation of faith.

Amen

Anne Bonnefin
Communication Co ordinator
Community of Christ Australia