Jane Tawel

Parables: The Stories of Small, Lost Things

Parables: The Stories of Small, Lost Things

By Jane Tawel

September 10, 2026

Parables are stories that are meant to withstand: outliving culture, time, space, and author. For this reason, parables, such as the brilliant and beautiful parables of Jesus, have been wrongly cluttered with solidifying interpretations, both those interpretative prison bars we put around so many of the Scriptures themselves, added on by the authors and not Jesus, and also those constricting structures added to ancient words today by preachers, priests, and common folk (such as I). Parables must be flexible enough to bend to new times and places and thereby relate something about our human experience no matter where or who we are. And perhaps parables, for those of us on the Eternal Search, show us something just out of reach about what God is like as well. Parables are always meant to be just out of our reach, like that pesky gnat that keeps flying around your face that you just can not swat away for the life of you. And parables are for “the life of you”. The best parables of the Wise Ones, should irritate us like the gnat. They should also, however, touch some place deep inside of us, beyond our little and much over-rated minds. I love a well-defined philosophy and I adore poetic expression, but my soul is touched by the paradoxes and deep-well water of a parable. Like all great stories, parables push me beyond belief and into experience; and to live inside of the experience of being human with the Mystery of what is not human — call it God, if you like — is too often cast aside in the quest for some idolatry, some offering of false assurance or some ever-dissatisfying temporal pleasure.

I will simply copy and paste below three parables attributed to Jesus by someone who we know today as Luke. What I am wrestling with (as one must do with parables) is how these three parables together can effect me today — how I can let them effect me. And yes, I refuse to use the modern word “affect” — there is far too much “affection” in the world as it is: I want the “Cause” of these parables to have an “Effect” in my heart, soul, mind and actions. For this is the truest Truth I know: we humans are created to “Love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength” and to love our neighbor with all our “heart, soul, mind and strength”, and to love myself with all my “heart, soul, mind and actions”. This is what I want to find in these three stories of lost things. Because I see so much loss in my world today. We have lost the belief, the driving force that one single human being is infinitely important. If you interpret as many do, that one of the characters in these parables is maybe, kinda, sorta God or Jesus, then, you would be interpreting God and Jesus as willing to completely ignore all the rest of the sheep, and all the rest of the coins to search for or celebrate the return of the one lost dumb, and the stupid sheep, the one lost insignificant, can’t buy much coin. You would also have to accept that God doesn’t punish the returning lost son, the useless, horrible, no good very bad, child, but instead throws a big party. God searching for a little, insignificant person out of the billions of humans walking the planet today is pretty unbelievable. This is frankly a very, very stupid thing to do. Compare it to one of our current billionaires ignoring his stock portfolio to go search for the quarter he dropped on the sidewalk. Compare it to a ruler ignoring all the CEOs and religious and political leaders in his party to throw a banquet for the homeless. (Jesus has a good parable about that too, but I digress). So, if you are going to want to see the “Searchers” or the “Father” in these parables as God, then you would have to admit that God doesn’t actually care what you have done or not done or where you worship or who you love: God loves each person, unconditionally, absolutely, and longingly. In his famous “Sermon on the Hilltop”, Jesus puts it like this: “The rain falls on the good and evil, on the just and the unjust”. Eeessh. Sometimes I wanna say to Jesus when I see him, “you gotta be jokin’?!” I mean, seriously, this puts into question my whole idea about fairness. Which is what so many of Jesus’ parables do, including the three lost things parables.

