I have been reflecting on acceptance for the last week or so. Here are my thoughts: What circumstances necessitate acceptance? - Change in our circumstances - Call from God - Epiphany (realization of some falsehood we are holding on to, new awareness of some truth about who we are or about our life, realization that we are fighting the inevitable) What prompts us to move towards acceptance? - realization - awareness - awakening What must happen to allow acceptance? - making a decision for change -letting go of false perceptions, cultural messages, and our need to control the outcome of a given situation What is acceptance and how does it differ from resignation? Acceptance: the quality or state of being accepted [to receive willingly; to endure without protest or reaction; to regard as proper, normal, or inevitable ; to recognize as true : BELIEVE; to make a favorable response to; to agree to undertake (a responsibility)] or acceptable [welcome, pleasing] -- Definitions from www.webster.com Acceptance connotes hope. It is active not passive. Resignation: an act or instance of resigning something : SURRENDER; a formal notification of resigning; the quality or state of being resigned : SUBMISSIVENESS Resignation connotes a lack of hope as well as passivity. May be an indicator of not owning one's power. What is the fruit of acceptance? Peace and Joy. Joy can occur in the midst of difficult circumstances while happiness is dependent on our circumstances. Joy [a state of well-being and contentment] Happiness [a pleasurable or satisfying experience] … [Read more...]
'RE-collecting' Yourself
I've had occasion this week to reflect on the importance of living in the present moment. How do we live in the present and mindfully stay focused on the task at hand? What is the process involved? This spiritual task is one that requires much practice on our part. Let's break it down a bit more. In current spiritual writing, the term 'attentiveness' is used to designate being immersed in the present moment of time. As Corrine Ware points out in her wonderful book, St Benedict on the Freeway, the older term that was used in lieu of attentiveness was 'recollected'. Being 're'-collected, reassembled, is the perfect term for this process. Also, note this discussion is premised on our status as tri-part beings: mind (mental/emotional), body (physical), and spirit. Now let's look at an example. I am on a conference call and decide, in the interest of efficiency, to multitask and run an errand to the store to pick up a couple of items. Where am I with regard to space and time? Mind: 80% focused on the conference call/20% focused on the errand Body: Traveling to and from the store / in the store Spirit: ??? in the store? on the call? split somewhere between the two? is the split between the two activities blunting my ability to connect with God? Most likely! Where am I? When am I? Dis-jointed and dis-associated! Mind, body, and spirit all in different locations! And isn't that the crux of the problem? When we are split amongst our self, we are not only not present in the present moment; we are also not present to ourselves or to others that we come in contact with (the people on my conference call nor the clerk at the store). This is a real problem in our culture. We are disjointed, disassociated individuals moving through time and space in such a way that we do harm to our self and to the others we come in connect with because of our inability or unwillingness to be present - both space and time - with ourselves and to one another. What is the remedy for this … [Read more...]
Mary, Martha and Einstein
... in relativity theory time is defined by a description of specific manipulations with clocks, light signals, and measuring rods. It turns out that events that are simultaneous for one observer will occur at different moments if viewed by another observer moving at a different velocity... All operations by which time is measured are relative ones. -- Klotz, Irving and Rosenberg, Robert. Introduction to Chemical Thermodynamics Time is not absolutely defined. – Albert Einstein With Einstein we see a theory of time based in the concept of relativity. Time is relative to our ‘frame of reference’. Thus two observers of the same event in two different frames of reference will experience the event differently. This is a mathematically verifiable phenomenon. Scientists have actually placed highly accurate clocks on jets on flown them all around in order to verify the calculation. Amazingly it worked! (Now why can’t I ever get a job like that?) As Einstein says, "time is not absolutely defined"; it is dependent upon your frame of reference. While 'frame of reference' is important to physicists, the concept of frame of reference is also useful to look at in the context of spirituality. One aspect of your spiritual frame of reference is your relationship with time. The story of Mary and Martha provides a good framework from which to explore this concept. … [Read more...]
God's Beloved
It was the feast of Hanukah, the Feast of Lights. Jesus was walking in the Temple. Some Jews approached him saying: “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.†Jesus answered: “I did tell you, but you do not believe. I did miracles, but you do not believe…. You are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me I give them eternal life They will never perish No one will snatch them out of my hand." (Paraphrase of John 10:22-28) The setting for this gospel message is Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights. Light….. Illumination …. Revelation. Yet,… at this Feast of Lights, we see a group of questioners who are still in the metaphorical darkness … questioning Jesus, but, ironically as Jesus points out, maintaining their self-imposed darkness. A darkness imposed by asking, while not really wanting to hear. A darkness imposed by seeking, while not looking to find. A darkness imposed by knocking, while leaning against the door to prevent its opening. A darkness imposed by allowing the shouting voices of the world to drown out the voice of the Shepherd. … [Read more...]
Living the Questions
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign language. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.†– Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet I have spent the last six years of my life on a journey with no clear destination in sight - believe me, a most disconcerting place to be at best - all the while having doors closed to me in many improbable and, at times, rude ways. I have felt compelled to prepare myself ... I have felt the continual nudging of the Holy Spirit, but with no true vision of the destination, just the continual (annoying) gentle, nudging, to stay on the path and to remain faithful to the journey, the process, the becoming. Unlike, a pregnant woman, who holds on to the vision of the baby to be birthed at the end of the journey of her pregnancy, the vision of which makes the pregnancy enjoyable and discomforts bearable, for me, there has been no glimpse of the outcome, just a clear nudging to continue the journey which all logic says is crazy. No vision to sustain the discomforts. No vision to affirm the joys. No vision to confirm the path - just a nudging to continue, to be willing and open to the process of becoming. … [Read more...]
