THAT THAT IS, IS

Monday, January 18, 2010
I’m reading a lot about non-judgmental,
non-duelistic thinking or feeling. Embracing the all of reality. Complimentary to what Byron Katie does with The Work. I like both.

(note: non-judgment is not addressing the subject of stopping at red lights, crossing the street, or if you want the red shoes or the brown boots…got it?)

My world is divided these days, Democrat/Republican; rich/poor; right/wrong; a loving God/a spiteful God; happy/sad; exempt/non-exempt. On and on it goes.

I’m choosing to pause before I decide. Consider the other point of view. Question the emotions that may arise within. Embrace the unknown. Accept what I will…what I can, on this winding path.

There is no "me" and "you." There is only us.

Richard's Daily Meditations

NONVIOLENCE  

Question of the Day:

How do I evade Jesus’ teachings?

How is it that after two thousand years of meditation on Jesus, we’ve managed so effectively to avoid most of what he taught so unequivocally? This is true of all the churches. The most we could usually do is emphasize one or the other part of his teaching, and still call ourselves orthodox or “Bible based”.
All of us, for example, have evaded most of the Sermon on the Mount.

All of us have evaded the unmistakable teaching of Jesus on a simple life-style, non-status-seeking, non-greed.

All of us have evaded Jesus’ teaching on non-violence (except for the Amish, the Quakers, and the Mennonites).

All of us have evaded his straightforward teaching on loving our enemy.

Jesus is just too much for all of us!

Adapted from Simplicity, pp. 161 - 162
Mantra:  Blessed are the peacemakers

The Gift of Contemplative Prayer

Daily Meditation -  Jan 16, 2010 


Question of the Day:  What is God trying to teach me through what is,  right here, right now?

 Simone Weil said, “It is grace that forms the void inside of us and it is also grace that fills that same void.”


Without grace we will not enter into the void, and without grace the void will not be filled. All we can do is try to keep our hands cupped and open and ask God to teach us how to keep our hands cupped and open. The events and experiences of life teach us how.


Great religion seeks utter awareness and full consciousness, so that we can, in fact, receive all, even the sadness and tragedy of the world.


Everything belongs and everything can be received. We don’t have to deny, dismiss, defy, or ignore anything.


What is, is somehow, on some level, okay. What is, is always the great teacher. From that initial surrender, you will find what you can and should do to change things. You have to say yes before you say no. Sounds like a big paradox, doesn’t it? It is.


Adapted from Everything Belongs, pp. 46, 53, 54-55
by Fr. Richard Rohr


http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/
Center For Action and Contemplative Prayer

My Hummingbird Dream

11/30/2009 

Walking in the back yard of Aunt Elizabeth’s. Lots of trees and hanging from the branches were different sized glass jars, filled with water and flowers. I passed by one on a low branch and saw there was a little humming bird in the jar, in the water, flapping its wings trying to get out. The hummingbird was colored and marked like a Chickadee, black and white.

I tried to get the glass jar unhooked and out of the tree but it was too heavy for me. I asked Dad (my Dad was walking with me) to lift it out of the tree. He started to but it was too heavy for him, too, and he dropped his arms, looked at me and smiled and kinda shook his shoulders, like he was shaking out the stiffness, then he got the jar down.

I couldn’t see the little hummingbird (and it was an extremely small hummingbird, I thought maybe it was a baby) but I started lifting out the rocks and sand and pouring out the water and found the bird laying among the smaller, finer rocks like it was dead. I thought it was dead. I lifted it up into my palm, pet it, and breathed on it and immediately it was awakened, was dry and alive.

Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning out of control.  I just stand in the kitchen and spin from east to north, north to south, south to west.  A strange experience that usually makes me laugh for the ludicrous nature of the whole thing.  It's a flag in my head to slow down, take a deep breath and ask for God's direction.  It comes, sooner or later.  Often it's the forced silence and stillness that my body and spirit desperately need.  And from that particular rest on that particular spinning-out-of-control-day, came the clear indication that it was time to simplify my life.  Easy beginning, start throwing junk out!  Out of my office, out of my living room, out of my life and out of my head!  (Mostly out of my head!)   It's wonderfully freeing and energy enhancing.

There are elements to it that are difficult, even painful.  I've had to say "no" to things I really, really like but are not contributing to my targets...targets to goals.  It won't be "no" forever, just for now.  And that ruffles others' feathers.  I gotta deal with it or next year I'll be in the exact spot I am today...and I wanna' and will be closer to my BIG WHY!

In the beginning...

I always wanted to be a cowgirl.  These were special days.  My sister, Annie Oakley, is behind me.  She carried a Derringer...and didn't hesitate to use it on me. 

I was happy just to pick the plastic fringe off of my cowgirl vest and chew it like gum...while I waited for the horse (I begged for until I was 16) to magically appear in in the yard.   This was the age in which I decided to jump through the tv screen and ride away with the Cisco Kid...it didn't work.

Set Aside Some Dreamin' Time