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Give me a transformed and undefended heart. Saint Augustine
If the impetus of desire is dead, what can happen? Gardens don't get planted, people don't get explored and loved, songs and poems don't get written, even the poor Creator is entombed in a 'holy' sepulcher where nothing is permitted to change or grow. Gail Goodwin
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. Colette
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In June 1859, Jean-François Gravelet (known as The Great Blondin) crossed Niagara Falls walking a tight rope. During his life, he repeated the feat several times, always with a different theatrical variation: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying his manager, Harry Colcord on his back.
Not surprisingly, Blondin's crossings drew crowds. About to cross pushing a wheelbarrow with a sack of cement, he asked a reporter standing with crowd. "Do you believe I can do this?"
"Yes sir, after watching you, I believe you can do anything."
"Do you believe that instead of a sack of cement, I could put a man in this wheelbarrow, and wheel him safely to the other side?"
"Oh, yes, Mr. Blondin, I certainly believe it."
"Good," said Blondin, "Get in."
I love the simplicity of the metaphor. Get in.
If life is to be lived, and not merely managed, get in.
If life is to pour out from the heart, and not be solely analyzed from the head, get in.
If life is not just about answers, but about asking the right questions, get in.
It makes sense. You know Teddy Roosevelt's, "in the arena, face marred with sweat and blood" and all that. But what does it mean, to get in? I know this for certain. If my primary concern is security or well-being, I will believe (and most likely recite my belief in a Creed), but seldom get in the wheelbarrow.
It's fair to ask: So what is the difference between embracing life fully, and acting foolish? Or ill-advised risky behavior? Honestly, I'm not sure that the line is easy to distinguish.
Here's the deal: I find grace--ordinary grace--when I embrace this life. Only then, do I live the truth of what I say I believe.
However, "getting in" is not an easy sell when you have folks telling you otherwise. While it is true that at some level we create our own destiny, there is something inside of us that says whatever it is, is not enough. There are some who argue that God is waiting to take us to the next level, and we're blocking the way. "Get ready for that job promotion that has passed you by," a TV preacher told me the other day. (What I was doing watching religious TV in the middle of a day, stuffing my face with praline pecans, is another brainteaser altogether. It assuredly would require more therapy.) But here's what I deduced from the preacher: God wants you and me to move to where we are supposed to be.
The implication: wherever we are now, this isn't it.
It made me wonder. Why must everything we do (including our spiritual growth and well-being) be accelerated? Why do we honor only that which is faster and bigger? And why is it that whenever God wants to take us to the next level (according to these preachers), it's always connected to our finances or our financial portfolio?
When I swallow this line of reasoning, I see only this: my focus is now on a life that is someplace other than the place I am right now. I am certainly familiar with these adversaries to embracing the day or moment.
I live only in my head.
I clutch my woundedness and assume that is all there is to my identity.
I play a victim, certain that I have been dealt a losing hand.
I live in a perpetual state of "if only and when," imprisoned by what life should be.
Okay. So I choose to "get in." What do I do now? What does it mean to let go. To embrace the moment? Is there a way to circumvent the discomfort by doing some kind of risk management assessment (you know, eliminate the messiness and uncertainty before we proceed)?
There is a similarity with writing. When I teach writing classes, there is a desire for the formula. And I don't have a formula. Just the same advice Blondin gave, Get in. If you needs some tips--about writing or life--here are my favorites...
1. Live awake. Write every day.
2. Write plenty of bad stuff. Do not be afraid to shock and disappoint your friends.
3. If your blood boils, show it in your writing.
4. Honor the parts of you that are human, real and alive.
5. Embrace the accidental, arcane, serendipitous and chaotic.
6. Abandon yourself to your senses and to the language. What did you notice today that surprised you?
Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what's next or how. The moment you know, you begin to die a little. Agnes de Mille
In the New Testament, Jesus was often in the midst. I love that phrase. So when you "get in," get ready for the ride of your life. I am in touch with, and available to... give, forgive, risk, fail, try, create, offer, feel, see, wonder, build-bridges, cry, laugh, play, grieve, mourn, fall-down, get-up-again, paint, write, see poetry in the clouds, lend a helping hand, hold a hand that needs it, and give in to the vulnerability of trusting another who pushes the wheelbarrow.
