O Me! O Life!

In celebration of Walt's 200th birthday...

'Poem for the week' -- "O Me! O Life!":

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

-- Walt Whitman

Isn't About You

In the end you'll realize it really isn't about you.

-- Unknown

A description or a promise? Either way, this strikes me as relief.

Bad Enough

You will change, when it hurts bad enough not to.

....unless you want to do it earlier.

LT: Excavate the Unsaid

If you don't deal with things, they will have a way of dealing with you.

Brave leaders are never silent around hard things. Their job is to excavate the unsaid.

-- Brené Brown, The Call To Courage

It seems to me that when leaders don't move into hard things, they are most likely protecting something and, more often than not, it is themselves.  They're afraid of losing something, rather than believing that something can be gained, even if they don't know exactly what that is.

Nothing makes this more clear than when you are on the receiving end of this.

Gifts

I’ve noticed...that challenges in my life were also giving me gifts.

As I reflect on a number of artists I heard this weekend, I see a similar truth in them (perhaps, in us all).

It seems a fitting reminder, on a national day of remembrance like today.

Unity

Spiritual unity is diversity embraced and protected.

-- Richard Rohr

This mostly feels like a platitude until you personally have experienced what it is like to not be embraced or protected in your difference or uniqueness—then you know more deeply how true this is.  I have gone through an experience like this recently—“now I know” more of what this feels like.  It’s funny (well actually, it's sad) how so often it takes our own experience of something in order to engage our compassion for the experience of others.

Nowhere Else Festival

I want to re-learn how to receive.  Music, for me,  is often one of my great teachers.

So, I’m eager for the merger this weekend at the Nowhere Else Festival.


9:37p:  Music is such a healing balm for me.  It restores some of my faith in what true humanity is and, thereby, in myself.

Visual: Beads

Visual - "Beads":

Winona Lake, IN

I've noticed...I am easily enthralled by color and detail, especially when its objects interact with other elements—like water.

Conviction & Creativity

You great Morehouse men are bound only by the limits of your own conviction and creativity.

-- Robert Smith

I'm guessing you heard about what Robert Smith recently did (see here).  Having been thinking about creativity lately, I am intrigued by the claim of the inter-related nature of conviction and creativity.  It strikes me as more profound than it might appear at first glance.

What is it about conviction that sparks creativity? Assuming this does go both ways, what type of conviction does creativity foster?

Ego - Can Never Stop

The ego can never stop—in the end, it will build a cage right around you, if you let it.

It seems we must choose things that thwart the fuel on which the ego feeds—to pursue other people, viewpoints, perspectives.  To pursue community, not just ourselves; believing that we are not well-enough defended to protect ourselves on our own and that attempting to do so only perpetuates the very thing that will trap us after all, ourselves alone.

LT: First Into Danger

Leaders volunteer to go first into danger. Their willingness to sacrifice for us is the reason we're inspired to follow.

-- Simon Sinek

Won't Say

I've noticed...that I can be more hurt by what people won't say than what they will.  It often doesn't feel as much like love, as it does self-protection.

I, too, have been silent at times and it hurts.

Safe, But Not Comfortable

Imagine if every church become a place where everyone is safe, but no one is comfortable.  Imagine if every church became a place where we told one another the truth.  We might just create sanctuary.

-- Rachel Held Evans

From A to ?

Perhaps I am beyond 'A'; but whatever letter I'm on, it seems like whatever is next will be after this pregnant moment in time.

Tami and I moved our last child out of town today and we are experiencing it through different parts of ourselves.  In our heads, we know it is good and it is time.  We want it for our son, for his growth.  In our hearts, we ache for something we have so enjoyed, raising a family.  We love the uniqueness of each of our kids.  We miss the coming sense that we won't have the same kind of intimate knowledge of their lives that we've had.  We know it is more that reality isn't gone, it is just changing--that there will be new ways to enjoy our relationships with them.  And, yet, we feel a missing of something, too.  I missing of them, of their presence, of all that is baked into being together as we have been.

Life is dynamic; it changes.  That is a good thing, at many levels.  Our ability to be alive is contingent upon that kind of change.  We continue to grow because of it.

So, what is our next letter?  What does it look like?  What isn't anymore?  What will become?  What remains?  How do we move with a healthy mix of grieving what no longer is and anticipating what is already on its way?  What does it mean to recognize this moment for what it, as we wait for what is still coming?

Same Shade

So, perception is the difference.

At the Grave of the Forgotten

'Poem for the week' -- "At the Grave of the Forgotten":

In a churchyard old and still,
Where the breeze-touched branches thrill
             To and fro,
Giant oak trees blend their shade
O’er a sunken grave-mound, made
             Long ago.