And here is the thing that a lot of Scripture-readers maybe don’t want to see but that I learned from the brilliant Jewish writer, Amy-Jill Levine, in her book Short Stories by Jesus. In the last of Luke’s parables about lost things, the father does NOT go searching for the lost prodigal. Yes, the prodigal returns and the father celebrates him, as any parent is so very happy to do when a child becomes safe after a dangerous choice, but the father does not go out looking for the younger, so-called prodigal son in this story. The Father DOES go search for the older son, the “good” son. This son has been so misinterpreted by our need to pin down the parable’s meaning for our own beliefs or time and place. But the story ends, like the other two, with the human being going to search for the one lost thing, even while everyone else is partying and having a good time with the returned son. The father does not realize until later that the older son, the one who has, in his own words, “done everything right”, is missing. And the father goes to find him. The shepherd with a lot of sheep, strangely goes to look for one lost lamb. The woman with a lot of coins, oddly notices that one little coin is missing, and searches high and low for it. And the father with a big household, and his spoiled (maybe favorite) younger son, returned, and all his servants serving, and his friends and extended family having a huge celebration — he goes out from all the joy and hoopla and pride and partying — to find his one lost older, son who despite all he has feels neglected, and sad, and angry, and lost. Oh, how I want to believe in a God who comes again and again to find me even when I am angry at Him and sad about the world and the responsibilities I feel towards it, and when I just feel hopeless and like no one, not even God, cares enough to do something, to care. Jesus is reminding me that no matter how I feel, and although God may seem absent and off celebrating something and someone else, I am never, never alone and even silly little ole’ me is someone worthy of God’s searching heart and absolute love. So, as Jesus might say, we must “go and do likewise”.

What I had to see for myself, today, in this parable is that there is no one, no one, that I am not to care about enough to have compassion for, to try to find a connection with, to search for the humanity in, and to love without judgement, without favor, without prejudice, and without any desire to be “right”. It does not mean that all things are equal or that there isn’t right and wrong, good and bad, truth and un-truths. What is means is that the people I consider “pharisees” or “hypocrites” or self-justifying, prejudiced, whinny, self-righteous, just -playing- it -safe, stuck- in- the -rut -where -I -have -always -been people — or people someone else might consider prodigal, sinful, insignificant, illegal, are also absolutely, positively beloved by God. I know this feels like lemon juice poured on an open wound, but if that is true about the God we want to believe in and know and be a part of, then we are to search in our hearts for the God-given ability to go “find them” and find our common human connection, and find our mutual divinity, our Imago Dei, and we are to love “the least and the lost” and “the high and the mighty” and the “proud and the angry” and the Jew and the Palestinian, and the Hindu and the Jehovah Witness, and the homeless and the celebrity, and the wise and the foolish. And we are to simply without question, love them and invite them to the “celebration”.

There is an ancient and world-wide tradition that calls some humans to keep the voice of prophecy alive, and I admit that at times like these, in the culture and time I live in today, that the prophetic voice is needed and sometimes that voice doesn’t sound very loving or kind. We do not get to see the attitude of the shepherd towards the lost sheep when he finds it. I would have been reading that sheep the riot act: “don’t you go ever getting lost like that again, you naughty little lamb”. And while the woman who finds her one coin calls all her girlfriends to come celebrate, she probably starts to keep her money somewhere she won’t lose more, like in a drawer or a bank or a safe CD. And we never know what happens to the younger, prodigal son after the celebration of the father. He might as he suggested have to work now as servant, having wasted his part of the inheritance. He might take off again, not ready to be healed and whole and at home and the father may one more have to mourn the loss of the prodigal son. But we do know what happens to the older son that the father goes to find. The father tells him that “You are always with me, and all I have is yours”. So, yes, I want to experience the God-love lived through me that one single insignificant, worthless as a 2026 USA penny, coin is worth my search, and that one single stupid, blindly bleating, Kool-Aid-drinking sheep is worth my sacrificial compassion, and the child, the person who does everything I agree with, the one who is “good”, is also often lost in his own mind-traps and sorrowful yearnings and blaming of me and existential crises, and it my responsibility to go and not give a lecture, and not justify my behavior, and not badmouth the prodigals or perceived mutual enemies, but to assure the child in every person that they are loved and that in Love, there is All and More than All .

