SNUGGLE

Hi There !

So, do you like to snuggle?

Hope so!

It's the ultimate way to be with another.

What's that???

Can you hear those wise acres among us

starting to chuckle and question

what kind of an intimate life I've had?

I sure can.

My response is a knowing smile and

the wish,

      " You should be so lucky!!"




Yes, yes, I know the going thing

in our culture is the goal of a red hot,

 "Hope the neighbors don't hear us,"

Fourth of July fire works sex life.

That's assumed to be

"the ultimate way to be with another."

Well, that's an illusion

of our sex soaked society .

The Fourth of July is once a year and

 folks are lucky if once a year ( or two )

their experience is anything like

the intensity of the fireworks

on the Fourth.

Sex has many moments and modes

like every other form of human closeness.

But it doesn't have the market cornered.

If it did, children, the celibate,

singles not in an intimate relationship,

many senior adults would be iced out

by nature ( God ) from

"the ultimate way to be with another."

At its best sex is one

of innumerable ways to snuggle.



Snuggling is acceptance.

Snuggling  is giving.

Such is comfortable,

safe and  secure. 

It is a "so closeness"

as to be a oneness,

oneness in in all its peaceful,

tender, beautiful variations.

We are serenely together.



Snuggling is not a head thing.

It isn't limited by thinking.

It is a matter of the limitless heart.

Our essential, sacred, deepest self

folds into that of another

as the other is hardly another anymore.

Oneness.

Harmony.

Calm stillness.

Free to relax into each other.

"Being Oneness."



It would be helpful here

for  each of us to consider

our foundational experience

of snuggling.

See it, feel it.

For me it was those

just perfect moments

in childhood when my mother and I

snuggled up in a soft chair,

 or on the front porch swing.

There was a quiet warmth to it.

A wonderful oneness.

No talk.

No thinking.

Just gentle wholeness transporting

to sheer goodness.



Most of us work hard at relationships,

at trying to be close to others.

That's appropriate, good, even necessary.

We need to learn how to read each other,

stretch and share generously,

to compromise when it's balanced.

There come moments, though,

when we grow past ideas, words,

plans, activities.

We mellow into mystery,

the mystery of life,

life enfleshed in the beloved.

We snuggle

one way or other of thousands.



I'm convinced that's what

Jesus meant when he invited us

to be right at home with him,

to snuggle.

       Live in me.

       Make your home in me

       just as I do in you...

       I have loved you

       the way my Father

       has loved me.

       Make yourself at home

       in my love.

                      John 15:4

                  ( The Message )

Yes, snuggling is the ultimate way

 to be with another.



Our spiritual lives out here

on the street of everyday living

are at heart just that -

a matter of the heart.

Snuggled in

The Love Who Is God,

we live out that love,

that union,

in all sorts of enfleshments,

times, places and ways.

God is a snuggle away.

For example:

- rocking a baby to sleep

- a meditative walk in the park

- having good food and drink

  with family and friends

- asking a lonely person how

  they are and listening attentively

 as they tell you for

 the next half hour ( or more )

-getting lost in the divine form and color

 of an English Garden

- curling up with your lover

  to watch the golden sun set

- blending into some really good music

- slowly savoring a poem by Mary Oliver

- gathering with others to work

  for the common good

  politically, socially,

  environmentally, economically

- uniting with others

  in a spirit freeing community

  of worship and service.



 Most of all, we go to a quiet place

by ourselves not to be by ourselves.

We close out everything,

opening to All.

Being "at home,"

snuggling up with God,

is the best of the best snuggles,

"the ultimate way to be with another"

who paradoxically is and is not  another,

but neither of us is paying attention to that!!


Thanks for the blessing of your company.

Holding you and all in love as

we snuggle with God.

    John Frank


      *****

We continue to be gifted

with new sharers here at

"frankly speaking."

Three new homelands are now part

of our union: Ghana, Japan, New Zealand

     Welcome !!

Also, thanks to so many

who have told friends

of our weekly sharing here,

and those who reference us

on Facebook or other media.



For those new here,

"frankly speaking" is posted

at the end of the week online at

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

and can be bookmarked for easy access.

It is also available automatically

by email.

Please see the sign up at the top right

of the online version.

Past posting are accessible from

the Blog Archive at the

bottom right of the online version.

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