Begging Bowl Valentine
Begging Bowl Valentine by debgrant
the begging bowl: It is the size of my cupped hand. I use it for one of my spiritual practices. Begging bowls were used through the centuries…by…you guessed it…beggars. On his deathbed, Martin Luther had a piece of paper in his pocket with words in his handwriting that said, “We are all beggars. It is true.” I use the bowl to pray. I fill it with names. Sometimes I leave it empty and ask God to use the emptiness to point me in a good direction for the day.
shard of red sea glass: It came in a bag of sea glass collected by a friend. She knew I liked to use colorful bits in my art pieces. Red sea glass is rare and therefore, valuable if it shows the signs of being rounded and pitted by years of scraping by the tides. This piece is relatively new. All of its sharp edges are still apparent.
An Irish love story: I have been drawn to Irish stories and poets lately. Perhaps it is because their culture knows how to do sorrow and joy at the same time and I am still learning.
There is an Irish story is about a couple who had already lost everything including their children to the effects of the Famine. They decided to slip out of the poorhouse and make their way back to their cabin six miles away. Hungry and sick, they walked slowly. They stopped often. A neighbor gave them something to eat and drink but no shelter because they had come from a poor house. The husband carried his wife on his back. They reached their cold cabin. The next day they were found both dead. The man had his wife’s feet against his chest as if he had been trying to warm them.
The story is often told and talked about. ‘He was a good man, faithful and true,’ some say, ‘and what he did was a noble deed.’ But it is also said, ‘that thousands of similar things were done all over Ireland at that time and no one looked on them as being special.’
“That time” was the Famine of 1845-1852 that killed more than a million Irish and drove another 1.5 million to leave their country.
My Valentine: a shard of red sea glass in my begging bowl. For all those who love with courage and their lives, for those with newly broken hearts. Especially for the ones whose stories we will never hear, but they are there. They are there holding joy and sorrow in their own begging bowls.
Peace,
deb