Late Word

Tags

Eckhart Tolle, future, live in the present moment, past, present, quality of life, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Good afternoon – or good morning as the case may be. I’m writing from California today, having arrived last night for a Thanksgiving/Christmas gathering with my siblings – a rare and wonderful occurrence. Eckhart Tolle has the perfect message for me for today in his “Present Moment Reminder.” Maybe it will strike a chord with you as well.

When you make the present moment the focal point of your life instead of past and future, your ability to enjoy what you do – and with it, the quality of your life – increases dramatically.

Blessings on your day…and throughout the week.

Taking Time

Tags

anxiety, experiences, future, gratitude, Jesus, John, live in the present moment, past, present, St. John the Evangelist, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time

Today Christians mark the feast of St. John, “Apostle and Evangelist.” There is much commentary about this companion of Jesus, the one known as “the beloved disciple” who was at his side at the Last Supper and the Crucifixion and figures prominently in the Resurrection narratives. His own gospel passage of the Resurrection is read at services today (JN 20: 1-8) and seems a bit out of place for two days after the feast of the birth of Jesus. Because of this telescoped view of the beginning and end of the life of Jesus, I was brought to a consideration of the concept of time.

We know, of course, the beginnings and ends of things that have happened in the past. We live as well as we can the present time in which we live. Because of present events we may be looking toward the future with expectation or anxiety, but ultimately it makes the most sense to live in the moment we are in. As many wise people have said in different ways, the present is the only moment we are sure of, the only one in which we are confident that we can change or choose. An internet post from a site called exactlywhatistime.com was quite prolific in its definitions that began by saying the following.

Time is something we deal with every day, and something that everyone thinks they understand. However, a compact and robust definition of time has proved to be remarkably tricky and elusive.

Before I get too bungled up in philosophical wanderings, let me suggest that the best way for me to look at time is the one that will allow me to look kindly on the past from which I have learned lessons in living well, the present in which I garner deeper understanding and gratitude each day and the future to which I look with hope for ever better applications of what I have learned.

I am still left wondering, however, about the juxtaposition of gospel passages from Christmas to Resurrection events this week. Are we meant, do you suppose, to live everything in the present, to contain all experiences at this moment? A question for physicists perhaps…What do you think?

What Time Is It?

Tags

decisions, ending, expectation, future, gratitude, letting go, live in the present moment, memories, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, timing, unknown, Wisdom School, wisdom way

I have started this post three times in the past two minutes and am grateful for the technology that includes a “delete” button. It’s not that I have one thought stream; rather, there are too many words rumbling around in my head with no clear way to express anything. This happens sometimes when too much is going on and especially as I prepare to travel. It’s as if I need to be sure I have everything taken care of before I leave, especially remembering (of course) what needs to go with me.

Today is a moment when memories and expectations abound and I will need to remain fully conscious of the present. At noon we will close what has been a six-year series of “wisdom schools” and this evening I will leave for a meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota that is preliminary to decision-making about our (Sisters of St. Joseph) future. It is as if I am in a room with two doors leading in different directions, knowing that it isn’t time yet to open either one. Behind the first door is an immense quantity of gratitude for the work we (my colleagues Bill and Deborah and myself) have been privileged to do, tinged with a bit of sadness for the ending, although the timing is surely correct. Behind the other door is the unknown future of our dynamic, yet aging, community of women who sit in a moment of “not yet” and try to envision a worthy future for us and those who will be called to join us.

It isn’t always easy to let go of outcome and just live in the moment we are experiencing. Today that will be my most important task and it begins right now. I trust that these years of training and practice in the “wisdom way” will serve to allow both doors to open in their own time and that life will go on as it should. Amen. (So be it.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Word from James

Tags

agendas, humility, letter of james, letting go, live in the present moment, surrender, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I have always found the Letter of James in the Bible very down-to-earth and “say it like it is.” Today’s text (JAS 4:13-17), the first thing I read for the day, woke me up immediately with a reality that I preach but sometimes forget to practice. He says this: Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit.” You have no idea what your life will be like  tomorrow. You are like a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. How’s that for a reminder to live in the present moment? He is correct, of course, that ultimately we have no idea how long we will live or what it is that will end our life. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we shouldn’t make plans but rather that we should hold them lightly and be able to let them go without grumbling or despair if they need to be altered for some reason. Letting go of our small agendas for some worthy purpose is always a good preparation for a time when something large and unexpected occurs. And then there’s the line about our identity being “like a puff of smoke.” That reminder to keep working on our humility rather than holding on to our agendas as if they were the most important plans in the universe also furthers the possibility of surrender in the event of some greater project.