If we interpret the people in Jesus’ parables as the searchers who represent the character of the Hebrew / Jesus God, then we also have to interpret them as what God calls humans to be like, because that is what all the prophets, and stories, and analogies, and parables in Scriptures do. If you then interpret the people doing the searching and restoring as human beings, which they are in fact in each story, you would then have to conclude that we are to act like the God we want to see in the entirety of the Hebrew and Christian Bible (one big book, often tragically thought to be two). And I believe, that even if you toss out said Bible, any one — atheist, agnostic, Sufi, or Muslim — in their deepest heart of hearts, every one wants to believe in Love, the power of love, and the gift of undeserved Love. We want to believe that someone, somehow, like a good Mother, loves each and every, single, solitary, silly little me. And if we want that, then do we not believe every human wants that, and thus, we are, to riff on Ghandi, to be the person we want to see in everyone else in the world? And that means loving the one single human being who is right in front of us; the one who is in trouble, in need, hidden, misplaced, mistaken, irritating, or downright useless — loving them simply because they are right in front of us and need us, loving that human, that person, that nobody, that silly, little lamb because that is what makes a human being a human Being, “a little lower than angels”. And that kind of weird, crazy behavior that comes out of the kind of love that is quite frankly, bizarre when you think about it, is what makes the God of Jesus, Something, Someone worth at least sort of kinda’ thinking about as a real and loving Presence. No matter how things may seem at the moment, in our lives or in our time and place, every one of us is both lost and searching. We are at the same time the ones trapped in the rubble and the search party of rescuers. Our capacity as human beings for courage, for compassion and empathy, for paradoxical and profound thought, and for the beauty, and wonder, and mystery that lies inside each soul, is what makes us a unique and wonderful species as we live on this beautiful, beautiful Earth. The three parables of lost things are about seeing ourselves and each other, looking at and for each other, searching for and being found by each other with “heart, soul, mind, and actions”. There is something “lost” in each of us, something that has gone astray, something that is longing to be found. And there is something courageous and determined in each of us, something that is longing to keep up the search until the last bit of light has faded. Jesus left us to do the searching for the lost. God has inscribed on our hearts the desire to search and to search with love. And we are promised in the poetry of the Psalmists, “those who seek, will find”. But we each do need to ask ourselves, “what am I truly seeking, and what do I hope to find”? I can’t be certain of course, but the mysteries and parables told by Jesus keep me hopeful that the story ends and we all find the Love we have sought.

Here are some parables of Jesus about the God / Human Search:

Three Parables of Jesus as Remembered in Luke 15

(from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible)

1. The Lost Sheep

So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

2. The Parable of the Lost Coin

8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

3.The Parable of the Two Lost Brothers (my re-titling, not Luke’s)

11 Then Jesus[a] said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled his stomach[b] with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[c] 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe — the best one — and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

25 “Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father[d] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

The Good Samaritan for Today

A word for such a time as this from the parable of “The Good Samaritan: As we remember those who did not “pass by on the other side” after 9/11, Firefighters, Canadians, Doctors, and just simple, normal, non-titled folks like you and me — and as we remember the many people today of various beliefs and cultures, whether from “Israel”, “Samaria”(Sobering Fact: Samaria is today’s Palestinian West Bank, so the “Good Samaritan” should be read “The Good Hamas Leader”– Jesus loved a good shock tactic, folks), or the USA who do not “pass by on the other side” when they see injustice — people who will not pass by on the other side but will risk all to help a stranger, an immigrant, an abused woman, a child at risk, a victim of racism or prejudice — as we remember all those, who like Jesus, and like Martin Luther King, Jr., who have inspired us to think differently about who our neighbor is — we are called to this time and this place — on our own “Road to Jericho”, that dangerous, winding road. Will we “pass by”, — like those whose motivation we do not know, the two who kept going on their way, the majority of 2 out of 3 in Jesus’ story, who were afraid to stop and help or just too immersed in their own busy-ness to think it was up to them to make a difference — a life-saving difference — in a stanger’s life? Or will we instead, be the One, the one who sees everyone as Jesus’ neighbor from Jesus’ worldview where no one — no one — is an enemy — but all are to be the recipient of our love — just as all are the recipient of Divine — God’s — the Father — The Creator’s Love. How will we walk this dangerous road today? Will we pass by or will we be today’s “Good Samaritan”?

