Essential Wisdom: Living brings you death; there is no other road   (Galway Kinnel)

 

E.B. White once wrote of his difficult dog, Fred: “Life without him would be heaven, but I’m afraid it is not what I want.”

 

That seems to me to be a piece of essential wisdom that should never be lost. It is broad, as essential wisdom ought to be, and touches more than E.B. White’s mangy dog.

 

Life without a lot of the Freds of our lives would be heaven, or so at least it appears at first light.  A lingering [Nebraska] winter is a kind of Fred, but life without winter is not really what I want.  Life without conflict or unhappiness has certain appeals, but ever since we were expelled from Eden it has been thus, and who can imagine a worthwhile life without them?

 

Life without the pain of loss would be heaven, but I’m afraid it is not what any of us would take.  I think we really don’t want heaven.  What we want is full and worthwhile life, outlined as it is by its limitations.  What we want is not life without sorrow, but a fullness of experience that absorbs sorrow and joy, [Nebraska] winters and springs, living and dying.

 

Charles S. Stephens Jr.

   

 

Blessed are we to awake in to this day

            To be greeted by this morning

The promise of a new day…many moments of life and living

Inviting us in to being.

 

Deep joy and gratitude for our gathered presence here

            For our continued willingness to co-create community

For that is what we do when gather…we co-create

And when we show up, committed to bringing our best selves

Committed to a shared vision and purpose

Committed to being transformation

Committed to struggling together through the rough times

Committed to loving, learning, forgiving, reconciling, and letting go…

We can co-create beloved community.

 

It takes a long time to become fully human…with that in mind,

I imagine that it takes a long time to co-create beloved community.

 

Yet, I remain grateful that we have been blessed with a vision

To try.

            To wake up in to this day…and commit ourselves to being

With others…commit ourselves to something – to a vision larger, wider,

Deeper than ourselves.

 

I learned on Wikipedia this week that the longest story ever told

Began in January of 1937…

                It first began on radio and met with success, and was then moved to

Television, and it is still going today.

The longest story ever told…[I bet you want to know what it is…any guesses?]

 

 // 

 

Before I give you the answer,

                I want to share something with you…something I read

While walking through a monument built to recognize to those whose lives

Were affected by the holocaust.

Now this monument takes up the length of a city block,

And if you can imagine this…it’s built out of thick glass walls

Stacked in vertical panels that seem to press against the sky

And the panels they run along either side of the side walk…

                And each panel is etched with thousands of numbers

Each number represents an actual person

All these panels, lining the sidewalk for an entire city block

Reaching high enough to give the appearance of pressing against

The sky…represents lives of love, pain, loss, grief, survival, and yes, hope.

On one panel, I found the following story,

                It’s a short story...one of awe…it’s written by

Gerda Weismann Klein, a holocaust survivor, and in this short story, she says:

“Ilse a childhood friend of mine,

Once found a raspberry in the camp and carried it

In her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf.

Imagine, she says, imagine a world in which your entire

Possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend.”

 

Imagine a world in which your entire

possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend

 

Imagine finding – in the midst of desolation, isolation,

Fear and hunger, one raspberry.

                A single deep red berry and your first thought is

To slip it in to your pocket along with a leaf, so that you might

Give it away to some one else.

 

Ilse was committed to someone other than herself,

                To a vision that was larger, wider, and deeper than

Her individual self.  In the midst of unhappiness,

Un-measurable pain, and the certainty of death, she found a

Small gift of joy and of life…and she offered it to another.

 

 //

 

Charles Stephens writes, in our opening reading:

            Life without the pain of loss would be heaven,

but I’m afraid [he says] it is not what any of us would take. 

I think we really don’t want heaven. 

What we want is full and worthwhile life, outlined as it is by its limitations. 

What we want is not life without sorrow,

but a fullness of experience that absorbs sorrow and joy,

…winters and springs, living and dying.

 

//

 

I have to tell you, that the promise of a life without the pain of loss

Is attractive

                The promise of a life without sorrow

                The promise of a life without conflict, without struggle,

Without hurt feelings or the mistakes that cause them

The promise of a life with only joy, eternal springs, and laughter is wonderfully

Appealing.

 

The idea of waking up each day and leaping from bed

In to the day

                Without worry, concerns, aches, loss, global or local gloom

Seems like the way to go. (has this occurred to you as well?)   

But it’s not the life we were called to live.

 

In this one life, that we are called to live…we are offered so much,

We are challenged by so much,

                We are asked to love through difficult places…

To find joy where sometimes it seems as though joy does not exist…

Reminds me of the quote:

                “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over,

It became a butterfly."¹

We are asked to show up, give of our best selves, and preserve in the face of sorrow,

loss, and the certainty of death.

 

//             

 

                 I’ve been using that phrase a lot lately:

“our best selves” – it even appears in our newly adopted covenant

and you know, it doesn’t mean that we’re at the top

Of our game in every moment,

                It doesn’t mean that we’re flawless in our thinking and acting

In every moment.

                It doesn’t mean that we don’t screw up from time to time

It does mean that we live in commitment to ourselves and to others to…

“Let our inward love guide our deeds."²

 

Imagine a world in which your entire

possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend

//

 

The longest story ever told began in January of 1937…

It first began on radio and met with success, and was then moved to

Television, and it is still going today.

The longest story ever told…are you ready for this?

                According to an article in Wikipedia,

The soap opera The Guiding Light has been heard or seen nearly every

Week day since 1937, making it the longest story ever told…and One

Life to Live along with others, have been on air for over thirty years.

 

Now that’s a lot of story.

 

                I need to digress for a bit – so hang in there with me, awright?

Over the summer, some of you know that I traveled back to Tobago

To visit family.