No stone, crumbling at its head,
Bears the mossed name of the dead
             Graven deep;
But a myriad blossoms’ grace
Clothes with trembling light the place
             Of his sleep.

Was a young man in his strength
Laid beneath this low mound’s length,
             Heeding naught?
Did a maiden’s parents wail
As they saw her, pulseless, pale,
             Hither brought?

Was it else one full of days,
Who had traveled darksome ways,
            And was tired,
Who looked forth unto the end,
And saw Death come as a friend
             Long desired?

Who it was that rests below
Not earth’s wisest now may know,
             Or can tell;
But these blossoms witness bear
They who laid the sleeper there
             Loved him well.

In the dust that closed him o’er
Planted they the garden store
             Deemed most sweet,
Till the fragrant gleam, outspread,
Swept in beauty from his head
             To his feet.

Still, in early springtime’s glow,
Guelder-roses cast their snow
             O’er his rest;
Still sweet-williams breathe perfume
Where the peonies’ crimson bloom
             Drapes his breast.

Passing stranger, pity not
Him who lies here, all forgot,
             ’Neath this earth;
Some one loved him—more can fall
To no mortal. Love is all
             Life is worth.

-- Effie Waller Smith

Cost Of Your Silence

The cost of your silence is greater than the cost of your truth.

-- Brittany Packnett

What If: Curious About That

What If...what doesn’t make sense to me about another person, makes a lot of sense to them? What would it mean to be curious about that (as opposed to just lazy or even judgmental)?

Do I really even want to know? Or, would it just be easier for me not to (know)? ...that way I can keep my system of perceptions closer to the way I like it.

LT: Not Issues

Good leaders treat people as those to serve, not as issues to manage.

Rejection

Ever noticed...that one of the easiest things to feel from others is rejection?  Like it is almost at the tip of our social tongue, at nearly any moment.  This is partly evidenced by the reality that one of easiest ways to react to rejection is...with rejection.

As if, rejection offsets rejection.  The only thing is, what seems more true is that you just have two people who feel rejected (rather than zero).

A better approach is to allow oneself to grieve the loss involved and, whenever possible, to be open to allowing that vulnerability to be shared (rather than to just grieve privately).  Rejection is often involved with something communal.  To not acknowledge this, is also to reject something within one's self.

Most Risky Place

Christian vitality has not always been maintained by the majority. It has, in fact, often been found only in small minorities. Such minorities have no voice where conformity to "official" interpretation is required. Unless we wish to stifle emergent spiritual vitality, we must be sure that people within our fellowship will be free to express themselves in ways which are different from the majority position without the fear of being labeled as disloyal.

-- "Biblical authority and Christian freedom", Evangelical Covenant Church, 1963

Church is too often the most risky place to be spiritually honest.

-- Peter Enns

"Loyal To Soil"

 Emma Donahoe sent me a link to this reading, 'The Ground of Hospitality'.  She is now working in Washington on a farm where the motto is "Loyal to Soil".  This is a must read, as it considers so many beautiful dimensions of our relationship with life and death through the soil of the earth.  Sobering.  Liberating.

Reminds me of the hidden regenerative power of the cycle that is built into things and points to the life that lives on after death occurs physically, including some of the more recent examples posted here -- Jean Vanier, Rachel Held Evans, among a few.


From the reading referenced above -- "Enriching The Earth":

To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass
to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds
of winter grains and of various legumes,
their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.
I have stirred into the ground the offal
and the decay of the growth of past season
and so mended the earth and made its yield increase.
All this serves the dark. I am slowly falling
into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,
not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness
and a delight to the air, and my days
do not wholly pass. It is the mind’s service,
for when the will fails so do the hands
and one lives at the expense of life.
After death, willing or not, the body serves,
entering the earth. And so what was heaviest
and most mute is at last raised up into song.

-- Wendell Berry

Visual: Silent Broadcast

Visual - "Silent Broadcast":

Holliday Park - Indianapolis, IN

Why do I feel like crying?  ...I think I know the answer, even if only partially.

Beauty is a form of power.

Evolving? Transforming?

To love is to pay attention enough to know what needs to change.

-- Micha Boyett


Why are the ideas related to the words evolving and transformation so different (to the ears of certain people)?  Do we not change over time, in almost every way?  What, in fact, does not change?

"Truth!"—there you go, I got you on that one—"that doesn't change!"

So, are we saying that we know (or even can know) everything there is to know about truth?  Do we think we know the sum total of it (or, even the most important parts about it)?

