There is something in my eye now that appears to be a small gnat.  It is a floater, a tiny dark spot that sometimes crosses right in front of my pupil and I can see it. It is not static, but “floats” slowly across different parts of the cornea.

My eye-doctor uncle told me that the body responds to this speck in two different ways. 1. it gets re-absorbed by the body, or 2. it is there for the rest of my life and there is nothing I can do about it.

As it turns out, what I am seeing is not the speck itself, it is actually the shadow of the speck (which is debris that is caught in the eye somewhere and the light I am perceiving elsewhere reflects on it).  Fascinating.

My uncle and I agreed, “at least it’s not a log!” I smiled and said the log is in my right eye!  This is from the Biblical passage about the ease of judging others when introspection of one’s self is what is needed. In the Jesus’ ethics manifesto (the Sermon on the Mount) at Matthew 7:3 he mentions the ridiculousness of trying to get a speck out of your neighbor’s eye before recognizing that there is a log in your own eye.

So, now when I see my friend the floater I think two things. 1. that my shadow side is out there with my bright side, and it is important to be attentive to both, and 2. that when this gnat-speck blocks my direct vision (which most often happens when I am reading something important on a computer screen or printed sheet) that I have the opportunity to notice the importance of seeing what i want to see from another angle…taking a moment to wait for the gnat’s shadow to pass.

It’s an opportunity for a deep breath, a recognition that I’m getting older and my vessel is mortal, and the invitation to be present with all that is going on in my body as I am externally focused.

This may be the first of many floaters (one of my sheroes Laura has quite a few in her left eye) or it may be the only one that ever exists.  Either way, I’m yet again grateful for this moment of life and little reminders to be introspective, and the eternal dance of light and shadow in this universe.

What I love about May 1st is that it reminds me that I have friends all over the world. Here is a video from Rabbis for Human Rights about the Fiddler with No Roof; a beautiful, gentle exposeé that mourns cycles of violence and invites you to help break the cycle: . One of my friends recently attended a CPT delegation to this area to see “the Bedouin experience of being pushed off 90% of their traditional lands. The Israeli government has put a US Army base on their land and there is intense pressure for the residents of small villages (which closely resemble a Native American reservations) to be further consolidated into Bedouin towns without jobs, infrastructure or room for farming or grazing their sheep and goats.” The delegation visited just outside Be’er Sheva, “a location oft visited by Abraham and his family in the Bible…Abraham was himself a Bedouin [wandering Aramean] who would have a tough time these days in the Naqab,” my friend noted.

and here is a video of one of Watershed Discipleship based activists protecting land and life that they love from destruction. This is worship at it’s best, attentive context and attentive to the life of the world–extending the invitation to live free from petroleum addiction: . Neither of these two videos speak directly to the solidarity among workers worldwide required for deep change in the ways the global population produces and consumes, but both point to the interconnectedness of worker’s struggles with the movements for pluralistic, multi-ethnic societies AND healthy environments in which to live.