                Some of you know that my grandfather is in mid-eighties,

His health is on the decline, and I wanted to see him before too long…

 

 // 

 

So I’m home – at my mom’s house, and I decide to

Take a taxi out to the village of Plymouth to spend the afternoon

With my Granny Thelma.

                My Granny Thelma has a daily routine that includes

Cooking, napping, taking care of my grandfather – and watching her soaps.

So there we were, watching The Young and The Restless together

This show that I had not seen for over 15 years, and first

I recognized most of the characters: Victor, Ashley, Nikki, Brad

And nothing changed!

                Really! 

 

Though I hadn’t seen the show in about 15 years, it really wasn’t difficult

To catch on…it should have been…I mean

                Think about it.

A 15 year hiatus is roughly 3,600 50 minute episodes,

3,600 opportunities to peer in to the stories, the lives created by these

Characters…and they were still doing the same thing.

They were still living from the same basic place

They were still lying, cheating, plotting revenge, holding grudges,

They were still blaming someone else for the lives they were living

They were still in deep emotional pain and rather than altering

Their lives or attitudes, rather than asking for support, doing a little

Truth telling…being their best selves – if you will…

                they were inflicting their pain on the lives of others…

increasing the drama, the complications, the messiness, and

the disconnection between self and other….

 

And let me tell you, The Guiding Light is no different. 

                And that, according to Wikipedia, is the longest story ever told

70 years (that’s roughly 16,800 episodes) of a story that highlights lying, cheating, revenge plotting, grudge holding, blaming,

inflicting personal pain on the lives of others…increasing the drama,

Complications, messiness, and the disconnection between self and other.

 

I refuse to believe it’s the longest story ever told.

               

 //

 

                Viktor Frankl writes:

“…being human always points, and is directed to something or

Someone, other than oneself – be it a meaning to fulfill

Or another human being to encounter.

The more we forget ourselves – by giving ourselves to a cause to serve

Or another person to love – the more human we are and the more we

Ourselves actualize."³

 

He goes on to say:

“Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.

And, our main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see

A meaning in [the circumstances] of our lives…. 

 

In no way is suffering necessary to find meaning.

                [and] meaning is possible even in spite of suffering."⁴

 

Imagine a world in which your entire

possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend

 

The longest story ever told cannot be the one told by The Guiding Light

Though entertaining it may be,

                It cannot be the one told by The Young and The Restless

Or One Life to Live – no matter how true that maxim

For we do have this one life to live

                And so much joy and challenge comes with it…

But here we are,

                By a happy accident,

                By a grand design

                By divine planning

Here we are, and what is true is that we are relational creatures

We thrive in the midst of community

                We yearn to be with each other for short and long periods of time

We become our best selves, not in isolation, but with each other

We are hard-wired to reach out to each other,

                To be in relationship

 

 //

  

We cannot wait until the end of our lives to start living the lives we were called

To live

                We cannot wait until the end of our lives to know, really know that

We were made for Love (love with a capital “L”)

Too much depends on our willingness to recognize this now.

               

Author Wayne Dyer quotes spiritual teacher Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Saying:

                You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are

                Connected to the power that created you

 

                You are not this body, you are not this mind, you are the Spirit…

                This is the greatest truth

 

                You have to know your Spirit…for without knowing your Spirit,

                You cannot know truth

 

    Meditation is [one] way you can grow. 

…when you meditate you are in silence.

You are in thoughtless awareness. Then the growth of awareness takes place.⁵

 

Connected to the power that created you,

                You are the Spirit

                          You have to know your Spirit,

You have to know your guiding inner light

                You have to know your guiding inner light…and one way to do this

Is by BEING

                Be BEING still

                       By BEING still alone and in community.

He says, you are not this body, and catching up with The Today Show

A few days ago, I was struck by the following:

                Over 50 million people in the U.S. suffer from chronic pain

Chronic pain which can lead to depression…and the remedy suggested?

Training the mind

                Combining traditional medicine with

Meditation, yoga, laughter yoga, art classes…sharing life with others and resting.

The remedy suggested?

                Connecting with self, connecting with Spirit…

and transcending self to connect with something or someone,

other than oneself – be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter.

 

 //

   

In the words of Frankl:

 

The more we forget ourselves – by giving ourselves to a cause to serve

Or another person to love – the more human we are and the more we

Ourselves actualize. 

 

We take care of ourselves…and we transcend ourselves to connect with

a vision that is larger, wider, and deeper than we are.

 

We – in the toughest of circumstances – happen upon a nugget of joy

And from a place of Love

                We take that nugget and carry it in our pockets all day

For the sole purpose of sharing it with another.

 

That is but one way we co-create community

It is but one way we are our best selves

It is but one we show up

Committed to a shared vision and purpose

Committed to being transformation

Committed to struggling together through the rough times

Committed to loving, learning, forgiving, reconciling, and letting go…

We can co-create beloved community.

 

 

 It is but one way we break the cycle of living within the drama

Of a soap opera…that drama of disconnection, blaming, revenge…

 

                Choosing instead to be human…choosing to see beyond ourselves,

Choosing to live as though we were made for and by Love

Because we are made for Love.

 

//

 

The promise of a life without the pain of loss

Is attractive

                The promise of a life without sorrow

                The promise of a life without conflict, without struggle,

Without hurt feelings or the mistakes that cause them

The promise of a life with only joy, eternal springs, and laughter is wonderfully

Appealing.

  

But that is not why we are here.

                We are here…to live this one life we were given to live.

And to do it from a place of

                Connection and Love.

               

Imagine a world in which your entire

possession is one raspberry and guided by your inner light

you give it to your friend

 

What a way to co-create Beloved Community