SERMON

November 18, 2007

"Magic in the Mundane"

by

Rev. Alicia Roxanne Forde

ODE TO MY SOCKS

    by Pablo Neruda

Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
which she knitted with her own
sheepherder hands,
two socks as soft
as rabbits.
I slipped my feet
into them
as if they were
two
cases
knitted
with threads of
twilight
and the pelt of sheep.

Outrageous socks,
my feet became
two fish
made of wool,
two long sharks
of ultramarine blue
crossed
by one golden hair,
two gigantic blackbirds,
two cannons:
my feet
were honored
in this way
by
these
heavenly
socks.

They were
so beautiful
that for the first time
my feet seemed to me
unacceptable
like two decrepit
firemen, firemen
unworthy
of that embroidered
fire,
of those luminous
socks.

Nevertheless,
I resisted
the sharp temptation
to save them
as schoolboys
keep
fireflies,
as scholars
collect
sacred documents,
I resisted
the wild impulse
to put them
in a golden
cage
and each day give them
birdseed
and chunks of pink melon.
Like explorers
in the jungle
who hand over the rare
green deer
to the roasting spit
and eat it
with remorse,

I stretched out
my feet
and pulled on
the
magnificent
socks
and
then my shoes.

And the moral of my ode
is this:
beauty is twice
beauty
and what is good is doubly
good
when it's a matter of two
woolen socks
in winter.

I sat down at my desk to write.

            My calendar open…and there, a picture of a female figure

Standing, her bare feet hovering above a sliver of an iridescent quarter moon

Her arms softly at her sides, palms open radiating light

Behind her head a glowing mandala with brilliant stars all around it¹

Every where holy.

            The words that accompany this picture:

Open, Heart.

Release all your fear.

Be here.²  (Janine Canan)

//

My morning was alive, and teeming with a flurry of interruptions

            Phone calls, emails, news articles, planning the evening…

planning the future, worrying about stuff that hasn’t happened yet –

and my never happen, figuring out lunch, laundry, transportation to the

Airport…and there in the midst of it:

Open, Heart

Release all your fear.

Be here.

Here! Right here, the wonder of this day (which was Friday) with its gentle breeze,

Crinkling, crackling, and whispering leaves

Dogs barking at the wind and autumn’s warmth

Surprising us

            So much to celebrate! To delight in!
and yet…there at the edge of a busy morning

            Boredom had moved in on me like a damp and immobilizing draft,

Wrapping its long icy fingers around me…ah bitter-sweet discontent with every

Bit of the day crunching away at my toes

And can I just tell you that when boredom strikes in my world,

I get whiny?

 //          

That has been true ever since I was a child. I would torment

My mother while she was cooking, cleaning, be-ing

Wanting attention, wanting her to just fill up the hole that boredom

Was tearing inside of me.

On days like that, days when nothing would satisfy, my mother would say:

Please, just go outside and play.

Ah, outside.  As if outside were some place of mystery and wonder and

All I had to do was get there, and discover it.

My mother is a brilliant woman.

I remember days of being told to take myself and my companion

Boredom outside,

            We would wander around – lost at first.  Lost and cranky,

A little put off by being banished from the house…asked to leave

As if we were the problem – when everyone knows, the house offered

Nothing.

            Nothing to do. The television – though it had channels – offered

Nothing to watch.

Books, though they had words, offered nothing to read

Games were usually for two people and boredom is not the best at board games

Chores…do I need to explain that one?

So the house offered nothing. The house was to blame for boredom’s presence.

And yet. 

            We were asked to leave.  To find something to do outside.

Find another place to go and be bored.

So, we would wander around…lost. 

Once, boredom and I wandered down the path

Away from my grandmother’s house and discovered what we called a creek

It was probably just a ditch with dirty water. 

From it, we collected tadpoles and kept them in a glass jar.

We learned that overcrowding was not necessarily a good thing, and tadpoles

Those precursors to frogs, if kept in captivity, would simply perish

Without fulfilling their destiny.