These thoughts were inspired by the last sermon Dr. and Preacher Martin Luther King, Jr. preached before he was assassinated.

Link to Martin Luther King’s Sermon:

Haikus of Trust

Haikus of Trust

By Jane Tawel

Frightened, hard, closed fists.

Yearning, open hands.

Faith is in the unknowning.

A Tree grows in light.

The night stunts its reach.

But the roots grow in the dark.

I have great fear of going blind.

To see nothing would impair my sense of self.

But what senses of Otherness would rise in me,

the blind traveler,

were I to keep walking?

The Gore and Glory of Gardens

The Gore and Glory of Gardens

By Jane Tawel

August 27, 2026

How glorious to get gory in the garden.

The scratch of thorns on forearms,

the blisters from the dig with gloveless trowels,

the sweat in pits and crevices of this

amazing bucket of blood and water

that Nature has formed around my soul

to care for my small patch of Mother Earth.

I felt once young and clean again today,

to shape the world with loving shears and mulch.

To mix my blood with Wood and Fruit —

the trellises like crosses,

and vines with open mouths and wounds,

accepting my small part in their salvation.

We small shoots in the ever-growing Universe,

have so much love to give,

have so much love to receive.

To be afraid of change and growth,

is to experience, once more,

our Banishment from The Garden.

I look at the dandelions,

determined to take their place among the flowers of the world,

And I say to them,

“We are not so different, You and I”.

Today, I told the lilies of my field

that though the heating Sun

would kill them now,

their regal raiment was secure;

for beauty never really dies.

And as I brutally cut away

the dead and dying parts

of branch and leaf and husk,

I sang a song of blessing

on the roots and shoots and buds.

I told the bees who looked at me askance,

“A garden must suffer to thrive,

A garden must die to live,

A garden will give and give and give

And you, dear bees and I, must care for Her

with all the skills and love together we can bring”.

A Garden is a glorious, gory thing.

How wonder-full to walk in The Garden,

Returned to The Presence,

at One with small, real, lovely things.

A cosmos contained in a back yard,

shedding blood and sap and dew,

continually dying cells

and resurrecting Life.

We are meant to be

at One,

as Kin,

at Home,

returned to Eden,

in small patches of soil.

Not From, Not To, But Are

Not From, Not To, But Are

By Jane Tawel

It is not where you are from

Nor where you are going

Not from, not to,

But are.

How very silly we have been

to stand on what is behind us

(that belonged to someone else).

Or to look toward what we imagine is before us

(tomorrow never comes for it is always now)

What a tragi-comedy we live

To bank on what is on the bank

To live clinging to the shore

And to miss what is right here

right Now

and which is always without effort

moving, floating, streaming –

Oh! — the Current can not be

dammed with words.

We were made to feel

the Flow

Water and blood flow

We see water flow

We can feel it flow through our hands

Impossible to grasp.

We sense blood flow

Through veins, heart pumping

Surging life through bodies made

of dancing molecules.

In life, water and blood flow separately

But in Death, water and blood flow out together.

In death, we know they are one

as we are One.

When life flows out of this cask of blood and bones,

of sensibility and sinew,

of dermis and dreams,

the container will no longer be needed.

And we will join the Great Flow

Flowing out and on

“Deep and wide

Deep and wide

There’s a Fountain flowing deep and wide”**.

“Don’t wait”! cry the angels,

“Join the Great Flow now!”

Letting go

Releasing

No judgement

No fear

You are already in and of.

There is no need to know

There is only experiencing.

One joins the Stream

And then knows without knowing

That the Water flowing

is also the swirl of Light.

** These words are from an old children’s Sunday School song called “Deep and Wide”. We knew more as children, it seems.

Time for Change

(This is from a FB comment I shared on a post of mine in response to other comments. I thought it might also be worth posting here.)

Thanks for conversation on this and kind words at end — back at ya’.

