Month: April 2021

This is a favorite of mine. It reminds that we are always on a journey if we open to the signs all around us.

The Journey

Above the mountains
    the geese turn into
        the light again

painting their black silhouettes
        on an open sky.

Sometimes everything has to be
        inscribed across
            the heavens

so you can find
    the one line
        already written
            inside you.

Sometimes it takes    a great sky
        to find that

first, bright
    and indescribable
        wedge of freedom
            in your own heart.

Sometimes with
    the bones of the black
        sticks left when the fire
            has gone out

someone has written
    something new
        in the ashes of your life.

You are not leaving.
    Even as the light fades quickly now,
        you are arriving.

-David Whyte
In David Whyte: Essentials and The House of Belonging

As always his prose and poetry rise up and envelope with presence and meaning. He speaks to our need for solitude which truly resonates. I just attended a wonderful webinar on wilderness witnessing and retreat and all the many ways we can experience the wild within and without in our spiritual practice.

Here’s David Whyte:

One of the elemental dynamics of self-compassion is to understand how much we need to be left to ourselves, and how much, in a way, we need to leave ourselves alone. Aloneness begins with puzzlement at our own reflection, transits through awkwardness and even ugliness at what we see, and culminates, one appointed hour or day, in a beautiful, unlooked-for surprise, at the new complexion beginning to form, the slow knitting together of an inner life, now exposed to air and light. -David Whyte

The Well But the miracle had come simply from allowing yourself to know that this time you had found it, that some stranger appearing from far inside you, had decided not to walk past it anymore;  the miracle had come in the kneeling to drink and the prayer you said, and the first tears you shed and the memories you held and the realization that in this silence you no longer had to keep your eyes and ears averted from the place that could save you, and that you had the strength at last to let go of that thirsty, unhappy, dust laden pilgrim-self that brought you here, walking with her bent back, her bowed head and her careful explanations. No, the miracle had already happened before you stood up, shook off the dust and walked along the road beyond the well, out of the desert and on, toward the mountain, as if home again, as if you deserved everything you had loved all along, as if just remembering the taste of that clear cool spring could lift up your face to the morning light and set you free. -David Whyte Revised from ‘The Well’ inPilgrim

With gratitude to dear sister and friend, Nur Mariam who sent this out today.

Prayer of Love and Healing for Earth

O God of All Names and Beyond All Names,
I pray in great gratitude this holy day for Love.
Love raises the sun and greets me
in each drop of water I drink,
in each crumb of bread I taste,
in each smile and tear I touch,
in each child I meet.
In a mantle of awe I stand enwrapped.
My feet rest upon Earth and my head meets the moon.
O Holy One, our times are fraught with challenge.
Our Earth suffers climatic chaos,
Men, women and children suffer from wounds of conflict,
droughts, floods and crumbling economic systems.
All manner of suffering and questions press into my soul.
My small beating heart does not seem large enough…
yet daily it keeps expanding beyond body boundaries into Compassion.
Each morning Love rises beyond a known horizon in the unknown day.
Each morning Hope beckons me into my stardust destiny.
Each noontime Grace feeds me with Love.
Each evening an invisible Breath enfolds me in a shawl of mercy.
O Holy one Who Is Love, Hope, Grace and Breath
transform our sadness and doubt into songs for Life.
We pray for our beloved planet and all brothers and sisters.
May healing waters bathe the rivers and oceans.
May small, deliberate actions grow seeds of Earth justice.
May one prophetic note of the smallest birdsong courageously sung
on a busy street at dawn inspire leaders to free their voices to speak
for the Common Good and future generations.
O God of All Names and Beyond All Names, Whose Face is Love
May I and we collectively
Be the face of Transforming Love
In this moment, In this day, In these times. Amen.

From “Full Circle” by Howard Shapiro

With gratitude to dear sister Amina Janet from whose blog I am copying this.

Instructions on Not Giving Up  
by Ada Limòn

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out of the crabapple tree,
more than the neighbor’s almost obscene display of cherry limbs
shoving their cotton candy-colored blossoms
to the slate sky of Spring rain, it is the greening of trees that really gets to me.
When all the shock of white and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets,
leave the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,the leaves come
Patient, plodding, a green skin growing over whatever winter did to us,
a return to the strange idea of continuous living despite the mess of us,
the hurt, the empty. Fine then. I’ll take it, the tree seems to say.
A slick leaf unfurling like a fist to an open palm.
I’ll take it all.

As the earth blooms and reminds us that the flow of life continues, I find I am inspired to surrender into acceptance of that tidal flow with its beauty and pain. And to the knowledge that the Divine guides me in each moment toward the service that is mine.

As we learn in the Dance of Universal Peace inspired by Ram Dass, “Why have you come to earth? Do you remember? Why have you taken birth? Why have you come? To love, serve, and remember.”

