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Tag Archives: lesson

Precious

26 Wednesday May 2021

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animals, companion, intuition, lesson, relationship, teacher, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

For some time now, our cat (really Sister Paula’s cat—a great story for another day) has taken it upon herself to come and sit on my lap if she sees me sitting in my over-stuffed chair. Little by little, Precious has taken over every piece of furniture in the house and has wormed her was into all the hearts in the house as well. I am the last holdout, likely because we never had an animal in our house when I was growing up. I have come to love dogs over the years because of the extraordinary dogs I have known, especially the lovely Lady Ruth, the beautiful Irish Setter who thought she was a person, and any number of Labradors: golden, black or in between and a couple of tiny dogs of the chihuahua breed. Happy to have made the acquaintance of each of these “furry friends,” I have not only enjoyed them but have benefited by the relationships. My first serious lesson in that realm came from Ruth. One day, long ago, I was very sad—bereft even—for a reason I have long forgotten. I came home from work and, finding no one in the house, I walked down to our back field and sat in the grass, likely to pout. Some moments later, I realized that I had company, Lady Ruth was quietly sitting beside me. She didn’t say anything but sat quietly with me, offering her presence for my comfort. It was a powerful lesson about the intuition of some animals.

This morning I had a similar experience. I was attempting to write a blog post and having little success when Precious suddenly extricated herself from me and my chair and moved on to her next task. I realized I had been very alert as I petted her. She has not yet learned the difference in biting and nipping as an expression of love and I never want to trust that she has succeeded in learning the distinction. Thus I am careful to be alert even while feeling the comfort of the relationality of connection to another being.

It’s really difficult to explain the meaning of such an experience to non-animal people, but take my word for it. Animals are some of the greatest teachers around!

Shedding

22 Wednesday May 2019

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branch, connection, John, lesson, nature, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vine

I”ve spent some time yesterday and the day before picking up branches under one of our large maple trees. I hope that today I will complete the task and be able to rake and then cut the grass under that tree. We’ve had an inordinate amount of shedding going on this spring, mostly because of the heavy winds of the past few months. Some of the branches could be mistaken for trees themselves because they are so very large. As I drag them to a pile on the edge of our property, I sometimes wonder what made them separate from the tree as many of them seem strong and not at all diseased. People would say that it’s just the way of things in nature: they live, are nourished by their root system and then they die – either from a weather event or just old age.

Clearing the branches makes me more aware of the gifts of the trees to our ecosystem and to me. Beauty, shade and release of necessary gasses as they breathe are notable reasons to be grateful, as is the shelter they provide for the birds. Interestingly, today the gospel is the familiar “vine and branches” reading from John that speaks to us of our connection to one another and to God. And that is perhaps the greatest lesson of all.

God’s Handiwork

22 Monday Oct 2018

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being, blessing, doing, God's handiwork, lesson, love, psalm 100, reality, sing joyfully, Sisters of St. Joseph, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work

achoirsingsPeople often ask me these days if I am retired. I’m no longer shocked at the question, especially since I am now 70 years old (an amazing statistic that still surprises me sometimes!). I have been blessed thus far with good health and am grateful for meaningful and creative work that continues to present itself.

This morning I was reminded in two of the lectionary readings of this blessing. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul is talking about faith and says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” Psalm 100 follows this theme, opening with a call to “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness; come before God with joyful song!”

On Saturday, I spent the day with over a hundred Sisters of St. Joseph – a few younger and many older than myself. Many of these women are retired from active ministry but virtually all of them continue to understand the truth that we are God’s handiwork. This, then, becomes for all of us the most important “work,” calling us daily to love as God has loved us. It is about our being rather than about our doing. For some of us that is a difficult lesson but once learned, it makes all the difference. It is my hope to have totally accepted that reality when all I have left for others is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step By Step

27 Wednesday Jun 2018

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, heart, insights, law, lesson, messages, prayers, psalm 119, soul, teach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thought, treasure, truth, vision

astaircasePsalm 119, the longest in the book of 150 psalms, has 176 verses and can be the study of a lifetime. In a commentary this morning I read that the subject of these prayers is the hard learning one gains in light of a multitude of hardships and circumstances encountered on the spiritual path…Experiences are often repeated again and again. As we go over the same territory learning it in new ways, truth becomes grounded. Insights are gained from each spiral of ascending experience.

How true that seems to me! The great thing is that as we grow older and if we are paying attention it becomes easier to accede to what is being taught. Our resistance to the messages and thinking we are right all the time wanes and God’s voice becomes stronger – but only if we are listening deeply.