There are many, many people you can read who can say much, much better what I will try to say here in this strange little forum some of us inhabit on FB. To read about the ultimately destructive and inhuman and unsustainable consequences of the ubercapitalist nation we have created in America, you can find far better thinkers than I. There are literary giants such as Orwell and Steinbeck; politicians from the past such as Abraham Lincoln or FDR; journalists and essayists through the ages too numerous to mention; and of course spiritual giants, such as Jesus, just to name The Big Guy.

What we are seeing in America today is actually the end game of the system we have long called many things other than what it is. The people who have always benefited from this system have now benefitted to such an extent that their oligarchy is unassailable from within the system itself. And so they use other means — such as what communism actually is doing in this nation — our current government is taking public funds and private properties away from the citizens and giving it to either the nation under the guise of Republicanism or giving it to the olligarchy of billionaires that are actually running this country. The way they best do this without our catching on is to make people afraid — fearmongering is the best trick up the sleeve of authoritarians and the men who want to be gods because it keeps people in the smoke and mirror world of creating the “enemy” that they need to fight against — rather than the reality that what we need is to change the very broken system — broken for us, not the greedy narcissists at the top.

What these oligarchs and authoritarians don’t realize is that eventually the system will break down for them as well — they are committing national murder but it is really ultimately suicide. Take the current example you present in their sleight of hand magic show. Mom and Pop stores do not need to fear a change in the system, they need to fight against the current system that has destroyed small businesses across this nation in the same way it has destroyed privately owned farms, and our roads and toll systems, and now our public lands and national parks — that is the boogey man and he is not hiding in the closets of so called “communists”, he is in the halls of power of our current government and billionaires.

So yes — I applaud any one who asks — is it so wrong to entertain the possibility — the hope — that we can change this 250 year old system? Because we have been a part of this system since we killed the people who lived here for their land or enslaved Black people to enrich white people. Today we are simply seeing the tragic results of no longer having any safe guards around the slippery slope. I am all for tryiing something new because this current American system is not only self-destructing at the speed of light but destroying our planet and taking the name of God and the message of Christ to a level of lies and lows that would grieve the most contrite sinner such as I.

Would I rather see my “hard earned cash” go to my struggling neighbors than to the people making themselves rich off of my tax dollars? Yep. Do I see other nations with different named philosophies of true democracy not unchecked capitalism, in the world doing a much better “job” of caring for their citizens, keeping the world safe, and saving the planet — yes, absolutely. Do I want to believe the people in charge who don’t even pretend to hide their lies or greed or hatred? No, I will not believe them and I will not believe there are that many people in America who do want to continue to believe this destructive hogwash.

I have to believe that the soul of America is worth saving because the souls of the little people of every color, religion, job-description, and gender are worth more than any one billionaire or God help us, trillionaire. And if we need some radical changes to save the beautiful things this nation has always aimed for — bring it on.

The Truth Is in the Spaces

The Truth Is in the Spaces

By Jane Tawel

July 24, 2026

Words are signposts only,

along the Narrow Way.

If you rush from point to point,

word to word,

you will never reach

the destination,

the place that you call “The Truth”.

Words will keep you traveling, traveling, traveling;

Anxious to find the right signs, or

Arguing with your copilots

Certain in your certainty,

that only you know best,

that your way is the Only!! route,

the single road to Happiness, to Heaven, or to Holiness;

And never knowing deeply, truly,

that there are many trued and true paths

leading Home.

Words, especially those on ancient maps,

can also keep you stuck,

content to stay within your deepening rut.

Eventually you can dig yourself

so far down and down and down

you barely have a finger to raise above your ditch,

a small and useless pointer at the stars which you can’t see,

down there in the dark and dank, determined ditch you’ve dug.

Or perhaps you raise an angry, upright digit

raised in indignation, raised against

the perceived enemies out there,

a digit wiggling out and up,

a solitary soldier in the slumbering stand you take

against awakening

and climbing up and out into

the fresh air of the Open Road.

For a long time, inviting others

to join you in your rut

can make you feel safe.

Until the floods come.

Your muscles that once could have found The Way,

Out into the Open Air, free in the Wide and Open Spaces,

are too weak by now, atrophied by the fears of your Unknowing.

