Green Holiness

Green Holiness

Green holiness is the light shining in every creature
& atom of Creation, and it’s super-cool it’s a light

& not a ball and chain; and I remember the red light glowing
In church when I was a boy and the way it fascinated

As I knelt on rock-hard kneelers – & I was talking to my son
The other day about the sense of reverence it engendered

& the way it flickered emerald after I left religion and heard
The Grateful Dead sing; ‘ripple in still water, when there is

 No pebble tossed, nor wind to blow’ – and fifty years on
Reverence surges every time I visit the green shrine

Of Waikoropupū Springs and feel her living being
Within and about me – and now’s the moment to snap

Snap fingers, shout hallelujah, hum Om, or whatever voices
The love you feel, for the natural world and your sense

Of connection to green holiness, wherever you live & travel
But especially here in the majesty of Waikoropupū   

~

Based on the saying; ‘My most tremendous piece is green holiness.’  A way to understand the saying is to imagine the Sacred coming to you in human form with a giant jigsaw. Each piece of the jigsaw is a beautiful teaching on the nature of the Sacred. There are many thousands of pieces but there’s one special piece, larger than all the rest. The Self points to this piece and says; ‘my most tremendous piece is green holiness.’

~

‘Ripple in still water/ when there is no pebble tossed/ nor wind to blow’ (also) ‘Reach out your hand if your cup be empty/ If your cup be full may it be again/ Let it be known, there is a fountain/ That was not made by the hands of men:’ chorus and verse from the song Ripple, on the album American Beauty; Songwriters; Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia