Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Tuesday, February 28, 2017

In our mess

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
                                                           Henri J.M. Nouwen
_____________________________________

We walk through life protecting ourselves
For all those things
That might hurt

We do not want the full human experience
We would really prefer
To keep our distance
From all the ugliness and pain

We do not want our hearts and souls to ache
Our eyes to sting with tears
We do not want to see
Or feel

And so we hide
And we are lonely
As we stand outside the circle of life

It is only when realize
That life is difficult
And the fullness of life is only to be found in the messiness
Of failure
And failed relationships
Of fear

And enter life fully
That we suddenly find ourselves

waist deep in the muck
With others
Listening,
Sharing pain, and joy
Caring,
Being cared for

No longer alone

Monday, February 27, 2017

12 Steps

Perhaps America needs to do the 12 steps

I have worked with people who have addictions
I have struggled with my own

And what I see now, more clearly than ever
Although I have long known it to be true,
Is that Americans are addicted to power
More specifically they are addicted to the idea that those how have power are more
Valuable
Righteous
Good
Impressive
(Pick your own word)
Than those that don’t

And that if you have power it is a virtue to use that power
To get what you want
And if you have power you are free to use it
Even abusively
No matter what the cost might be to others

It doesn’t matter what happens to other people
Other nations
Even the earth itself
As long as we feel safe, and get richer.

This addiction is powerful
Destructive
And creates fear and chaos
It generates its own “wind”

We need, I think, to do the 12 steps.

    We need to admit that we are powerless over our fear, and our lust for power and wealth, and admit that our “life” as a nation has become unmanageable.
   We need to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.  We need to reconnect with the Sacred and re-find our souls.  That will not happen through the right wing church which is an enabler, if not a co-addict.
    We must make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God, and commit to following the principles laid out in teaching such as the Sermon on the Mount
    We need to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.  We need to admit when we are wrong.  Hold ourselves accountable for the damage we have created within our nation, and across the globe.  Admit we have ignored the poor, and oppressed those who are not “like” us.
    We have to admit to God, to ourselves and to another human beings the exact nature of our wrongs.
    We have to ask God to remove all these defects of character.  We can’t do this (again) if we are willing to accept defects of character (in our leaders and in ourselves) due to our fear, lust for power, and greed.
    We must find humility.  We cannot stand and say to the world, “We are the best, the smartest.  We have the best plans…”  Because we don’t (which is why our health outcomes place us at 37th) and we have to let God not only humble us but change us.
    We have to see whom we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
    We need to make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.  We need to make Amends to blacks, Muslims, Native Americans, members of LGBTQI community, the elderly, the poor, the Palestinians (ah the list is long).
    Continued to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admitted it.
    Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand God, praying only that we might know God, and God’s way.  And that we might have the wisdom and spiritual fortitude to live according to that way.
    Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we must seek to carry this message to the world and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Relax

Finding ...does not come from seeking.
Finding ....comes from relinquishing the search.
Relax and soften ...it will shine .... when it shines. "
                             Wu Hsin
____________________________

I try so hard
Really

To find all those things
needing to be found

meaning
self
achievement
value
purpose

the answers are there
I suppose
somewhere just out of sight
around the next corner
over the next hill

if only, then
truly

but I must be a touch slow
for always what I seek slips away
always
always

there are times
when tired and alone I cannot take one more step
I must simply stop
and sit
breathless and damp

and then
in the silence it comes

floating around me
landing on me
like the dust of the road
settling

and it feels like
peace