Today’s lectionary section is early in the psalm and sounds either like a young person who is full of enthusiasm for the journey, or someone who knows from experience the pitfalls and is ready to surrender to God’s dream. Either way, I find it a lovely morning offering.

Even now, O Lord, if you will but teach me, I shall keep as treasure all you say. Give me an understanding heart to grasp what lies alone in you, the outlines of your law, your thought; imprint them on my soul. My deep desire is for a heart whose compass-point is aimed at your true north and not some weaker pole. I desire eyes as well that do not wander but hold your vision fast for all eternity. (vs. 33-37, Ancient Songs Sung Anew)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pruning

24 Thursday May 2018

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attitude, habit, lesson, negativity, pruning, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

aforsythiaI learned a long time ago the necessity of pruning: that even though it may seem cruel to cut off any part of a plant, cutting it back may cause the possibility of a stronger and healthier plant in the long run. It was the tomato section of our garden that taught me that hard lesson many years ago. I learned what “suckers” were that summer and the fact that the longer you left them, the more they drained the energy of the whole – without bearing fruit themselves.

We have thirty overgrown and tangled forsythia bushes lining the border of our property, planted in honor of our mother from whom we learned to love their freedom and beauty. It is always a disappointment for me to see a forsythia bush clipped into a perfectly manicured spherical shape rather than the energy of one that has been pruned from the bottom (the advice of my cousin) and left to fly free in the breeze.

I have been woefully inattentive to our bushes over many years now, noticing their plight but not having the time or the energy to tend to them. The result has been lots of greenery (so I know the life force is still there) but no flowering or colorful vibrancy.

Yesterday I was blessed with a companion – younger and stronger than I – with whom I began the task of freeing the forsythia to fly again. We not only freed seven of the original bushes from their tangles and dead branches but found in so doing that there was a second generation of bushes in the mix as well! By the end of the summer I hope to have completed what John helped me to begin that was as much an internal learning as an external work task.

What I know now is that the sooner I clip a bad habit or attitude, the less time and pain there is conquering it or in letting it go. The longer I let negativity of any kind take hold, because of laziness or inattention, the more obscured it becomes and the more difficult it is to correct my vision of what is happening.

Enough! The sun is shining already and it’s time to take up my clippers and get to work.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Just That Simple

05 Monday Mar 2018

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assumptions, cure, Kings, lesson, Naaman, simpler, solution, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

anaamanThere’s a great lesson in today’s first reading (2 KGS 5:1-15) about Naaman, the Syrian army commander who was “highly esteemed and respected” by his master, the king of Aram. At issue was the fact that Naaman was a leper and that his wife’s Israeli slave girl suggested that he could be cured by Elisha, the prophet in Samaria. The king of Aram was all for the idea and sent Naaman with all sorts of expensive gifts to the king of Israel with a letter containing the request that Naaman be cured.

Two assumptions were made in the story that could have derailed the process.

  1. The king of Israel assumed that the king of Aram was asking him (not the prophet Elisha) for the actual cure and that his motive was to instigate a “quarrel” (ostensibly a political challenge) so he became enraged.
  2. When told what he had to do to be cured (to wash seven times in the Jordan River), Naaman became enraged because he assumed that the task was too simple and that the water in his own country should have been just as healing as that in Israel.

Thank goodness for the servants and the prophet who talked sense to the angry ones and facilitated the cure, the lesson being a familiar one: “Never assume…or jump to conclusions because the solution might be simpler than you could ever imagine.

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping Faith

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

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Alan Cohen, caught, centering prayer, Cynthia Bourgeault, faithkeeper, leadership, lesson, light, Onondaga Nation, Oren Lyon, Peace, prayer, sacred reading, spirituality, taught, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom groups

oren lyonI had the privilege once of meeting Oren Lyon, the Native American “Faithkeeper” of the Onondaga Nation who lives just south of the city of Syracuse, New York about 80 miles from my home. I was pleasantly surprised that Alan Cohen wrote today about the role of “Faithkeeper” as it is embodied by Oren Lyon and others like him. This person in the tribe consistently holds the higher vision, having been designated to be the voice of hope, an inspiration to remember the bigger picture when others forget it. Cohen remarks that “each of us needs to be a Faithkeeper. When others around us go into fear or confusion, we serve best by remembering the light and holding peace.” When in the presence of Oren Lyon, it was easy to sense what this means and why he holds such a designation for his people.