You have languished long, far from the Road,

feeling secure in the tight confines of your pit,

Unable to pull yourself out of the rut of

your necessary belief that somehow, stuck down there,

you will eventually rise to Something, Somewhere Else.

But a pit leads no-where, my friend.

And in the hidey- hole that you’ve dug,

you never see the many ropes

that others have thrown down

to let you pull yourself out from

the ditch that you have dug around yourself.

So many lovely, lovely things,

have through the eons

of this lovely, lovely World’s circuitous

spiraling, mysteriously moving expedition,

thrown out life-lines,

shown, not spoken,

and pointed to all the Truth we ever need to know,

to Trust that only Love can lead The Way.

Nature has the truest Trueline.

Her roots have been threaded by Eternity,

threaded into thick, strong cords,

leading in and out, and down and up,

The Way of Our Salvation.

The World is full of Glory

to save us from drowning

in idolatry of texts,

from continually bashing ourselves

upon the rocky walls we make

out of our own silly and inflated egos.

Nature has never built a wall.

When the Flood comes,

and finds you in your high-walled ditch,

Words won’t help you float.

You need something with air in it for that,

Something that breathes,

Something buoyant like a raft.

Cast aside your useless euphemisms,

your cries and yells and sermons,

your documents and equations

none of these can save you.

You can only release yourself to The Flow.

Let go

and float

and let The River lift you up and out,

out from in your trenches,

out from your revenges and your fears,

and let The Water take you,

clean you and restore you,

back from chosen Death to freely given Life.

Trust the Flow.

All Rivers flow to The Source.

Truth is not a map

that anybody owns.

The Way is the play between,

the give and take

and push and shove

and gentle flow of

of letting go;

the looking up and out

and gazing long

at what is not there to be seen

but that which opens us.

And when we do not know

then we know

it is not our seeing that matters,

because we sense

we, at last, are Seen.

Don’t throw away your maps,

but rest assured,

while Compasses are often useful things,

True Truth is only in the gaps.

Truth is in the spaces –

The small bits and gentle pauses

The breaths between the hub-bub

and the clean-rooms that scour out

the hubris of our “feeling”

that we are right and they are wrong.

Peace is only found in the spaces

between the small stones in your shoes,

only in the vast open-places

glimpsed only

out of the corner of your eyes,

perhaps magnified into

kaleidoscopic wonder

by tears of sorrow or

tears of aching Awe.

I wish they had used better punctuation

in the things that Jesus said.

There needs to be a lot of Space —

— Between —

between the Truths that only Love can know.

I add a lot of dashes —

Between the words of Christ.

I AM —

The Way —

The Truth —

The Life —

Seek —

and you will find.

Love —

Love.

Yes — let me live and move and

Find my being

in the Dashes —

I Am-ness —

And Your IAm.

my seeking —

and Your finding.

my longing —

and the only thing that fills that longing —

Love.

The Spirit People do not hand us maps —

We make those up ourselves.

And while a map can be a useful thing,

we shouldn’t mistake it for The Way.

Look for the crevices and cracks –

There is a crack in everything,

That’s how the Light gets in.*

Look up from your maps,

And follow The Light.

There is a Light in The Window,

and The Light of The World

will lead us Home.

*by Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Don’t Be Deceived by What You May Hear

Okay, I don’t want to be preachy or proselytizy (good made up word right?). But here goes anyway….

The bad news: Jesus warned us that “many will come, claiming to be the Messiah or claiming to come in my name, and many will come in order to deceive you, and I will (sadly, I like to add) say: ‘I never knew you’.” Not my place to name names, but you have to be foolish not to see who these folks are in America today.

