Mysticism and Spirituality Circle

Sunrise 

You can
die for it —
an idea,
or the world. People 

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound 

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But 

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought 

of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun 

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises 

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name? 

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it 

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire. 

~ Mary Oliver ~ 

(New and Selected Poems, Volume I)

Sometimes the most difficult thing to recognize is ourselves in the mirror of those around us, especially in those we find most challenging. This wonderful practice from Fr. Richard Rohr’s blog helps us consider these challenges and find ways to recognize ourselves in the mirrors that surround us.

Practice: Mirroring

Over the past year we’ve covered a lot of ground. We’ve looked for God’s image and likeness in many forms and places, perhaps some that surprised you: the natural world, human bodies and sexuality, poetry (from the Psalms to rap), justice, economics, politics (yes, spirituality includes politics), other faith traditions, even suffering and death.

Where do you find it hardest to recognize the divine image? Will you trust that this person or being is indwelled by God—who is Love? Because of wounding or ego’s resistance, they may not be actively saying “yes” to and growing in Love’s likeness. Yet they still have inherent dignity and are infinitely lovable. It takes practice to see what we’re not accustomed to seeing. I find it helpful to connect with the loving Source within myself and then expand that awareness to others. This is a contemplative practice.

Take some time to rest in God’s presence. Allow God’s loving, compassionate gaze to soften your heart. Notice any sensations in your body, if you feel tension or resistance, warmth or release. Send loving attention to each of those places. If you feel pain or sorrow, know that God is intimately present with suffering. You are not broken or damaged. As James Finley often says, “You are not what has happened to you. Only Love has the final word in who you are.”

Draw upon this Love in yourself. Be filled to overflowing with Love. Gradually turn your gaze outward, picturing people you know and strangers you’ve never met, faces around the world. Imagine Love gazing back at you from their eyes. Return their gazes with Love. God—who is Love—is with and in each of you.

“The only appropriate response is gratefulness.” I love this man’s beautiful and resilient emphasis on remembering gratitude, especially for those of us with privilege. And his emphasis on our responsibility to bless others by “[letting] the gratefulness overflow with blessings to those around [us].”

This seems like such a lovely way to start the new year – with a manifesto to “expect the end of the world” and “laugh”!

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front 

(second half) 

Ask the questions that have no answers. 
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. 
Say that your main crop is the forest 
that you did not plant, 
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested 
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. 
Put your faith in the two inches of humus 
that will build under the trees 
every thousand years. 

Listen to carrion — put your ear 
close, and hear the faint chattering 
of the songs that are to come. 
Expect the end of the world. Laugh. 
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful 
though you have considered all the facts. 
So long as women do not go cheap 
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy 
a woman satisfied to bear a child? 
Will this disturb the sleep 
of a woman near to giving birth? 

Go with your love to the fields. 
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head 
in her lap. Swear allegiance 
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos 
can predict the motions of your mind, 
lose it. Leave it as a sign 
to mark the false trail, the way 
you didn’t go.
Be like the fox 
who makes more tracks than necessary, 
some in the wrong direction. 
Practice resurrection.

~ Wendell Berry ~ (Collected Poems)  

Dearest friends on the path,

With the New Year and the return of the light, we have an opportunity to renew our hope and embrace new beginnings. There is much to be done in this new year and together we are truly making a difference. I send blessings to all of you with prayers that you will find the guidance, grace, support, and resilience you require to wake up every day with gratitude, compassion (for yourself and others), and passion to make a better world.

Here is an inspiring essay from Michael Meade on New Year’s potential:

“The Threshold Of Change”

Pondering New Year’s Eve,

With Michael Meade

On a mythic level, New Year’s Eve can be seen as a collective rite of passage, a ritual intended to mark the end of the old year and the celebratory start of a new period. All of life has a chance to begin again, as a timeless moment brings a renewal of time and with it a return of life’s hidden potentials. People instinctively kiss each other in that moment; friends hold each other close and even strangers hug one another as if to embrace the mystery of renewal and catch the spark of life beginning again.

As the first month of the New Year, January takes its name from Janus, the old Roman god of doorways and thresholds, who ruled over all transitions. Ancient depictions show Janus with two faces looking in opposite directions, representing past and future, the old and the new. Mythically, Janus was connected to chaos as well as renewal. The backward glance of the god looks all the way back to the primal chaos that existed before the formation of the world. Thus, in order for time to start over and a new year to begin, chaos has to be present.

To this day, New Year’s Eve can bring disorder and unruliness as wild parties, loud music and an abundance of spirits reflect the old idea that chaos must reign before any renewal can occur. Yet, besides the presence of chaos, a return to the beginning brings with it a renewal of all the potentials of life. Not simply the notion of a fresh start; but the deeper sense that what begins in chaos can lead to a greater sense of creativity and even a deeper sense of wisdom. 

There is no doubt that we live in chaotic and troubling times. The radical effects of climate change evidence that; the toxic levels of partisan politics and the rise of authoritarian figures also say that. The increase of bigotry, misogyny and self-serving ideologies all bespeak a chaos that has been loosed upon the world. Yet, amidst the chaos and collapse of one period, the next shape of life takes form. It does so, not after all the chaos is over; but as at New Year’s Eve, in the midst of it all.

The world renews itself all the time in the secrecy of forests, in the inner mysteries of quantum exchanges; but also in the hearts of those who commit fully to life. If people can remain open-minded and open hearted, whether it is the dark of the year or the darkest time of one’s life, renewal and recreation remain a possibility.

Consciously or unconsciously, we stand on the threshold of time turning over and can assist the world to begin again and thereby tap the unseen potentials of life and love and the magic of change.

May the threshold of the New Year open before you in ways that reveal the hidden potentials of life and increasing ways to live in truth and contribute beauty and meaning to the world.