Anticipation

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anticipation, calm, dawn, day, glory, John Phillip Newell, Prayer of Awareness, presence, reunion, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, willing, workshop

Over the past half hour I have had a line from the movie, The Sound of Music, floating in and out of my mind. As Julie Andrews is about to embark on her adventure as a nanny/governess for seven children she muses, “What will this day be like…I wonder…” My wondering is nothing like that of Ms. Andrews/Maria. I am anticipating the arrival of eleven women who have been participating in book studies at The Sophia Center over the past year. They are coming for a sort of “reunion workshop” that I’m sure will be extraordinary as they are, themselves, no ordinary women. My anticipation is calm and willing, an expectation of blessing and rest. So I pray for all of us (and seekers everywhere) a lovely morning “Prayer of Awareness” from John Phillip Newell.

At the beginning of the day we seek your countenance among us, O God, in the countless forms of creation all around us, in the sun’s rising glory, in the face of friend and stranger. Your Presence within every presence, your Light within all light, your Heart at the heart of this moment. May the fresh light of morning wash our sight that we may see your Life in every life this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Reunion of Spirit

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acceptance, age, divine grace, imprint, inner landscape, life, presence, reunion, spiritual deepening, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity, women's circle

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at a reunion. I’m looking at the word now: re-union, and I know it to be a true description of what happened in the gathering. These eight women (one of whom was only able to be with us yesterday in spirit) had spent over ten years gathering once a month to share life in a most meaningful way. We couldn’t remember exactly when it began although with some digging I may be able to reconstruct the timeline. What we knew was the indelible imprint we had left on each other’s hearts. So yesterday – older and most likely wiser after nearly a decade apart because of other commitments – we found each other again with our love for one another intact and our willingness to share ourselves even more deeply than before.

Life has sculpted us in ways we didn’t have time to share fully as the afternoon flew by but what we did not have to remind each other was that we have come into this new moment maybe even more desirous of spiritual deepening than when we last met. What shape this effort will take is still in seed. It is clear that we will not just repeat the pattern of our first incarnation together. What is obvious to me as I sit here this morning is the truth that we are all one, living in a unity that allows us to be more than we are alone for the good of the world. Our circle is not closed but open to others who call to us while giving us the strength we need to become our best selves.

What I describe is perhaps one of those “you had to be there” events, comprehensible only to the participants. I speak of it only to suggest that regardless of advancing age that includes physical diminishment and loss there is a beautiful inner landscape in each of us that we can mirror to each other if we meet in a space of acceptance and grateful presence. May we be that presence for one another and a model for other seekers as we go forward in divine grace!

 

 

 

 

 

The Wisdom of Age

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Book of Wisdom, joy, Lord, memories, repent, reunion, shared experience, sin, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe, wisdom

The feeling in the gathering place of my 50th-year high school reunion last evening was congenial and happy, a perfect example for me of how age is related to wisdom. There were comments that spoke of what a good and caring education we received in high school, the benefit perhaps of membership in a small class of 82 students. There were some specific common memories of events and some still etched in only one or two of our minds but nothing mattered except that our shared experience was celebrated and had created a bond that was still apparent in the joy of being together. It was in the looking back, taking the long view, that the essence of “us” came to light without the necessity of a lot of words.

In some way this morning’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures gave me the same sense. It is from the Book of Wisdom, always a clue pointing to deep meaning. The feelings it elicited from me were remembrance, gratitude and deep peace. Here is what it says:

Before the Lord the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things! (WIS 11: 22 – 12:1)