God bless the writer of the Letter of James whose words have endured to give me that wake up call for my Wednesday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting and Watching

Tags

crucifix, Cynthia Bourgeault, desert, Easter Vigil, entombment service, fidelity to Jesus, Good Friday, live in the present moment, Mark, Mary Magdalene, The Passion of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection of Christ, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting

Today feels like “the day the earth stood still” (which I believe was a movie many years ago that I have no memory of except the title). I sensed that as I awoke to rain and darkness this morning, still holding the events of yesterday and last evening in my heart. I am on retreat and our Good Friday “Entombment Service” was a stark example of the kind of experience I was describing here yesterday.  The reading of the Passion from Mark’s gospel in sections of the day (6AM-9AM, 9AM-Noon, etc.), the  mournful chanting and the wrapping of the crucifix in the linen cloths as it lay on a table in the middle of the room brought the experience of Jesus’ death present in a most vivid way. It was clear in the slow, personal moments of each one of us moving to venerate the cross that we were grieving. And we will hold that attitude as we move through this last day together.

The mood will change in tonight’s first celebration of The Great Feast of Easter, the Vigil service recounting the movement from death to life. The first psalm of the service cries out: Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth! What follows is the narration of our salvation history during which the sense of the light grows and hope returns until the bells ring out and we know Resurrection! Alleluia!

Living in the present moment is especially hard today. It would be much easier to focus on the future as we often do in the times when we would rather be there than in the moment where we find ourselves. But today gives us an opportunity to join ourselves to those people who are waiting for a good outcome of suffering, those who have no assurance that “all will be well” – nothing except their faith to keep them from despair. Here we will explore today the experience of “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” whom the gospel tells us stayed at the tomb, without hope or reason to do so – just holding the space in reverence and fidelity to Jesus – as love calls us to do in times of great sorrow. We will wait in that “desert” with them, a time that will make all the more joyful our experience of the Resurrection of Christ and perhaps our own rising to fuller life as well.

May it be so with you!

PS: I leave early tomorrow morning for a week-long Wisdom School experience with Cynthia Bourgeault in the mountains of North Carolina. I can’t be sure of internet service there but will connect as I am able, definitely back by Monday 4/13.

Packing Up

Tags

breathing, clutter, deeper purposes, journey, live in the present moment, Mark, new day, possibility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, travel, walking stick

Some days I feel (and probably look like) a pack mule as I leave for work. Nearly always my computer bag is slung over my left shoulder hugging the purse already hanging there. In my right hand could be my briefcase and perhaps a plastic grocery bag or two hanging from my wrist with lunch, letters to mail, items to return to the religious education office…or whatever. Oh yes, and somewhere my keys adorn a finger. One must be dexterous these days when leaving home – and occasionally I actually make it to the car without the whole of my building project collapsing around me!

I laughed this morning as I read the line from Mark’s gospel where he instructs his emissaries who are about to go out on mission. (MK 6:7-13) “Take nothing for the journey but a walking stick,” he says, “no food, no sack, no money in your belts.” They were to wear sandals but could manage without a second tunic. What makes me think I won’t survive an afternoon without my lunch? And I won’t even go into what it takes to pack for an actual trip! Most important there is the color scheme I’m working with to minimize the number of shoe choices…

Obviously conditions are different now but this comparison does make me think about how cluttered life can become with material cares that sometimes distract from the deeper purposes of work and walking the path. It’s all about consciousness really. It’s as easy for me to fail to notice a colleague’s unspoken need as it is to forget to hang my lunch over my wrist unless I am living in the present moment where God always waits. So – breathing in and breathing out, I begin again, smiling at the word and the reminder that helps me to wake up to possibility in this new day.