Another time, boredom and I followed my uncle to collect cow manure,

Dried cow manure from the pasture where our neighbor kept his cattle

On that trip we learned that it’s really important to be sure that the

Cow patty is dried on the top as well as on the bottom before attempting

To pick it up

 //

We wandered a lot together…talking about this and that…eating things that

Probably weren’t meant for human consumption

            Staring at clouds together, collecting water in the leaves of

Crocus plants, waving at cars as they whizzed by, telling stories to the stones,

…chasing chickens around the yard.

But perhaps our favorite past time on the days we were banished from

The house was to…

            Well, let me explain that my grandmother’s house at the time

Stood on concrete pillars that were about 6 or so feet tall, and there was no downstairs, but rather wide open space underneath the house. 

This space was not paved.

Boredom and I would wander underneath there from time to time

Taking with us teacups and saucers, dolls, legos, and several containers of water

Together we would make mud castles

            Construct villages out of a mixture of water and dirt.

Hold tea parties and invite guests to have interesting conversations

There in the midst of dirt and a ho-hum day, life would take on a

Certain vibrancy

            and when at last my mother called me in for lunch or dinner

I would pout…not ready to leave this world of magic and make believe

That boredom and I had spent so much time creating for ourselves

For the dolls, and the dirt critters.

//

I want to ask you something…you don’t have to raise our hands

A head nod or silent acknowledgement would do

            How many of you have been with your partner or spouse or

Have had a close friendship with another person

For over 30 years?  Over 20? Over 10?  Over 5 years?

If that person’s sitting next to you in this moment, or if they’re

In the room,

            You might want to give some consideration to how you

Answer the next question…

How many of you, in the time that you’ve known this person,

Been with them, around them – have had moments of humdrum-ness

Boredom? Tedium?  

 //

Or moments of feeling like things weren’t exciting,

They weren’t perfect…

            And you, maybe…maybe once in a while you found yourself

Thinking:

            If only they would talk less…or laugh more or be less practical

Or be more outgoing…take responsibility for planning things once in a while

…not leave dishes in the sink…help more with the kids…make the coffee…

Make less messes…develop some kind of spiritual practice…be less frugal

…be more frugal…share in the chores…bring me more gifts…sing more songs

…sing less songs OR…if only they would just change a little bit…

things would be perfect.

Things would be perfect.

            How many of you have had moments like that?

I’ll tell you, I have them more often than not

It makes me a challenge to be around…I’ll own it.

It makes me a challenge to be around, cause I’m never the one

Who could do things a little differently, who might benefit from

A change of perception, it’s always the other person,

and the “being here” is never quite right,

It could always be just a little bit better if only the other person did

Something or a few things differently.

It can be tiring being around me!

Buddhist author and spiritual teacher Jack Kornfield writes:

In mature spirituality we have to find perfection in non-perfection. …

We meet the world with our heart as it is, unafraid of its beauty

And its blemishes. We find trust in the body, the emotions, in life itself

As it unfolds.³

Our spiritual task is not to make perfection but to awaken to the

Perfection around us.⁴

He quotes Gendun Rinpoche saying: 

            Only our searching for happiness prevents us from seeing it.

Although peace and happiness do not exist as an actual thing or

Place, they are always available, and accompany you every instant.⁵

 //

Here’s what I like about enlightened teachers:

            They make it all sound SO easy don’t they?

Our spiritual task is not to make perfection but to awaken to the

Perfection around us

Although peace and happiness do not exist as an actual thing or

Place, they are always available, and accompany you every instant

He makes it sound so easy.

            As if all one had to do was

Open, Heart

Release all your fear.

Be here.

Be here in this moment as it is right now…

Present moment, wonderful moment – just as it is, and just as you are

And, providing that you’re not being harmed or hurt,

Be here with that significant person in your life, just as s/he is. 

Open, Heart

Release all your fear.

Be here.

Sometimes, it’s just not that easy

We struggle,

            We argue,

                        We get stuck in a rut, in unhelpful ways of being

We find ourselves wrapped in that damp cloak of boredom

Routine…the day to day…mundanity gnawing away at us

Making it next to impossible for us to want to “be here”

To stay in any given moment with an open heart.

And yet, that is precisely what Kornfield and Neruda invite us

To do.

