Tags
balance, Business, germinating, meditation, meetings, order, planning, rhythm of the day, tasks, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
Yesterday I was home all day attempting to achieve some order in my bedroom, my calendar, my state of being. It’s always like this at some point as our fiscal year draws to a close (today!) and this time I was a little late to the task. I wrote checks to pay doctors who have kept me on a healthy path for another year, I shredded no longer useful papers and moved some to my file cabinet, responded to and deleted e-mails and did the accounting necessary to reconcile my part of our house expense budget. By 6:00, with some sense of accomplishment, I went downstairs to join again the world of conversation, having had enough of “business” for the day and feeling a need for some balance for my brain. I took up my knitting and Liz put down her book to talk with me so order was finally, fully restored.
Today I will be back to my more familiar and comfortable routine of meeting with people. My morning will be spent with Mary Pat, our creative mind, in the on-going process of planning our after-summer program offerings for the Sophia Center. I always like to watch what happens in those conversations. Sometimes I liken it to the corn now growing in the field around the corner. The ideas are seeded, start to germinate and then, without my notice, they come back in full ripeness. I could never achieve that alone! My afternoon promises additional meaningful conversation in two appointments that bespeak the meaning of the adage: What’s seldom is wonderful. I cannot imagine a better day “at work.”
People tell me I’m “so busy” and I have come to recognize more clearly that I do have many irons in the fire, so to speak. I am realizing this morning, however, that it’s a question of attitude and approach to tasks that keeps life in balance. I am very blessed in where I live and in the life that has evolved for me. I could spin from one thing to another with only the anxiety of time constraints pushing me – as I occasionally do – or I could look at everything as I have described above – the necessary tasks and the lovely encounters all turning with the rhythm of the days – and simply be grateful for the gifts I have been given. It’s sometimes a delicate balance, but one that behooves us to notice, regardless of what fills our life. Surrendering to what is and willingness to “enter the general dance,” as Thomas Merton says, seems the way to maintain equilibrium on a daily basis.
So now I go to meet my favorite dancing partner in my morning meditation. Have a blessed day, everyone!
I finished up what I might call “a triduum of mercy” yesterday: three presentations of essentially the same material to different audiences, prompted by the fact that we are halfway through the Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis last December. Yesterday I was reflecting with a group of high school teachers at the school where I began my own professional ministry 45 (!) years ago. I was heartened by each of these experiences because of the willingness of the participants to enter deeply into the process with me. I learned that their appropriation of the expansive nature of the quality of mercy was an integral part of their daily living and was understood as a movement of reciprocity with God, individual persons and the world. It went far beyond a plea to God to “have mercy on us” in forgiving our sin to an abiding certainty of relationship, illustrated in a brief video that ended our time together yesterday. The DVD Lump by Rob Bell, a story of a father’s love for his son, concludes with the following statements:
This morning I’ve been searching unsuccessfully in all my favorite sources for a way to express what I can only describe as the pain of the world – but not a universal pain. There is that, but the sadness/distress that washes over me now is closer to home, residing in Albany, New York, West Virginia and California. It is about fire and flood, the fire appearing on east and west coasts and the floods devastating so many lives in between. “We’ve lost everything” is the refrain from those whose homes are reduced to ash as well as people – young and old – who slog through mud still waiting for word of loved ones who may have been swept away by angry streams or rivers. One cannot help but weep for their pain. At the same time there are images of store and restaurant owners who open their larders to feed the people in their towns who have nothing. Groups form to shovel mud and fold donated clothes for the needy while others come to pray their grief and that of their neighbors.
Today’s Scripture readings, if reflected upon, seem to fit in our present world of philosophical and psychological advisors who speak about the interaction and necessary integration of body, mind and spirit. The psalmist sets the stage by declaring: I bless the Lord who counsels me; even in the night my heart exhorts me…Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence…(Ps. 16) Paul picks up the theme saying, “You were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.” (GAL 5:13-18)
The first thing I saw as my computer came on line this morning was the headline about the result of Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. That showed up on the same screen with a headline quote of Bernie Sanders for people in the US to “beat the establishment.” It seems that the way of doing things not only in our country, where the expectation that Sanders would have graciously bowed out by now, and in Europe, where the economic ramifications will be epic, are changing incontrovertibly with consequences that cannot possibly be predicted in the present. Add to that the “sit-in” in our House of Representatives this week and we cannot possibly ignore the tumult that is upon us and growing in the world.
Within the next 48 hours, I will spend time reflecting with about 100 people on the topic of mercy. In his short time as pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has electrified the world with his bold statements and writings on many topics and has manifested in his person and actions the love that runs as a theme through all that he proclaims. On December 8th of last year, Francis proclaimed a Jubilee Year of Mercy. The biblical understanding of sabbath stated that every seven years the land should lie fallow (resting the soil from the depletion caused by the crops) and after seven such cycles, the 50th year – jubilee – when people would also rest, “giving back” during which land was to be returned to original owner and captives were to be set free, the underlying intent being to restore right relationships and ensure that everyone had the means to live a productive life.
I get confused sometimes about the summer solstice. Is it the 20th or the 21st of June? Added to that this year was the title “Strawberry Moon” which I had never heard before. It turns out that I basically missed the whole (very rare) event as there was some cloud cover last night and it took me until this morning to read that the June moon got its name simply because it’s the season of strawberries in the USA. What I did not miss at 2:00AM, however, was a wild thunder and lightning event, with heavy rain drenching our bit of earth very quickly and moving on. I was awake just long enough to close my windows and to recognize the power of natural forces before I sank back into the oblivion of sleep. Maybe the storm actually lasted longer than I did in observing it…
Somewhere in my possessions I know I have a 25′ tape measure. I come across it on occasion when I’m looking for something else but I usually can’t find it when I need it. If I’m trying to measure the size of something in my bedroom I often resort to using a sheet of paper since I know it is 8 1/2 X 11 inches. That works less well if what I need to know about is very small or very large and is only exact if the space I need is exactly consonant with the size of the paper so I don’t have to rely on holding my finger in the exact position of the edge as I move the paper with my other hand. It would be so much easier if I could find my measuring tape.
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 