This message is an auspicious start to my day as I prepare to travel to New Hampshire to begin a five-day experience with 15 people who have expressed an interest in leading “wisdom groups.” These are individuals who are choosing to deepen their own spirituality and help others do the same as they lead practice circles of centering prayer, sacred reading and chant, conscious work and attention, embodiment, and the attitude of presence that leads to unitive consciousness. My colleagues and I will speak of the underlying task of all this as “holding the post,” a term used often by Cynthia Bourgeault when she speaks of leadership. We are called, she says, to hold this post of leadership at certain times in our lives and/or work and then to relinquish it when another is called to step up. It is more than skill at giving direction or familiarity with the information to be imparted. It is rather a quality of presence – of remembering and embodying the light of peace and confidence for the good of the group.

With Oren Lyon as my guide, I will remember that this lesson is more caught than taught and will try, as will my colleagues Deborah and Bill, to model what we hope to impart to those gathered. Knowing many of the participants gives me confidence that the sharing will be rich and the entire event an experience of hope and light, the ripples of which will be far reaching for each one and for all of us together. May it be so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Mouse and Me

16 Saturday Sep 2017

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automatic pilot, consciousness, lesson, mind, multi-task, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

17854216 - human hand on computer mouse  laptop on deskI was reminded again this week of how easy it is for me to walk through my days on automatic pilot and how quickly I fall out of consciousness while doing a task. Let me explain. On Tuesday my cursor disappeared from my computer screen. (I have a touchpad which I have been using for over three years.) No matter what we (I and my tech companion in the office who saves me all the time) tried, nothing would bring back that little arrow that makes things happen and allows me even the smallest success in communication. When I finally had time to visit the “Geek Squad” it took two experts to figure out that a mouse – a computer mouse, that is – might get me back up and running. Voila! It worked. Having breathed a large sigh of relief, I went back to my office and happily started to type again. Each time I needed to move the cursor for an edit or another function, I found my index finger circling around on the touchpad until I woke up to the fact that I needed the mouse to accomplish the move. My mind was on the text I was typing and the two tasks of hitting the keys and using the cursor were secondary and tertiary, just like so many other activities that I do automatically.

I stopped to think about driving, which is now made easier by automatic transmission – and soon to leave the driver out of the equation almost totally! I began to list so many things that I do in a day that allow me to multi-task and wondered whether I am served or not by the ease I find in daily living now. If I take an elevator instead of walking up stairs, I rob myself of the consciousness of putting one foot in front of the other and recognizing the actual as well as the symbolic value of that exercise. (While I can still do it, I plan to continue!) Washing dishes gives me the opportunity to be present to my task that starting the dishwasher does not – although loading the dishwasher and putting away the clean dishes can be conscious practices as well.

All of this comes back, of course, to the desire to go through life more consciously, which is also to say, more appreciatively. Sadly (maybe), my touchpad came back to life of its own accord yesterday (?) so that opportunity for increased consciousness has disappeared. I will hope to remember it, however, and keep the mouse handy in case my touchpad takes another vacation to teach me a lesson!

 

 

 

 

 

Getting to the Heart of Things

03 Friday Mar 2017

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deeper, fast from the heart, fasting, glory, God, heart, Isaiah, lesson, light, Lord, reward, sharing, sheltering, spiritual lives, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vindication

ahomelessToday it’s Isaiah whose message rings loudly in my ears with the same focus: go deeper! Get to the heart of things. He’s talking about fasting and the dissatisfaction of the people with God’s response – or lack thereof – to their practice. They want their reward. But God is more concerned with the lack of depth in their spiritual lives because, even while they fast, they mistreat their laborers and fight among themselves. They just don’t get it. So once again they – and we – get a lesson on what it means to “fast from the heart.” It’s a truly moving and inspired passage. (Is 58:1-9a) Read it aloud, if you will, with gusto!

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke, sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help and God will say: Here I am!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postscript

21 Saturday Nov 2015

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chant, Cynthia Bourgeault, fall fearless into love, Kanuga, lesson, retreat, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom School

fallloveEverything was quiet at Kanuga Retreat this morning as I trudged to the dining room for coffee. The morning star was visible in the dim light reminding me of the Scripture that promises the morning star shines clear in the sky, offering the Word of life. Everyone but the 19 interns and staff to our Wisdom School departed yesterday, knowing that we had truly experienced God’s word in so many ways this week.

Those of us who remain will continue what began yesterday afternoon as an attempt to process how such a large gathering could have felt so intimate and what we learned about ourselves and about wisdom both in the teachings of the wise and wonderful Cynthia Bourgeault and in the practices that we did together in small and large convenings. This has definitely been one of those times when “you had to be there” in order to catch the depth and meaning. None of us will be able to adequately explain it because it was not just the activities themselves but the energy generated that created the experience. One way I will remember the lesson of it all is through a chant that rose up in me to the rhythm of my walk to the coffee machine this morning. I hope I am able each day to “Fall fearless into love, fall fearless into love; fall fearless into Love.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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