The Kindness of Strangers

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extraordinary, gratitude, Inspiring America, kindness, neighborly, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We finally had our first real snow yesterday. By that I mean that there was an accumulation of about six inches and we had to shovel our driveway in order to go anywhere by car. It was beautiful as it arrived – the kind that makes a person look out the window humming “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…” even if snow isn’t in your top ten weather events. It only lasted until about noon and the reverie was over then too because the temperature was hovering around 32F. degrees. That made the snow very heavy to remove!

Two of us were shoving and splashing away – one at each end of what seemed a longer driveway than I remembered (because it was really too slushy for a snowblower or any mechanical device that we own) when the most astounding thing happened! An unfamiliar car slowed as it was nearing me close to the road. I was just about to step out of the way when a young man jumped out from the driver’s seat and his wife rolled down the window with a smile. He took my shovel and began throwing snow in the most methodical way about four times faster than my best effort. I went to the car and talked to his wife who said they were on their way home from shopping and agreed that he should stop and take over my job. We introduced ourselves and visited while he shoveled.

I turn to the NBC Nightly news most evenings on my iPad where I just look at the headlines and watch the segments that are truly informational- not sensational – and look for the last segment that is called “Inspiring America.” It’s always good news about an “ordinary” person who does something extraordinary just because of seeing a need. Some of the good deeds are astounding and some just good neighborly things to do to help. I would have liked to send a report to Lester Holt for a winter segment last night as our new friends provided just the kind of feeling that his news stories engender but they were gone in a flash taking only my gratitude and renewed sense of the kindness of strangers with them.

P.S. A shout-out to Betsy who had just arrived for a week-long retreat here. She – our much younger sister – had picked up a shovel as soon as she had said her hellos to the Sisters. As grateful as I was to her, I’m sure that she was also to our willing new neighbors. And a good time was had by all…

The Human Spirit

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apartheid, courage, extraordinary, human spirit, Meg Wheatley, Nelson Mandela, prison, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Turning To One Another

Recently it seems counterproductive to watch – or even listen to – the evening news. The destruction from weather events is bad enough, but the way people are judging and treating each other around our country and in the world is unconscionable. We need more stories of courage to keep the light strong and our willingness to fan the flames of unifying love alive.

Meg Wheatley has a brief but powerful story that speaks to the power of the human spirit. She was touring Robben Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela and others struggling against apartheid were imprisoned for over 25 years. She recounts the event as follows.

We were standing in a long narrow room that had been used as a prison cell for dozens of freedom fighters. They lived in close quarters in this barren room – no cots or furniture, just cement walls and floors with narrow windows near the ceiling. We stood there listening to our guide’s narration. He had been a prisoner in this very room. The cold came up through the floor into our feet as we gazed around the lifeless cell. We stared through the bars of the door as he described the constant threats and capricious brutality they had suffered. Then he paused and gazed down the length of the room. Speaking very quietly, he said: “Sometimes, to pass the time here, we taught each other ballroom dancing.”

She concludes: I have never forgotten that image, of demoralized and weary men teaching each other to dance in the cold silence of a long prison cell. Only the human spirit is capable of such dancing. (turning to one another, p.74)

All I see in my mind’s eye in the wake of that story is the face of Nelson Mandela on the day of his release from that prison – and again on the day that he was elected president of South Africa. His smile was so broad it lit up the world.

Let us think on these things when we are feeling bowed down. We say, “Yes, but he was extraordinary.” We need, rather, to turn to one another and draw the extraordinary out of each other – together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bless the Children

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blessing, children, different, extraordinary, Jesuit, joy, simplicity, spiritual opening, spontaneity, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, summer, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wonder

My thoughts this morning are of children – simple thoughts really, for a number of reasons. We have finally (some would say swiftly) arrived at the calendar designation of the beginning of summer and I have been aware that this is the last week of school for the youth of New York State. Freed for the summer from the constraints of study, some are likely jubilant while others quickly become bored. I suggest prayer for young people in general that this season will afford them some new, safe adventures and good friends to companion them.

Today is the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga who lived in the 16th century and died at the age of 23. An extraordinarily spiritual youth, he had a “spiritual opening” at the age of 7 years and was teaching catechism by the age of eleven! After a 4 year struggle with his father who was determined that his son join the military, Aloysius entered the Jesuit order. Soon after, in caring for those brothers sickened by plague, he contracted the disease and died. As I read about his early life, I thought of the children I have known as “different” or extraordinary – often the intellectually brilliant ones – who are not well accepted by their peers. Conformity is a much safer path to walk, especially in our younger years. I pray for those children and teens who wish for a simpler life but know a different calling, that they may accept themselves and others and come to celebrate their uniqueness as God’s gift.

Finally, I see pictures of the beautifully alive faces of the youngest members of my own extended family and pray for children everywhere that they may be granted loving parents or guardians like those I know their parents, my younger cousins, to be. May we learn from the young the lessons of spontaneity and wonder, of simplicity and joy and may they be a blessing to us in this season.

 

 

 

 

 

Finding the Extraordinary in Life

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, center of the heart, extraordinary, God's path, hidden blessings, psalm 128, reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

Psalm 128 is rather short, only eight verses but rich in wisdom. After reading three translations, I felt it important to pay attention to two of the lines especially. The entire psalm is about the blessings that come to those who walk upon God’s path, following God’s ways – a rather common theme throughout the book. What first got my attention was the second line of verse one which said that for those who are living that way life is filled with hidden blessings. Later, verse five proclaims that it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life unto its end. It was upon reading the commentary that I recognized the possible richness of reflection on what was contained in these phrases. See what you think of this call to wake up to the ordinary events of life.

Sources of blessing flow hidden beneath the external surfaces of the world. These we tap as we live out our lives in right-relationship to God and to the world. Often these appear to be mundane and ordinary, but extraordinary is hidden in them. Look at your circumstances. What in the ordinary hides the extraordinary goodness of God? We are asked to see this, to penetrate past the surfaces to the heart.

Notice in verse 5 that it is at the center, the heart, where these realities become clear to us. Can you see from the level of your heart?  (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 331)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hidden Blessings

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, blessing, center of the heart, cornucopia of good, extraordinary, God, hidden blessings, Lynn Bauman, oilve plants, psalm 128, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Psalm 128 is the one that says “your children are like olive plants around your table.” I understood this line much more deeply after a visit to Italy some years ago when I saw olive trees for the first time. I found them a lovely element in the landscape, a gentle presence both light and strong.

Lynn Bauman (Ancient Songs Sung Anew) gives voice in his lyrical translation of this psalm to what he calls “a cornucopia of good” that includes not only familial relationships but “hidden blessings” that flow to those who “walk upon the paths of God.” He speaks of God as “the center of the heart” who prospers all our days.

Bauman’s commentary seemed to me a worthy focus for the day’s reflection. He says: Sources of blessing flow hidden beneath the external surfaces of the world. These we tap as we live out our lives in right-relationship to God and to the world. Often these appear to be mundane and ordinary, but extraordinary is hidden within them. Look at your circumstances. What in the ordinary hides the extraordinary goodness of God? We are asked to see this, to penetrate past the surfaces to the heart. Notice in verse 5 that it is at the center, the heart where these realities become clear to us. Can you see from the level of your heart?