Not long ago an illuminated soul left us for the other side of the veil. Her name was Barbara Holmes and this week’s Center for Action and Contemplation newsletter was a tribute to her wisdom.
All week, in one of those states of awareness when the synchronicities and connections rise like luminescent bubbles to decorate the swirling pond of my heart, I’ve encountered one after another conversation, essay, steam of thought; all reminding me to notice that we are not separate beings.
Thomas Moore notes, “The earth is not a platform for human life. It’s a living being. We’re not on it but part of it. It’s health is our health.”
In a poignant and timely reprint of a piece she wrote the last time the orange one rose to power, my dear friend Kathleen Basheera Ritchie in her I Lean Liminal blog said, “We may, through this means, discern the intimate omniscience of Nature—how everything is happening all at once, everywhere, in one all-encompassing, harmonious symphony. This realization effectively undermines belief in a hierarchy of Nature, especially one that positions ourselves at the top—even, somehow, above Nature. Adherence to such a system only exposes our ignorance.”
With all that wisdom echoing and splashing in my soul, the following from the CAC newsletter and Barbara Holmes, speaking to ways we can practice resetting our priorites to find the work that must be done to bring about that connected and sustainable works. It seemed important to share.
***************
We can contemplate and consider together. We can expand our spiritual and cosmic vocabulary and allow the mysteries of life to permeate every cell. We have waited long enough. It’s time to take the transcendent leap forward in hopes of personal and communal healing as well as a shared cosmic future.
—Barbara Holmes
What Are Our Priorities?
Dr. Barbara Holmes and Rev. Donny Bryant hosted The Cosmic We podcast together for five seasons. They considered our cosmic relatedness as the organizing principle of the universe and interviewed guests in the overlapping fields of science, mysticism, spirituality, and the creative arts. In this episode, “Dr. B” shares the call she heard to shift her priorities in the latter half of her life.
The journey of life is absolutely a sacred journey, but we don’t know that when we’re younger. We don’t want to think about life in terms of a sacred journey, because we don’t know for certain where we came from, and we don’t know for certain where we’re going….
In the everyday maelstrom of life, people don’t want to think about any of that. They just want to get through their day…. But when we get to the halfway point in our lives, we begin to realize that all the things that we have accumulated don’t mean a whole lot. We can’t take them with us when we die. As we age, we begin to take into account what really matters in life: family, relationships, love, commitment, service to others, all that matters…. It warms your heart to work with others. It changes who you are to lead with love….
I’m on the other side of fifty now, and all of my priorities have shifted. The ambition and all of the things that I was striving for don’t make a lot of sense at this point. The fulfillment comes in doing what you are led to do. In the Christian tradition, the Holy Spirit is supposed to lead you into all truth. I see the Holy Spirit as a guiding light—we’re walking by the path and there’s a lamp unto our feet that helps us to know what to do, how to do it, and to be still.
This is where contemplation comes in. It is impossible to shift priorities if we are in a constant, busy, frenetic lifestyle. There has to be that pause, that breath, that waiting, that willingness to be still until we know. Be still and know—but the stillness doesn’t immediately lead to knowing. At first, we have to be still, and then we have to be patient until the knowing comes about.