The earth shall teach us

Posted on January 7, 2012 | 2 Comments

The earth herself and the created order most purely reveal the truth of the divine. It is as things were created to be that we find the absence of the influence of human will, which so often leads to disorder, control, and abuse as much as it leads to love and unity. Without the human will, we find wildness, and where we find wildness, we find truth, wholeness, and perfection.

Could the soaring eagle be more perfect?
Could the howling wolf be more perfect?
Could the blossoming cherry tree or the emerging daffodil be more perfect?
What about the new-fallen snow, the song of the robin, the rising sun, the flowing creek, or the lush undergrowth in the forest?

Could any of these things be better or more right than they are in their wildness and freedom? We do well to learn our lesson from our mother, the earth, and our brothers and sisters that rest upon and walk along her belly. She will teach us how to be ourselves, as we were created to be. She is in the Christ as the Christ is in her.

In Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and invisible… Before anything was created, Christ existed, and Christ holds all things in unity. (Colossians 1:15-17)

Whatever name we give, whatever image works best, there is a unity and a creating at work for all time. It is love and it is beauty and it is rightness. It is wild and free.

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Supported by the universe… Immensely!

Posted on January 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

It’s funny. I had this post in mind, that was entirely focused on little Brendan’s peaceful slumber in my arms. Of course, at my intended time of writing, what did the little guy decide to express to me but quite the opposite. After some holding and talking, he once again set the example for me as to what peace looks like.

Yesterday, the two of us got to sit in on Kat’s lunch time yoga class. It being her first regular class back, she wanted to have a little experiment to see how he would do in an hour long yoga class. So Brendan and I sat in the back and we danced. He spent some time on his belly, on his back, on his feet, flying in the air, swinging, and being held. He didn’t cry once. He did, however, smile and laugh and giggle and groove. After a while, he began rubbing his eyes so I held him till he fell asleep. Deeply. There he was, resting in my arms in as deep a sleep as a baby can be. Arms hanging. Legs limp. Head and neck relaxed.

It was then I was reminded what it means to be supported by the universe. Our natural state of being. At peace. At-one-ness. Not a care in the world because we are being held by the great being of infinite love. There is nothing more beautiful.

Our lives get so complicated with apparent dilemma after dilemma. We get rushed and hurried and hustled and harried. Our breath, our most basic body instincts, is completely forgotten and ignored. Our bodies hold on to every up and down we feel. We get sick, tired, and worried. This is not the human condition. This is not what God wants for us. I take my reminders from my child and the spirit speaks through him.

As he slept, I kissed his feet. My guru.

 

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A aching for our ancestors

Posted on December 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

It is amazing that so much of the personal spiritual journey gets played out in the community and the cultural stage as well. There has for a number of years been such a struggle with many people to find a spiritual path that feels authentic and not littered or burdened with the baggage of the hierarchical and patriarchal system. So many dear friends have found a deep connection with the divine in Native American, Buddhist, yogic, Hindu, or new age spirituality. It is the time we live in and I am not about to spend time telling them they are wrong. They are, after all, experiencing God and growing in love in their own ways. Yet there is still an unsettledness that I sense.

Maybe it is in the need to make a cut from their Christian roots, the church that they experienced growing up. This is important for people to do, to be sure. I don’t blame them as there was, and still is, a lot of hurt happening in the 20th/21st century church. Maybe some of this unsettledness is expressed in a unresting search. Searching is good. Perhaps it is skepticism. This serves us for a time. It is all different yet not too far from the other side of Christian brothers and sisters who have “found the truth” and are resting in their assurance.

There is a great hearth for us to gather at within Christianity, as we experience it in the historical mystical tradition. We are Westerners, most of us, and our ancestors came out of the Christian church, in all it’s splendor and even it’s darkness. We don’t have to accept it all, or even most, but I dare say we may find our resting place within it. The Christian mystics had so much to offer us, even within our tradition. Union, nondualism, connection, acceptance, love, cosmology, an acceptance of science, an embracing of the arts, and a love and honor for the feminine, in humanity and in the divine.

Don’t expect me to “evangelize” or apologetic my way though to people, but I will dig my well here and know that some places along the way others will join me. May we hve confidence our ancestors will be with us on this journey as well.

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Dig your well deep

Posted on December 19, 2011 | 2 Comments

It is not naive or small-minded to settle on one spiritual path or rest with one tradition or religion. There is a time in life for being skeptical, for questioning everything, but it is only good for a time. It doesn’t do a lot of good for the long run. The ego wants to keep us in a place of questioning, just as it wants to keep us in a place of surety.

We must dig a well deep within our tradition. Learn the tools of the other wells, yes, but find the well we will dig or we will never get to the life-water that is deep under the surface. To dig many shallow wells in many traditions never gets us to the water. When we finally get deep down, we find that there is only one water… one life. But we have found it with our well. I will meet you there in the underground aquifer of love, Truth, and union.

When we come out the other side, when we cross over that line of being done with the skepticism, we recognize that that time was good, just as the time for literalism was good. In the place, we see that we have much farther to go on the journey, many places to find ourselves, and it is ok that we are not there yet.

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Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Posted on November 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

by Wendell Berry

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 millenium. 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.

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