crisis is revelatory

When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other and with the realm of nature doesn't work anymore, when survival is threatened by seemingly insurmountable problems, an individual life-form -- or a species -- will either die or become extinct or rise above the limitations of its condition through an evolutionary leap.”

                                         Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“Crisis is what suppressed pain looks like; it always comes to the surface.

                                         Bryant McGill

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there is one thing we can insist on

always

always

a crisis is revelatory

there are many ways of thinking about crisis

John F Kennedy

Grabbing hold of somewhat a creative interpretation

of the Chinese word for crisis

an interpretation probably first found

in a journal for missionaries in China in the 1930s,

framed crisis as opportunity plus threat

the actual meaning of the word is

“danger at the point where things meet”

perhaps we could better say, danger at the point where things collide

we are at a moment where “things” are meeting

where they collide

the past and the future

old ways and new

but more profoundly

at the point where Covid 19 collides with our lives

we are finding other powerful collisions!

between individual rights and freedoms and the common good

between selfishness and selflessness

between compassionate concern for all and a focus on one’s own individual want and needs, with a disregard for others mixed in

and it is at this point that things get revealed

it seems to me that in a crisis, what is at a person’s core

what is in a person’s heart

the health of a person’s soul

the depth of a person’s spiritual

comes to the surface

for good or for ill

we are seeing people make amazing sacrifices for others

being amazingly generous

compassionate

caring

we see people putting their lives on the line for others

their businesses on the line

we see people accepting, finding peace

and living lives of compassion and calm

and we see people

in whom hate an anger have bubbled to the surface

we see the faces of hate screaming into the faces of the police

and into the faces of masked healthcare workers

we see people waving the flags of racism and hate

and carrying instruments of death

threatening

intimidating

it’s a hot mess

what makes the difference?

I think it is what is in the heart

Whatever is in the heart gets released

As crisis breaks the heart open

If a person has compassion and love at their core

If they have allowed the God who is love

Space

Then what comes for in this time

Is compassion and love

A concern for others

If not

If what is at the core is fear

Or hate

Or racism

Or anger

Then what comes to the surface

Is angry tweets

And destructive behaviors

and pain and violence

and intimidation

we important lessons in such times

about ourselves

and about God

One thing I have learned during this time is why Jesus so frequently

told people they had to die to the self

and become people willing to be radically

loving

generous

kind

I know, for myself,

that it is when I can let go of “me”

however imperfectly,

things change

it is when I let go of me

and cling to the Sacred

(as a child clings to a parent during a thunder storm)

That I find peace

That I find calm

Safety

and it is then that good things surface it my life

compassion

and kindness

and a willingness

to work for the common good

so my hope

in this time crisis

is simply this

that what will be revealed in me

is a little sacred presence

and a lot of love

Liminal Times

5 y/o grandson:  I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Mom (my daughter):  What’s tomorrow?

5 y/o grandson:  Saturday! No School!

Mom: Do you have any idea what day it is?

5 y/o grandson:  Of course I don’t

                               #QuarantineLife 

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.”

                                                   William Blake

When we find ourselves in liminal space, does it matter whether we are pushed or whether we jump? Either way, we are not where or what we were before, nor do we know how or where we will land in our new reality. We are, as the anthropologist Victor Turner (1920–1983) wrote, betwixt and between. In that space—which is mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual—we are destabilized, disoriented. The old touchstones, habits, and comforts are now past, the future unknown. We only wish such a time to be over. We may be impatient to pass through it quickly, with as little distress as possible, even though that is not likely. . . .

                                                   Sheryl Fullerton (quoted by Rohr, 4/29/20)

_________________________________________________________

Life is vague

Time is blurred

And we are in that liminal space

Between old normal and new normal

Waiting

For something to change

For resolution

We’d be happy if it felt like there were progress

Instead we are just in liminal space

Stuck in between

And it sucks

Really

It does

So we are angry

And scared

And impatient

We want to go to sleep until it’s all over

We want to push our way through

Rush our way through

Mostly we want to “get back” to normal

Which is really sad

Because normal was not all that great

Full of poverty

And racism

And injustice

And inequity

The reality is liminal space is sacred

for in this time

much can happen

this uncomfortable time can be

(with the help of the Spirit)

A time of creativity,

of construction

of deconstruction,

of transformation

so what will we do

with this unwanted gift?

perhaps all we can do

is what the people of Israel did

in that liminal space called the wilderness

follow the Sacred

one day

one step at a time

moving us away from what was

to what will be

to God’s new thing

Love is the constant

I am old enough to remember

Dragnet

And Detective Sargent Joe Friday

And his famous phrase

“Just the facts, ma’am”

Which factually he never said

Only getting as close as

“All we want are the facts, Ma’am”

And now we live in what many call a “post factual” world

Where those entrusted with the truth

Lie

Frequently

And with no apparent compunction

I ran across a poem the other day titled simply

“The Facts of Life”

It was penned by the Irish poet Paidraig O’ Tuama

The facts of life

“that you were born

and you will die

that you will sometimes love enough

and sometimes not

that you will lie

if only to yourself

that you will tire

that you will learn most from the situations

you did not choose…”

the truth is

life is confusing and inconvenient

and life is great

we are messes

and we are beautiful

and if we would embrace the full truth

and live truthfully

we have to be willing to live in a world

where almost everything is

both/and

rather than either/or

and we have to recognize that those

pulling us to extreme positions

the extremists

the ideological and moral terrorists

will usually blur the truth rather than expose it

because when it comes to politics

ideologies

and people

absolutes are usually false

Trump is not, as he insists, blameless and infallible

Neither is he, as some would insist

Always wrong

Right to lifer advocates with their blind extremism

are often false (life deniers)

but they are not totally wrong

we have to take seriously that part of what they believe

that we can embrace

truth is messy

it is contrary to our belief

not back and white

and thus it is challenging

uncomfortable

and really hard to find

The truth is I am not good or bad

I am good and bad

I am not right or wrong

I am right and wrong

I am not smart or stupid

I am smart and (at times) incredibly stupid

We have to learn to live in the ambiguity of most truth

There is only one thing that is always

In its own unique way

True

Only one thing that is unambiguous

And that is Sacred Love

That is God

That is God with us

The one thing we can embrace

Absolutely

Is love

It is the constant

That continues to be truth

In the midst of all the other messy truths

God is not love or hate

God is not love and hate

God is love

And that is a fact