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I sat in on a group this morning discussing "Spirituality and Religion." There was some good discussion, but it was a small group and I found myself thinking of my larger "group" that I share with at this site; I thought it would be good to invite them into the group for their processing, spoken/written, or unspoken/personal reflection only.
Of course the well-worn-phrases came up: "I'm not into religion, but into relationship!" "Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for those who have already been there!" That is a good one to reflect on, as many/most/all of us, through our addictions, have been through hell and often times it seems as there is no way but up--an upward spirituality. Then I thought of the one we put on a new church-plant brochure to welcome unchurched or de-churched people: "Not into Organized Religion??? That's OK 'cause we're not very organized!!!"
Anyway, the group facilitator shared a "processing-phrase" from Parker Palmer that I will throw out there: "Our spirituality is what we do with our restlessness." Our "restlessness." That's intriguing to me...
So throwing it out for any purpose, though perhaps for a few, some reflective, written feedback.
Shalom,
Ken
Tags: Sprituality Religion The God Thing
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HOPE #2
Posted On 07/07/2008 13:15:00
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For those of us who love to write, to dream, to wonder, to hope against hope, this was especially encouraging to me---the beginnings of a great, world-renowned writer/inspirationalist keeping on, hope against hope, because he could not NOT write, and, because of the love and support of another.
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(From Max Lucaodo's Book, A Love Worth Giving)
The aspiring young author was in need of hope. More than one person had told him to give up. "Getting published is impossible," one mentor said. "Unless you are a national celebrity, publishers won't talk to you." Another warned, "Writing takes too much time. Besides, you don't want all your thoughts on paper."
Initially he listened. He agreed that writing was a waste of effort and turned his attention to other projects. But somehow the pen and pad were bourbon and Coke to the wordaholic. He'd rather write than read. So he worte. How many nights did he pass on that couch in the corner of the apartment, reshuffling his deck of verbs and nouns? And how many hours did his wife sit with him? He wordsmithing. She cross-stitching. Finally a manuscript was finished. Crude and laden with mistakes but finished.
She gave him the shove. "Send it out. What's the harm?"
So out it went. Mailed to fifteen different publishers. While the couple waited, he wrote. While he wrote, she stitched. Neither expecting much, both hoping everything. Responses began to fill the mailbox. "I'm sorry, but we don't accept unsolicited manuscripts." "We must return your work. Best of luck." "Our catalog doesn't have room for unpublished authors."
I still have those letters. Somewhere in a file. Finding them would take some time. Finding Denalyn's cross-stitch, however, would take none. To see it, all I do is lift my eyes from this monitor and look on the wall.
OF ALL THOSE ARTS IN WHICH THE WISE EXCEL,
NATURE'S CHIEF MASTERPIECE IS WRITING WELL.
She gave it to me about the time the fifteenth letter arrived. A publisher had said yes. That is also framed. Which of the two is more meaningful?The gift from my wife or the letter from the publisher? The gift, hands down. For in giving the gift, Denalyn gave hope.
Tags: Persistent Hope Faith Encouragement Believing In YourselfYour Gifts
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Hope #1
Posted On 07/07/2008 12:50:18
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Just wanted to pass along two devotions from Max Lucado on HOPE in this blog and the next. They encouraged me again, stirring the fires into some small flames that warms the cold parts of my heart......prodigalreturned. ___________________ Hope is not what you expect; it is what you would never dream. It is a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I'm-dreaming ending. It's Abraham adjusting his bifocals so he can see not his grandson, but his son. It's Moses standing in the promised land not with Aaron or Miriam at his side, but with Elijah and the transfigured Christ. It's Zechariah left speechless at the sight of his wife Elizabeth, gray-headed and pregnant. And it is the two Emmaus-bound pilgrims reaching out to take a piece of bread, only to see that the hands from which it is offered are pierced.Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction.
Tags: Hope Strength Reality
Some of the simple things, the spiritual things, the key pieces of the puzzle along with work, exercise, and the like....something that helps me on most days that I think "more is more," when really, in the spiritual realm, "less is more," is the phrase, "Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is get 8 hours of sleep." How great! It helps me not feel "guilty" about going to bed to just lay down, letting go and letting God....It reminds me of the verse in Psalm 127 that talks about how vain it is to rise up early and go to be late when "the Lord gives to His beloved even while they are sleeping." That's nice, even while we are sleeping.
