We teach children how to measure
and how to weigh.
We fail to teach them how to revere,
how to sense wonder and awe.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel
Beauty has its purposes, which, all our lives and at every season, it is our opportunity, and our joy, to divine... much is revealed about a person by his or her passion, or indifference to this opening of the door of day.
Mary Oliver
Without wonder we approach life as a self-help project. We employ techniques; we analyze gifts and penalties; we set goals and assess progress. Spiritual formation is reduced to cosmetics. Eugene Peterson
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One day the Buddha was sitting with his monks. A distraught farmer approached. "Monks, have you seen my cows?" The Buddha said, "No we have not." The farmer continued, "I am distraught. I have only twelve cows, and now they are gone. How will I survive?" The Buddha looked at him with compassion and said, "I'm sorry my friend, we have not seen them. You may want to look in the other direction." After the farmer had gone, the Buddha turned to his monks, looked at them deeply, smiled and said, "Dear ones, do you know how lucky you are? You don't have any cows to lose."
This is an easy story. Because I own no cows. A few cats maybe. It's just that the things which do clutter my heart and mind (and absorb my energy and focus and weigh me down) are much more encumbering than the farmer's cows.
My need to be in a hurry or to be distracted.
My fear of failure or being a disappointment.
My need to impress those around me (or my need to impress those I don't even know).
My dissatisfaction with ordinary days and the gifts of grace.
My preoccupation with all that's left undone.
In the comic strip Downstown, John (single and still looking for the perfect woman) sat on a park bench with a friend. He saw a beautiful woman sitting not far away. "That's a beautiful woman," he said to his friend. "I'm going to ask her for a date. Yes, I'm going to get up right now and ask her. That's right, I'm going to get up and go over and ask her." He stood, began walking, and said, "After all, what have I got to lose?"
As he walked to the woman's bench, his friend shouts, "Nothing, just all your masculinity, your self-confidence and your self-esteem." John returned to the bench, sat down and said, "Thanks for reminding me."
When my identity is defined by what I possess, or earn, or lack, or strive for, or require in order to impress or be somebody, I have everything to lose.
The Sabbath--the permission to stop, sit still, wait--allows us to hear the voice of Grace saying simply, "You are accepted. Period. Deal with it."
Paul Tillich elaborates, "You are accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not seek for anything. Do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted." If that happens to us, we experience grace.
Which means that I can live and choose and commit "from acceptance" and not "for acceptance." I'm not doing any of this (Sabbath, prayer, rest, reflection, renewal, letting go) to impress anyone or earn points. Life is full enough. This life. This moment. This relationship. This conversation. This encounter. The sacred present begins now.
A young man boarded an overnight train in Europe. He was told, "There have been a lot of recent thefts. We take no responsibility for any loss." This worried the young man, because he carried a lot of stuff. So, he lay awake, fearing the worst, staring at his stuff. Finally, at 3 am, he fell asleep. Waking with a start twenty minutes later, he saw that his stuff was gone. He took a deep breath. "Thank God," he said. "Now I can sleep."
On the seventh day, God rested. God savored.
Savoring is rooted...
In Sabbath.
In Enough.
In Grace.
For six days we work, we build, we create, we control (and at times, we fret). The seventh day we rest. We stop. We receive. We savor. Without savoring, we assume reality is only about what we create or produce (or fail to produce). In other words, because of grace we are not driven to live another life, a different life. We find wonder (or the kingdom of God) here; even without our cows.
The Hebrew word for rested, vyenafesh, can mean rest, or ensouled, breath, to catch one's breath, sweet fragrance, passion, and inner being of man. A nefesh can also mean a living being. In the context of Sabbath, God ensouled this day by resting. Just as dormancy ensouls a garden, downtime (pausing, Sabbath) ensouls my heart. And my life.
Today I put down my to-do lists. I let my mind rest. There is a fire in the fireplace, and I have picked up one of John Thorne's cookbooks to keep me company. Outside my window, the trees are without leaves. Blank. My pond has a thin film of ice. The late Autumn sunlight, low in the sky, dances through the fir and hemlock forest. It is restful, and exquisitely beautiful.
A blessed Thanksgiving to you and to those you love...
This is not how it's supposed to be, I know. I keep an endless mental list of the things that need to be done. But when a grey day comes, when the horses stand over their hay as though there were all the time in the world to eat it, one of the things that needs to be done
is to sit still. Verlyn Klinkenborg
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Poems and Prayers
Where the Shopkeeper Would Say
I was
looking for that shop
where the shopkeeper would say,
"There is nothing of value in here."
I found it and did
not leave.
The richness of not wanting wrote these poems.
Kabir (1440-1518)
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry
The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973
God of peace,
let us rest in your presence,
let us keep watch in your holy place,
let our restless thoughts be stilled,
let your peace sink deep into our souls,
let your presence be sufficient for us,
as we keep watch before you.
Amen
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Be Inspired
Living without Fear: The truth about intimacy --Terry Hershey (Anaheim Convention Center) --2013 Religious Education Congress.
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