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As I am wading through 130 or so posts
to edit for Saturday's
highlights, this one from the radiance
of Old Hag's pile stands alone..
can not be edited and needs to be
offered complete. Perhaps you will
receive a second 'highlight' from
Saturday.. perhaps this one is all we
need to hear today.. thank you, dear
friend, for the grace of this
offering... your 'acting up' heart
heals us all... may yours find it's
right bodily rhythm... certainly it is
aligned with Right Rhythm.

...o00o...
From: Old_Hag@webtv.net (Old Hag)

Hello dears:

These are the words to title song from movie of St. Francis life,
Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and then a description of the scene in the
Marketplace where Francis gives away all he "possesses" and awakens to
his Freedom!.

"Brother Sun, Sister Moon,
I seldom see you,
Seldom hear your tune.
Pre-occupied, in selfish misery.

Brother Wind and Sister Air
Open my eyes to visions pure and fair.
That I may see
the Beauty around me.

I am God's creature,
in Him I am part.
I feel His love,
Awakening my heart.

Brother Sun and Sister Moon
I now do see you,
I can hear your tune.
So much in love,
with all that I survey."

This song comes right after Francis has had his awakening, after which
he goes to the top floor of his house, and jubilantly throws all his
father's silks and brocades (his father is a rich cloth merchant, burly,
greedy, easy to anger), out into the streets below, telling the hoopin'
and hollerin' crowd that has gathered, to "throw it all away. It is of
no use."

His outraged father drags him through the streets by the neck - Francis
still smiling, crying out to the crowd, "look at my poor father - what
good has all his riches done him?" to the Bishop for punishment.

The scene in the large village square finds the Bishop standing on the
stairs, the crowd below on either side, and Francis and his father (his
mother is there, too) in the center, before the Bishop.

The Bishop asks who is causing all this fuss, and Francis answers:

F: Yes, it's me. My soul is in your hands.

Bishop: What? Are you trying to cause trouble? Is that what you're
trying to do? Is this some damned plot to rob the church of its
authority?

Father: That's nothing compared to what he's done to me, Your Grace. God
only knows, I brought him up, I've clothed him. I've only given him the
best. Ask anyone! They'll tell you! He's never wanted for anything in
his life from the day he was born!

But today, he threw all my belongings out of the window, and he even
opened my strongbox! (crowd gasps, father begins to cry) and.(garbled
words)....threw out on the street. Years of hard work and self-sacrifice
just tossed away.

Bishop to Francis: Then, what is your answer to these accusations?
Surely you are sufficiently intelligent to understand that Holy Mother
Church must punish those who subvert the established order. A man such
as you is a menace to society. He's either criminal or..

Francis: someone seeking the light - someone in darkness. I was in
darkness, but Brother Son illuminated my soul. And now, I can see so
clearly - just as you did the day you chose the sacred vestments you are
wearing now.

Bishop: (now softened): Are you seeking...Holy Orders?

Francis: Me? no. I am not worthy.

B: Then - what do you want?

Francis; I want to be - to be happy! I want to live like the birds in
the sky. I want to experience the freedom and the purity that they
experience. The rest is of no use to me.

No use, believe me. If the purpose of life is this loveless toil we fill
our days with, then it's not for me. There must be something better!
There has to be! Man is - man is a spirit! He has a soul! And today,
that is what I want to recapture - my soul.

(Francis begins to take off his clothes.)

I want to live! I want to live in the fields, stride over hills, climb
trees, swim rivers. I want to feel the firm grasp of the earth beneath
my feet, without shoes, without possessions, without those shadows we
call our servants.

I want to be a beggar! Christ was a beggar, his holy apostles were
beggars, I want to be as free as they are!

Father: But, Your Grace, even beggars show respect for their fathers.

Francis: I'm not your son any more.

Father: Wha...?

Francis: What is born of the flesh is flesh. What is born of the spirit,
is spirit. I now am born again.

(Francis takes off rest of clothes, puts them in his arms and walks to
his weeping father. The mother stands in shock. Francis hands the
clothes to his father.)

Francis: Father, I give you back everything that belongs to you: your
clothes, your possessions - your name, too.

(Francis, with shining countenance, turns from parents and addresses
crowd, addresses himself. Claire is watching from window, smiling.)

Francis: There are no more fathers. There are no more sons. And everyone
who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or fathers, or mothers, or
children, or fields - for the sake of our heavenly Father will receive a
hundred times more in the life to come.

(Bishop shouts: Cover him up! and gives his large brocade cape to an
attendant who drapes it over Francis's shoulders.
Francis laughs softly, takes off the cape and puts it around a beggar.

Francis turns from crowd and walks slowly, naked in body, richly clothed
in God's light, down the path to the city's gate. With face illumined
with tears of joy, and arms outstretched, he stands silhouetted against
the immense blue sky.

~~~

Now, i watch this movie with a detached interest and mellowed heart
pull, but when i was in my early fifties, this movie was a great
inspiration to me - I played it again and again, each time a new
determination growing within me. One day it all came together: my lease
was up, my last child had just moved out, the funds for my job were
terminated, and i knew what i wanted to "do" without a doubt. In a quick
week, i sold all my "possessions" except for what i stuffed in the back
seat of my Ford SW - leaving room to sleep, and took off, with $124 in
my purse, i knew not where.

But, inspired by St. Francis, i knew that i was done - finally! with
raising five children on my own, running a business, saving the children
of the county, being 'Wonder Woman" - it was all finished!

And I lived in the fields, on the mountain tops, by the ocean, in and
out of ashrams, monasteries, temples,wherever the Dharma wind blew me -
for seven years, the most beautiful years of my life! To not know where
i was going to sleep that night, what i would eat, where the morning's
light would find me, was a fantastic freedom that, at that time in my
life, was needed, perhaps as a healing, perhaps as a calling, it doesn't
matter, i just knew it was the only choice, and i shall be forever
grateful.

Many fond memories arose when hearing that song mentioned, thanks, dearest. Admittedly, although each moment is now
without planning and few thoughts of past or future passes through
feeble brain, i am sometimes aware that old woman's soul is waiting for
her return to the wandering life, to the envionrment in which it feels
most at home.

It does not matter, though. ,^)) Really! Nothing matters any more. The
mountains, the ocean, the wind, the Freedom! - are here, now, at garbage
pile, tending garden, dancing with grandchildren, reading nds posts
,^)), God's freedom is none other than old gypsy's breath.

Thanks for listening, if you got this far.

love to all,
oh
p.s.
ohmygoodness! Just as i finished this, i saw a movement in the fig tree
that brushes against my front window, and it was a cardinal! (during
wandering days, i always considered cardinal spiritual bird who came
with "signs" - especially from St. Francis! and Meher Baba). In all five
years i have been here, a cardinal never came to that tree while i was
here to see. He did not leave, but came as close to window as he could,
just behind the Kwan Yin statue on table before window, cocking his head
from side to side, so close as if to peck the window to come in. Don't
you love it when stuff like that happens? hoho..and lol...

He just flew away.

Hmm....ok, tears of joy come to my eyes, because i just remembered! that
i am on the way to ER ,^)). (was catching up on e-mail before i
left...hoho). Ain't it all grand! each piece falls in place. And all we
have to do is to watch it. As Kafka says, "And it will roll in ecstasy
at your feet."

later, loves.

oh
(J dear, no problem about ER, just old heart acting up again. all is
fine.)

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