"Don't just do something STAND THERE!" is a really tough one for me, just enjoying, reflecting, and maybe even meditating on the moment, or the thought, or the view, or the picture, or the new blog entry, or ??? Some times the hardest thing is not to say anything, not allowing myself to put the moment in some box so that I can move on and do something else; rather, just be present to the event, letting itself impress me, mold me, smooth down some of my rough edges....
Adding a few pictures of the last three days are so simple and "clean," like my brother's cats, "Rita," and "Oliver," a fiery Jupiter-like sunset on Cotton Lake, running off a dock.....I've been practicing driving much slower too, letting people just fly by, which is a big step for me, having to be in front most of the time with driving motorcycles for 20 years...My uncle used to say, "If you have to be in a rush on vacation then you're really not on vacation..." Maybe I can say, "If you have to be in a hurry to get the most out of living, then maybe you're really not getting the most out of living." Maybe we can embrace "the most" when we slow down enough to receive it. How blessed it was to enjoy this third 4th of July family reunion without any drugs or alcohol.........what an amazing time....what amazing people...what amazing gifts from God.......Blessings on all of us embracing the moment, the simple things, the spiritual things---the getting ready for bed early and getting a long night's sleep.
Tags: Simplicity
Ever since I've been a part of understanding and learning about the Spiritual Disciplines years ago, I've been acutely aware of the "S-Words"---Simplicity, Solitude, Submission, Service, and then there's that fifth one: SACRIFICE! What a "loaded term," that carries so much baggage. But what a blessed term. I think of the phrase, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." When we choose mercy we are often entering into the sacrificial field, reaching out, reaching in, being available, receiving back double for what we give: "Cast your bread upon the waters and it comes back FRUITCAKE!" (That's the good fruit cake with nuts and carmels, not the multi-colored weird non-food item candied things that mostly become paper weights or weapons after the holidays). This summer for me is a blessed-sacrifice, doing 400 hours of internship work so I can better work with men and women in recovery in the late fall, God willing....Working 40 hours there and 20-30 hours weekly at another job leaves little or no time for groups, meetings, etc. The one constant that I have been legalistic about and work around my schedule is my weekly meeting with two sponsees, visiting, sharing, and going over a step in the 12 X 12. I miss this time too, in this amazing recovery-space arena, and only occasionally have a chance to write, blog, download, etc, but it's only a blessed sacrifice as a means to an end. There's a peace about it, seeing and sensing the big picture of recovery, healing, and helping others with the same. There's a sense, like my sponsor so often says, even when I can't see it: "I can see God's fingerprints all over this." So, bring on the "S-Words!" Like the song-phrase, " 'Cause tomorrow's another day, and I'm thirsty anyway, so...bring on the rain!" Blessings to all who enter into our Higher Power's sacrificial service.....Peace, Ken.
Tags: Priorities Goals Going For It Letting Go Changing Patterns
I was blessed to be challenged to read the book "Let Your Life Speak," by Parker Palmer recently to help me be more fully present to myself and others in my work and daily living. Palmer is an amazing human being, surviving and learning deeply from two major bouts of depression in his life. He has written books about "Living the Questions," "Courage to Teach," "The Promise of Paradox," and more---stuff we're always talking about on this site and using our "blessed pooled ignorance" to grow in our own spirituality and recovery. The areas that enriched, and continue to challenge me from "Let Your Life Speak," are "The Five Shadows" in life that cause us to slowly die emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, if we don't challenge them, and by our Higher Power's strength, assault them directly. As I read them I realized how much they are what we go through in our own recoveries at whatever stage we are in---walking THROUGH the shadows of death, and continue to do so until our ultimate resurrections. Palmer introduces the shadows in Chapter 5, "Leading From Within" as he writes:
If we, as leaders, are to cast less shadow and more light, we need to ride certain monsters all the way down, explore the shadows they create, and experience the transformation that can come as we "get into" our own spiritual lives ...The first shadow-casting monster is insecurity about identity and worth. Many leaders have an extroverted personality that makes this shadow hard to see, but extroversion sometimes develops as a way to cope with self-doubt....A second shadow inside many of us is the belief that the universe is a battleground, hostile to human interests. Notice how often we use images of warfare as we go about our work.
