Being and Doing

Your action, what you do, depends on who you are…

If you don’t succeed at being, you can’t succeed at doing.

          Thich Nhat Hanh (The Art of Power)

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who am I?

who am I, really?

who am I when one moves beyond the form

and moves into those deep murky regions of the soul?

 

sure

I am male

I am white

I am cis

I am educated

I am (reasonably) successful

I am comfortable economically

I have nice things and live in a beautiful place

 

sure

I am gifted, with a plethora of talents

(which I have only partially cultivated)

 

I am of average height

and average in my comeliness

 

I am aging

with wrinkles, folds, and white hair

 

sure

I am a good person (most of the time)

and a horrible person (some of the time)

 

sure

I have done things I am proud of

and things that bring me shame

that pop-up in my mind at weird moments and ruin

a perfectly lovely day

 

but who am I?

once you get beyond the form?

 

I am

I am a human being

I am a creature in whom the sacred dwells

I am a temple

I am a Sacred child

I am inspired

 

in spirare

in spiritus

I am one into which life has been blown

I am one (hopefully)

in which the breath of the divine blows

influencing, moving, guiding, impelling

 

and so even though I cannot escape

my body or my history

all those stories, those narratives that so profoundly shape me

 

I am still, at my core

a person defined by love

by sacred, fiery, fierce, love

that is like “fuel in the tank” of my soul  (Jacqui Lewis)

 

when I am inspired,

then love comes to me

shapes me

and flows from me

 

that same love embodied in Jesus

 

that love is available 24 hours a day

365 days of the year

that love creates the Kingdom (which is within)

 

that love, when I remember it

when I believe it

when I receive it

when I allow it to permeate my soul

when I share it

 

allows me to be

at least for brief moments

a person who divulges the divine image

 

who reveals

(for lack of a better way of saying it)

the Christ in me

who becomes fleetingly

the hands, feet, voice, face, smile

of Jesus

 

that is who I am

when I cultivate the Presence within

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this day may I take the time to cultivate the Presence

may I find the Kingdom which is there in my heart

may I touch the wonder of Sacred love

and find, in that wonder,

peace, compassion, and understanding

 

may I be my best self

this day