I just received this excellent essay that speaks so perfectly to the difference between service, helping, and fixing.

Helping, Fixing, Serving by Dr Rachel Naomi Remen

Helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.

Service rests on the premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing.

Serving is different from helping. Helping is not a relationship between equals. A helper may see others as weaker than they are, needier than they are, and people often feel this inequality. The danger in helping is that we may inadvertently take away from people more than we could ever give them; we may diminish their self-esteem, their sense of worth, integrity or even wholeness.

Our limitations serve; our wounds serve; even our darkness can serve.

When we help, we become aware of our own strength. But when we serve, we don’t serve with our strength; we serve with ourselves, and we draw from all of our experiences. Our limitations serve; our wounds serve; even our darkness can serve. My pain is the source of my compassion; my woundedness is the key to my empathy.

Serving makes us aware of our wholeness and its power. The wholeness in us serves the wholeness in others and the wholeness in life. The wholeness in you is the same as the wholeness in me. Service is a relationship between equals: our service strengthens us as well as others. Fixing and helping are draining, and over time we may burn out, but service is renewing. When we serve, our work itself will renew us. In helping we may find a sense of satisfaction; in serving we find a sense of gratitude.

This is a sweet reminder to hold love beginning with ourselves and then expanding out to all things. I received this from last week’s summary of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation.

Loving-Kindness Meditation

Buddhist loving-kindness (or metta) practice counteracts the sense of powerlessness that contributes to the anxiety of not experiencing that “all will be well.” Metta practice also awakens compassion and reminds us of our interdependence. It can be an antidote to the usual selfish sense of happiness which prioritizes our wellbeing and ignores or denies responsibility for the wellbeing of others. I offer this version of loving-kindness practice adapted from meditation teacher Steven Smith.

We begin with loving ourselves, for unless we have a measure of this unconditional love and acceptance for ourselves, it is difficult to extend it to others. Then we include others who are special to us, and ultimately, all living things. Gradually, both the visualization and the meditation phrases blend into the actual experience, the feeling of loving kindness. . . .

Take a very comfortable posture. . . . Begin to focus around . . . your “heart center,” breathing in and out from that area. Next, evoke a kind feeling toward yourself. Drop beneath [any areas of self-judgment or self-hatred] to the place where we care for ourselves, where we want strength and health and safety for ourselves.

Continuing to breathe in and out, use either these traditional phrases or ones you choose yourself. Say or think them several times.  

May I be free from inner and outer harm and danger. May I be safe and protected.

May I be free of mental suffering or distress.

May I be happy.

May I be free of physical pain and suffering.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I be able to live in this world happily, peacefully, joyfully, with ease.

Next, move to a person who most invites a feeling of loving kindness in you, and repeat the phrases for this person:

“May she/he be free from inner and outer harm and danger. . . . ”

Now move to a neutral person, someone for whom you feel neither strong like nor dislike. As you repeat the phrases, allow yourself to feel tenderness, loving care for their welfare.

Now, repeat the phrases for someone you have difficulty with—hostile feelings, resentments. . . . If you have difficulty doing this, you can say before the phrases, “To the best of my ability I wish that you be. . . . ” If you begin to feel ill will toward this person, return to the benefactor and let loving kindness arise again. Then return to this person. . . .

Finally, extend loving kindness out to all beings, using phrases such as these:

May all beings be safe, happy, healthy, live joyously.

May all living beings be healed and whole, content and fulfilled.

May all individuals have whatever they need.

May all beings in existence have safety, happiness, health, joy, and peace.

Abide in silence for a few more breaths, then journal about your experience, if you like.

*************************

Experience a version of this practice through video and sound.

Adapted from Steven Smith, Loving-Kindness Meditation, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

Today I was talking with a friend about the ineffable and the frustration we sometimes feel when we are trying to use our limited English language to describe the Divine or Love – what the Sufi’s call Ishq. This poem from Rumi says it well.

With a hat tip to sister Amina from whose blog post I picked this up today.

The Meaning of Love – Rumi

Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.

Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets.

Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.

Although I may try to describe Love
when I experience it I am speechless.

Although I may try to write about Love
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.

1.

I don’t know who God is exactly.
But I’ll tell you this.
I was sitting in the river named Clarion, on a water splashed stone
and all afternoon I listened to the voices of the river talking.
Whenever the water struck a stone it had something to say,
and the water itself, and even the mosses trailing under the water.
And slowly, very slowly, it became clear to me what they were saying.
Said the river I am part of holiness.
And I too, said the stone. And I too, whispered the moss beneath the water.