This is for anyone who may be very confused by what they are hearing today and witnessing in those who claim a religion that has become known as “Christianity” and at one time, was simply called “The Way”. It was a natural byproduct of the amazing life of a Jewish rabbi and embraced as an amazing alternative way to live in wholeness, truth, and grace by people who wanted to learn how to be close to God (in an experiential way, like a loving child with a loving Parent); and learn how to live as the best humans they could be with love and care for all other humans. The radical and core teachings of Jesus, as remembered by his followers, and what was supposed to enlighten Jews and Gentiles as The Way, are summed up in what are called “The Beatitudes” (Matthew 5).The bad news: Jesus warned us that “many will come, claiming to be the Messiah or claiming to come in my name, and many will come in order to deceive you, and I will (sadly, I like to add) say: ‘I never knew you’.”

As Richard Rohr writes: “The Beatitudes are paradoxical “commandments.” They don’t tell Christians what to do; they tell them what they will be like if they are living in the kingdom: They will be poor in spirit, pure in heart, merciful and gentle peacemakers; they will thirst for what is right and be persecuted because of it, and they will mourn.”
—Richard Rohr

So, if that is not what you are seeing that someone is trying to be, then they are not trying to be like Jesus. No matter what they may believe or say they believe. Is it easy? Goodness no! But the whole point is — we aren’t alone in this search, path, life.

The good news: Jesus claimed that God “has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4). How thankful I am to see so many people of all faiths doing this but as a person raised in the faith of Christianity, I am so thankful to see it in those who claim to follow Christ. When we “look for the helpers” as Mr. Rogers told us to, there are many who are still following in The Way of Jesus.

We used to sing this song in church, “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love”. Over and over, the only command we have from Jesus is “to love”. Love one another. Love your enemy. Greater love has no one than she who lays down her life for another. “Love the Lord Your God will all your heart, soul, and mind and love your fellow human being as you would like to be loved yourself.”

In this time of trial, in this time when many of us mourn and are fearful, in a world seemingly gone mad, let your light shine where you can. And however you get there, keep walking The Tao, The Way, The Path of Love. Whereever and however you can. The good news is — Love wins. Everytime. And that is the real message of the man we call Jesus, the Christ.

YOU

YOU

By Jane Tawel

June 10, 2026

Open our eyes,

and let us see.

YOU are Way,

not wall.

YOU are the Open Door

not the closed borders.

YOU are process,

not product.

YOU are not container,

but Cosmos.

YOU are OTHER,

and yet, not other.

Like a MOTHER,

YOU womb me,

Birth me,

Nurse me,

And with opened eyes,

I see only YOU,

And YOU and I are One.

May the Light of Your Love,

Blind us into healed eyes

and new sight.

May the Grace of Your Goodness,

cause us to stumble from our marches

so that we may hold out hands of help

to the bruised and to the fallen.

May the Wonder of Your World,

make us weep with longing

and humble us, and gladden us

to care for this Our Home,

with the same parental care

that YOU, oh, Father care for Your World.

May we fall in love once again,

with this our Home, and these,

our Brothers and our Sisters;

And may we treat all Life — as YOU do —

with the same kindness and nurture

that a Gardener and Farmer gives

the blessed, life-giving Land.

May the Freedom of Your Mercy

Heal our hatreds.

May the selflessness of Your Justice,

replace our false desire for punishment.

And in the Court of Your judgement,

May the oppressed be restored,

the prisoner set free,

the lame walk and the leper dance.

And May Your rivers of righteousness roll down,

rolling and roiling,

as the first become last,

and the last are the first,

and all tumble and meld

into the Oneness that is

Your Kingdom come.

Parent, Creator, Foundation, Friend:

May the Love that is

Of YOU,

And that is beyond comprehension,

May the Mystery of Love that You are

and that You can only be, and can be no other —

May that same Love

that is beyond all human understanding,

and that is also the miracle of Love

available to all humble hearts,

Keep our feet inching forward on The Way,

Keep our minds open to Your Truth,

Keep our wills muscular with the joy of Your Spirit,

And may our hearts beat as One

with You and with All that You Love.

May the Lure of Your Love,

make me, as You were and are,

a fisher of lives —

to patiently cast out the lure of your love

to catch them and release them

back into the OCEAN of YOU,

Just as YOU have caught and released

this small guppy of a girl.

May it Be.