I realize that I can get in when I know that fear does not own me. In other words, when I know that I am loved.
Had a great conversation on Saturday with an old friend about "submission," or letting go of our need for control. (Easier said than done, given the fact that we're still talking about it at our age.) Flying home after our airplane followed the sunset, and the entire western horizon seemed ablaze, as if a fire burned, miles to the west, and the clouds became a kaleidoscope with shades of tangerine and gold and ember red. It reminded me of that scene in Out of Africa, when Karen is leaving the farm, and her faithful servant Farah asks her to build a fire, so he will know where to find her. She says that she will.
"Then you must make this fire very big Sabu," Farah tells her.
Someone in heaven made a "fire" that allowed me to stop, and let go... long enough to pay attention, and be grateful.
I discovered that in the spiritual life, the long way round is the saving way. It isn't the quick and easy religion we're accustomed to. It's deep and difficult--a way that leads into the vortex of the soul where we touch God's transformative powers. But we have to be patient. We have to let go and tap our creative stillness. Most of all, we have to trust that our scarred hearts really do have wings. Sue Monk Kidd
terryhershey.com
terry's schedule
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Poems and Prayers
God showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, in a palm of my hand, and it was a round as a ball. I looked at it with my minds' eye and I thought, "What can this be?" And answer came, "It is all that is made." I marveled that it could last, for I thought it might have crumbled to nothing, it was so small. And the answer came into my mind, "It lasts and ever shall because God loves it." And all things have their being through the love of God. In these little things I saw three truths;
The first is that God made it.
The second is that God loves it.
The third is that God looks after it.
Julian of Norwich
The Hope of Loving
What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.
I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey;
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover's
warm gaze.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither
like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.
Meister Eckhart
God bless our contradictions, those parts of us which seem out of character.
Let us be boldly and gladly out of character.
Let us be creatures of paradox and variety; creatures of contrast,
of light and shade, creatures of faith.
God be our constant.
Let us step out of character into the unknown,
to struggle and love and do what we will.
Leunig, Common Prayer Collection
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Be Inspired
Begin -- The Waillin' Jennys
Rocky Votolato - Silver Trees (pure volume session)
Colin Hay - Waiting for my real life to begin
Favorites from Last Week:
Carrie Newcomer -- Bare to the Bone
Donovan and Joan Baez -- Colours
Michael Martin Murphy -- Lost River (a song about a place you loved and you're looking for what you had back when)
Pete Seeger -- Forever Young
Lay down your weary tune -- Mary Black
Terry Hershey -- Gratitude
Eva Cassidy -- Autumn Leaves
Irish Blessing -- John O'Donohue
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Notes from Terry
(1) Sabbath Moment is only possible because of the generous gifts of readers. For those who have donated... THANK YOU. If you wish to be a part of making this gift possible... I appreciate your gift.
Sabbath Moment is available to everyone--with the invitation that people forward it, and share it with those around them. Please forward Sabbath Moment... if you work at an organization--please consider forwarding Sabbath Moment to every member of your staff or team.
(2) New! Enjoy a stroll in my summer garden...
(3) Share Sabbath Moment -- Here are the recent issues. Please forward the link, or cut and paste. For archived issues, go to ARCHIVE.
October 15. 2012 -- Real Life
October 8. 2012 -- Caged
October 1. 2012 -- Set it down
(4) Every day... there are PAUSE reminders every day on Facebook.
Please hit the LIKE button... it doesn't hurt and it helps the cause. And... pass the word.
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