 //  

“Ode to My Socks” can change the way you see what is in

Front of your eyes. (writes Roger Housden) Too often, we can

Divide the world between the humdrum material life and some

More abstract domain of meaning and spiritual significance.

If, [he says,] you open your eyes and look with wonder, even a

Pair of socks will dance with the filament of an invisible light.⁶

Neruda’s socks are a celebration only because he is willing

To open the fullness of life’s experiences – he is willing to be here

Willing to explore; Neruda sees that the mundane isn’t mundane at all.

But magic…unfolding before him.

Neruda’s magic isn’t fantasy, it’s grounded in reality

Grounded in gratitude

In sacrifice…in a deep recognition of our interconnectedness

He saw those socks and “his heart was blown open."⁷

He reflects, he sits, he writes…

            He doesn’t say to Maru Mori I like these socks, but I wish

You’d made them a different color, length, size – or perhaps you

Could have brought me a tie instead.  I definitely need more ties.

He saw those socks – those most ordinary of clothing articles

And yes, his heart was blown open…he delved in to their perfection

Their very being…to him they were so beautiful that

            For the first time his feet seemed unacceptable, unworthy for such a gift,

and yet what better way to honor them, than to use them?

What better way to celebrate them that to use them up until they

Are thread-bare

            He offers us the fruits of the heart in his poem:

His gratitude, his joy, his wonder, and his humility, and above all, his love.⁸

He took an ordinary moment…and gazed softly on it

freeing his eyes from preconceptions, from the habitual trail of

Assumptions…and saw anew...⁹

//

Our spiritual task is not to make perfection but to awaken to the

Perfection around us

Although peace and happiness do not exist as an actual thing or

Place, they are always available, and accompany you every instant

So often we strive after those alleluia moments,

            Those peak experiences – wanting that rush of excitement

That tells us we’re alive and good things are happening.

And, as a friend reminded me in a tender conversation this week:

It is in the mundane that life happens. 

            She said the day to day of her life, and her relationship is

So challenging…the big stuff, the alleluia moments: falling in love,

vacation, buying a house – all keep her emotionally entertained

and, she has realized that connecting and appreciating her partner

comes from a vulnerable place, from bringing her imperfections

and accepting his

            and from staying open to peace and happiness that’s available

to her in the day to day routine of their relationship.  It is there that

the magic happens.

So often we go about in the world, striving and yearning after those alleluia

Moments,

            When all the while, the mud

                        And the socks were waiting for us to “be here”; to discover the

Magic, to take time to really

See them,

            Have our hearts blown open

And bear the fruits of gratitude, joy, wonder,

Humility and love.

Kornfield and Neruda make it sound easy in part because it can be.

Kornfield quotes a senior Lama saying:

            Perfection must be around here somewhere.  Where is it? Is it

            The next experience or the one after that?  My true practice is

            Patience, not wanting anything special or unusual to happen.

[He says] we need to acknowledge our gifts and our foibles, whoever we are.

Instead of clinging to an inflated, superhuman view of perfection,

We learn to allow ourselves the space of kindness.

There is beauty in the ordinary,¹⁰ he says. 

Beauty is twice

beauty

and what is good is doubly

good

//

Neruda’s depth of seeing the magic in the mundane

The beauty in the ordinary comes from his willingness

To change his perspective

            To slow down and gaze softly at an ordinary pair of socks

finding in them, heart breaking beauty…and an invitation to gratitude.

Here he does not ask for more, but simply takes time to appreciate

What is.

            Simply takes time to be with what is presented to him

                        Simply takes time to honor the all that it took to bring

These socks to him.

He awakens to the perfection and happiness in that moment and celebrates it saying:

Beauty is twice

beauty

and what is good is doubly

good

when it’s a matter of two

woolen socks

in winter.

There is no striving – only deep acceptance and gratitude for

The most ordinary of gifts laid before him.

In those moments of humdrum-ness, of tedium, of boredom

In those moments of wishing that you or the one you’re with

Or the community you spend the most time with were different somehow

More perfect, would change,

            Take a breath…gaze softly, and take yourself outside to play…

To discover

            Look again at the gift of the moment before you

Be in that moment, open, heart – release fear and

discover in that moment, the magic in the mundane…