Truth and Love

By now, I am assuming people who want to know the truth are reading people like Heather Cox Richardson or It’s a Lovely Life by Heather Delaney Reese or Robert Reich. I have posted their sage words many times and could again and again, for they report on what is happening in this nation with truth and integrity and big hearts for the people of America.

Some days I can barely stand to read what is being allowed to happen on our watch — our poor, poor children — what a mess we are handing them, that is, handing them if and should we continue to exist. For those people who either can not give up their false idols or who prefer an alternative reality that more suits their ego, or who just want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend things are not as they are or that there is nothing they can do, or that “they just want to enjoy their lives” — I pity you, I truly do. And while I still feel so very angry that so many are allowing this nation, and the religion of Christianity, and the planet to be destroyed by their own ignorance, greed, fear of the other, power-hunger, or frankly for some, absolutely their evil intent, I also feel such sorrow for them; they have “given up their souls for profit” as the Good Man says, and given up their humanity and human dictate to care for the world in exchange for power and the illusion of happiness with more and more and more money. Some of their idols are obviously and literally insane — stark raving demented and insane. And still they never see the truth or that “money can’t buy you love” and that you cannot “worship God and material greed”.

I feel such sorrow that on this our 250th birthday, we have slid down the slippery slope of uber-capitalism and empire so very far. I feel such a sense of shame by association and wonder how some people can feel no shame.

I am grateful for those still speaking truth. I am grateful for those who still believe in the idea of America and that we can be what we set out to be, 250 years ago. I am grateful to my depths for the brave people who have claimed the same religion I have for so long and who are sharing what that religion actually teaches, and who are speaking up for Jesus the Christ and for our sense of who a loving God is — “a God and a Christ who loves all humans — no matter what their background or identification”. as St. Paul taught us God and Christ love. And how I pity those people tied to a religious instutition that pays them to continue to tell people what they do here doesn’t matter — that all that matters is whether you go to heaven — something Jesus never, ever said. “The Kingdom of God is within you — here. Now”. …… Or it’s not.

Okay — ranting, I know. Sorry. I honestly day after day, just can’t get my head around it.

But here is my hope — — today, on my jog, as usual, I pick up other people’s trash. This is my Father’s World and my Mother’s Breast. One day a couple thanked me and said, we teach our grandkids to do this and we make a game of it. There is my hope and encouragement. Today I will try my best to teach my students to write and read and think critically and ethically and spiritually — they are all in high school but very few schools seem to encourage this any more. But there are some who do and many parents who do, and these young people — they can take over from us any time in my opinion. There is my hope and anticipation that we — they — can turn this ship around. And today, I will tell my family and friends and the early morning workers at the end of my street who gather to find work to feed their families that I love them, and be safe out there, and I am grateful for your lives. And I will tell the bees in my lavender, and the lizards on my sidewalk, and the tree in my front yard, and the blue, blue sky — “I love you. Be safe out there. I am grateful for you.” I will hold all these lovely things and these other human souls in my heart and will send them thoughts of joy: “You make my heart glad and hopeful. Thank you for being wonderful, amazing you”. And even if sometimes I wonder where God is, or why He doesn’t “do something”, I will pray the only prayer I know: “I love you. Make me a being of Love. Please help us”.

And there is my hope. Because I know there are lots and lots of people out there who are truly loving. And some are Christians, and some are Hindus, and some are Muslims, and some live in Iran and some live in Ukraine and some live in Palestine, and some live right here on my little street in SoCal. And Love is the most powerful force in the universe. “Now these three things will remain, “Trust in The Good, Hope despite the circumstances, and Love for all — but the greatest of these is Love”. (St. Paul).

My hope is that little bits of Light and Love will overcome the darkness and hatred of this dire hour. I end this not with anger or hopelessness, but with determination to do my part — to be the light and be the love. And I have hope because I know enough people who are doing that same thing. And to quote another great saint, MLK, the “arc of the moral universe will bend toward justice” and we little Whos in Whoville will be heard by the One Who Loves and Who hears us, and “we shall overcome”.
May it be so.

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