"....A Third shadow common among leaders is "functional atheism," the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us....A fourth shadow within and among us is fear, especially our fear of the natural chaos of life. Many of us---parents and teachers and CEO's---are deeply devoted to eliminating all remnants of chaos from the world.... My final example of the shadows that leaders project is, paradoxically, the denial of death itself. Though we sometimes kill things off well before their time, we also live in denial of the fact that all things must die in due course. Leaders who participate in this denial often demand that the people around them keep resuscitating things that are no longer alive. Projects and programs that should have been unplugged long ago are kept on life support to accommodate the insecurities of a leader who does not want anything to die on his or her watch." So, one beggar telling other beggars about a stash of bread that he has found, and sharing it. I'm thankful we can chase the shadow monsters all the way down. Let me close with a heavy, mysterious quote preceding this discussion in the book about the transformational life with a quote from Annie Dillard. Parker Palmer writes: Spirituality, like leadership, is a hard thing to define. But Annie Dillard has given us a vivid image of what authentic spirituality is all about:
"In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters down, if you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix of ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field; our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned." Palmer concludes this quote by writing,
"Here Dillard names two crucial features of any spiritual journey. One is that it will take us inward and downward, toward the hardest realities of our lives, rather than outward and upward toward abstraction, idealization, and exhortation. The spiritual journey runs counter to the power of positive thinking. Why must we go in and down? Because as we do so, we will meet the darkness that we carry within ourselves---the ultimate source of the shadows that we project onto other people. If we do not understand that the enemy is within, we will find a thousand ways of making someone "out there" into the enemy, becoming leaders who oppress rather than liberate others."
Tags: Healing Strength Fighting Depression Thriving In Life
In the Spirit of Step 10, let me re-phrase that title question: "Do I really give a shit???" As I take personal inventory and promptly admit those things that are wrong, it is a haunting question, especially in light of this very long work week that's not done until Sunday evening....
I know, that's such a base question, but in that "base-ness" lies an undercurrent that runs through our lives, certainly my mind and heart at times struggling with that great paradox and uncertainty---"How much do I really care?" "What is my true motivation?" And the list goes on........
It's not unlike the good Samaritan story where the two most religious priests walk by on the other side of the road while a man lies dying 'cause they have to get to church, while the unclean Samaritan goes out of his way to help not only save the injured man but also pay for his lodgings and healing.
I worked with Father Nic years ago on a university campus. Nic's homily one Sunday evening was on "the least of these as Christ---when you help the least you're really helping Christ." He picked up a homeless man from downtown who had a sign that read "Will work for food," Fr. Nic gave him food at the Rectory and asked him to stand out in front of the church that evening for mass with his sign in his hands while all the parishioners walked just feet away from him on their way inside the front door for Mass.....No one, NO ONE stopped or talked or gave him anything as they quickly went inside to worship. When it came time for the sermon, Nic brought the homeless man down in front of the church and used him as his object-lesson...
I told that story last year on a Sunday morning in front of a church at a VA center, knowing few people there. At the end of the service a man came up to me and said that he was at that same service years before when Fr. Nic brought this man up front for his homily. He said it was extremely humbling and he felt like hiding under the pew. How much do I really care??? How am I passing by on the other side of the road? Which "christ's" am I bypassing?
Or, on the other hand, thank God, we wouldn't be writing or reading this or helping others if we didn't care....I know I wouldn't, and I can't crucify myself for thinking I should care more when it's one care-day at a time.....Plus, there's always that ongoing paradox that we dialogued together last week in these posts: "Where's the balance and fine line between caring for others to the point of losing our identities and who we are, or caring for others in a life-giving way that energizes us and continues to care for ourselves....