A lot of what we know about truth is evolving (that still leaves room for the possibility that it, in and of itself, does not).  But, unless we say that we are God or know enough of what God knows, our understanding of truth is always growing and, in that way, changing...or, evolving.

What I understood to be true, or even believed in, as a child is not the same understanding (or belief) I have now in my 50s...and I don't expect what I know now to be exactly the same when I am 80, or....

In fact, I would suggest that our evolving sense of things—our faith in them—IS the substance of what is being transformed in us, as we become more awake to ultimate reality of love.

Jean Vanier, Savior of People on the Margins, Dies at 90

I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successess.

-- Jean Vanier

Another passing; of a modern saint:

Jean Vanier, Savior of People on the Margins, Dies at 90

How Jean Vanier broke my heart and saved my life

Jean Vanier created a wildly inefficient model of compassion. We can learn a lot from it.

Teacher Appreciation Day: When We Support Curiosity

When we support curiosity, what we’re really developing is a child’s imagination. 

-- Esther Wojcicki

Great article on the powerful role of teachers here....

I know someone who does this in wonderful ways every day.

Envision

I've noticed...many people seem content to just maintain what is, rather than envision what could be (not to mention, what should be).

Rachel Held Evans, Christian Writer Who Challenged the Evangelical Establishment, Is Dead at 37

Rachel Held Evans, an influential progressive Christian writer and speaker who cheerfully challenged American evangelical culture, died on Saturday at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Evans, 37, entered the hospital in mid-April with the flu, and then had a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics.

She started her eponymous site more than a decade ago, and in her years of writing she confronted every controversial issue in American evangelical culture. She wrote about biblical literalism, racism, abortion, evolution, theology, marriage, patriarchy, women in leadership, and evangelical support for Donald Trump.

High-profile female writers and speakers in American evangelicalism have traditionally focused on spiritual questions and shied away from controversy and confrontation. But Evans often used her platform to challenge male pastors and leaders. Over the years, she sparred about theology, culture, and politics with prominent Christian men including Russell Moore, John Piper, Rod Dreher, and Mark Driscoll.

Evans reacted righteously to injustice wherever she saw it: She published a series on her blog about abuse in the church in 2013, years before many evangelical institutions began to seriously confront the problem. But her writing was also warm and funny...continue here.

-- Ruth Graham

Here's a sampling of some of what RHE has done:

Patriarchy doesn't "protect" women: A response to John Piper

"We Believe in Mystery": Raising Kids in Faith

The myth of self-control

As the Bible tells it, the first crime committed was a lapse of self-control. Eve was forbidden from tasting the fruit on the tree of knowledge. But the temptation was too much. The fruit was just so “pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,” Genesis reads. Who wouldn’t want that? Humanity was just days old, but already we were succumbing to a vice.

The takeaway from this story was clear: when temptation overcomes willpower, it’s a moral failing, worthy of punishment.

Modern-day psychologists might not blame Eve for her errant ways at all. Because what’s true today was also true at the beginning of time (regardless of what story you believe in): Human beings are horrible at resisting temptation.

“Effortful restraint, where you are fighting yourself — the benefits of that are overhyped,” Kentaro Fujita, a psychologist who studies self-control at the Ohio State University, says.

He’s not the only one who thinks so. Several researchers I spoke to are making a strong case that we shouldn’t feel so bad when we fall for temptations.

Indeed, studies have found that trying to teach people to resist temptation either only has short-term gains or can be an outright failure. Continue here....

-- Brian Resnick

Makebelieve

'Poem for the week' -- "Makebelieve":

And on the first day
god made
something up.
Then everything came along:

seconds, sex and
beasts and breaths and rabies;
hunger, healing,
lust and lust’s rejections;
swarming things that swarm
inside the dirt;
girth and grind
and grit and shit and all shit’s functions;
rings inside the treetrunk
and branches broken by the snow;
pigs’ hearts and stars,
mystery, suspense and stingrays;
insects, blood
and interests and death;
eventually, us,
with all our viruses, laments and curiosities;
all our songs and made-up stories;
and our songs about the stories we’ve forgotten;
and all that we’ve forgotten we’ve forgotten;

and to hold it all together god made time
and those rhyming seasons
that display decay.

-- Pádraig Ó Tuama

Cuts You Off

The modern world cuts you off from the depth of life.

-- Rob Bell

There Is A Problem

There is a problem when the primary role of government becomes protecting the people from themselves.  ...when the people believe they need government to solve that problem and that it is not our own responsibility to address what is causing that need.