I’d been to the river before, a few times.
Don’t blame the river that nothing happened quickly.
You don’t hear such voices in an hour or a day.
You don’t hear them at all if selfhood has stuffed your ears.
And it’s difficult to hear anything anyway, through all the traffic, the ambition.

2.

If God exists he isn’t just butter and good luck.
He’s also the tick that killed my wonderful dog Luke.
Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going.

Imagine how the lily (who may also be a part of God) would sing to you if it could sing,
if you would pause to hear it.
And how are you so certain anyway that it doesn’t sing?

If God exists he isn’t just churches and mathematics.
He’s the forest, He’s the desert.
He’s the ice caps, that are dying.
He’s the ghetto and the Museum of Fine Arts.

He’s van Gogh and Allen Ginsberg and Robert Motherwell.
He’s the many desperate hands, cleaning and preparing their weapons.
He’s every one of us, potentially.
The leaf of grass, the genius, the politician, the poet.
And if this is true, isn’t it something very important?

Yes, it could be that I am a tiny piece of God, and each of you too, or at least
of his intention and his hope.
Which is a delight beyond measure.
I don’t know how you get to suspect such an idea.
I only know that the river kept singing.
It wasn’t a persuasion, it was all the river’s own constant joy
which was better by far than a lecture, which was comfortable, exciting, unforgettable.

3.

Of course for each of us, there is the daily life.
Let us live it, gesture by gesture.
When we cut the ripe melon, should we not give it thanks?
And should we not thank the knife also?
We do not live in a simple world.

4.

There was someone I loved who grew old and ill
One by one I watched the fires go out.
There was nothing I could do

except to remember
that we receive
then we give back.

5.

My dog Luke lies in a grave in the forest, she is given back.
But the river Clarion still flows from wherever it comes from
to where it has been told to go.
I pray for the desperate earth.
I pray for the desperate world.
I do the little each person can do, it isn’t much.
Sometimes the river murmurs, sometimes it raves.

6.

Along its shores were, may I say, very intense cardinal flowers.
And trees, and birds that have wings to uphold them, for heaven’s sakes–
the lucky ones: they have such deep natures,
they are so happily obedient.
While I sit here in a house filled with books,
ideas, doubts, hesitations.

7.

And still, pressed deep into my mind, the river
keeps coming, touching me, passing by on its
long journey, its pale, infallible voice
singing.

~ At the River Clarion by Mary Oliver, from Evidence: Poems, Beacon Press.

This came from Fr. Richard Rohr’s blog post, Daily Meditations.

I find this is such an important and inspiring practice. It is difficult at times, and when it is I fall back into the breath and the Zikr of remembrance – La illaha il Allah hu – there is nothing that is not Divine.

Seeing No Stranger

Valarie Kaur is a Sikh activist and civil rights lawyer who writes about the “revolutionary love” of “seeing no stranger.” Though René Girard believed the Gospel could transform our impulse to scapegoat, people of the Sikh faith have been more faithful to practices of nonviolence and compassion than many Christians. Valarie writes:

See no stranger has become a practice that defines my relationships. . . . Seeing no stranger begins in wonder. It is to look upon the face of anyone and choose to say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Wonder is the wellspring for love. Who we wonder about determines whose stories we hear and whose joy and pain we share. Those we grieve with, those we sit with and weep with, are ultimately those we organize with and advocate for. When a critical mass of people come together to wonder about one another, grieve with one another, and fight with and for one another, we begin to build the solidarity needed for collective liberation and transformation—a solidarity rooted in love. . . .

Out in the world, I notice the unconscious biases that arise in me when I look at faces on the street or in the news. To practice seeing each of them as a sister or brother or family member, I say in my mind: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Through conscious repetition, I am practicing orienting to the world with wonder and preparing myself for the possibility of connection. (Sometimes I do this with animals and the earth, too!) It opens me up to pay attention to their story. When their story is painful, I make excuses to turn back—“It’s too overwhelming” or “It’s not my place”—but I hold the compass and remember that all I need to do is be present to their pain and find a way to grieve with them. If I can sit with their pain, I begin to ask:

What do they need? Listening to more stories, learning about a community’s history, or showing up to vigils or marches or memorials gives me information for how to fight for them. I seek out organizations that are already fighting for them and offer my voice or time or money or labor to assist them. When I worry that I’m not enough, I ask myself: What is my sword and shield? How will I fight? What will I risk? When I get overwhelmed, I ask: What is my role in this moment? I remember that I only have to shine my light in my corner of sky.

Richard here: Holy Saturday, the liminal time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is a day of waiting, of not knowing, of grieving all we have lost, all we have done, and all we have left undone. May Valarie Kaur’s questions inspire our own as we wait in expectant hope for the new life to come.

Experience a version of this practice through video and sound.

Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love (One World: 2020), 310, 311–312. Emphasis in original.