I give a sh*t most of the time, but I'm OK on certain burn-out weeks like this one to say something like, "Lord I care, help me during those times when I really don't give a shit..." I think God's OK with that prayer, at least my God/Higher power is.
Tags: Attitude Depression Motivation Honesty Reality
___
Was blessed today, after a long day, to just walk my dog on the trail, in the sunlight, and listen to today's podcast downloaded free from iTunes of Garrison Keilor's "A Writer's Almanac." And, it was on this day that the young poet/writer/military man John Gillespie Mcgee Jr. was born. I've often heard of his famous poem "High Flight," but it's been so many years...It was burned into my mind and heart growing up as it was the LAST THING, about midnight, to be played on TV and then there was no more TV that night (what a concept). I still remember seeing the silver wings of the jet soaring into the atmosphere and the captivating voice and background music, sharing this amazing poem. Garrison mentioned that it is a poem that all cadets at the Air Force Academy need to memorize and say from their hearts....probably pretty easy to do at 30,000, slipping the surly bonds of earth....
______________________________
High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
In Tribute To Columbia February 1, 2003
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee Jr.
History
During the dark days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered to fight Hitler's Germany.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922, Magee was just 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.
Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defence over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer. At the time, German bombers were crossing the English Channel with great regularity to attack Britain's cities and factories. Although the dark days of the Battle of Britain were over, the Luftwaffe was still on the job of keeping up the pressure on British industry and the country.
On September 3, 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem -- "To touch the face of God."
Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, 'High Flight'.
Just three months later, on December 11, 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield while over Tangmere, England. The two planes were flying in the clouds and neither saw the other. He was just 19 years old. He is buried in the churchyard cemetery at Scopwick, Lincolnshire.
Borrowed from www.skygod.com
Tags: Setting Our Minds On Things Above God-Focus Steps 1-311
The original word in the original language for "transformation" is one that denotes a total change from the inside out, no longer at all what it used to be but what it has become. That word is METAMORPHOSIS. From my background, profession, language skills and many years of teaching and menotring, I use the Big Book now of A.A. on a regular basis. Also, getting in touch with my Higher Power, for me, I use the big, big book of the Old and New Testaments. I glean from those pages what transformation is.
Perhaps the most intense and amazing transformation story from those pages is the Transfiguration, on the mountaintop, where my Higher Power, Christ, was changed/transfigured. It was not only a foretaste of heaven for those disciples but an experience that helped them "die well," as William Wallace stated at the end of the movie "Braveheart," as he did in real life. His Higher Power helped him "die well," bringing him finally to the ultimate healing. Two other verses from the big, big book that help me understand transformation are from the Apostle Paul where he writes: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." And also: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." But I know it's easy to quote verses and sound spiritual. That's easy for me to do and was easy for me to do every Sunday, even as my using increased...then I hit bottom, almost died, and real, slow, steady transformation began to take place. It was an almost imperceptible change at times, but isn't that amazing when it may be imperceptible to us but not to others around us as we live out that humility---they can see it clearly. That's where we all need "the body," each other, to confirm our gifts and transformation-status. As I closed my first speakers meeting the other night with the 12 Promises, I had to stop after the fourth one and interject how I have seen true transformation in my life and in the lives of hundreds of others in all kinds of recovery in my lifetime. It's simple and comes right out of the bleeding lives of those around me each week in recovery as well as my own life and those of my loved ones: "God doesn't just want to pick up the pieces of our lives and put us back together again like some 'humpty-dumpty-addicts-and-alcoholics that we used to be. Rather, by His amazing grace alone and His power infused into our powerlessness, He gathers all the broken pieces of our lives that we are able to give Him at this time. He takes those broken pieces no matter what they are and how terrible and painful they have been and MAKES A BRAND NEW SCULPTURE OUT OF THEM--one that is many times better than what our lives used to be. Daily he helps us believe, through so many others in recovery, that we could never have come to this place of transformation if we had never been broken to begin with.
That takes faith each day to believe, practice, and live out, but that "faith" doesn't come from us. That faith is a gift from our Higher Power, given to us, when we ask for it, to enjoy a growing transformed life.
Tags: Real Change Daily Healing Deep Recovery A Changed Life
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