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Dedicated to Friends – and to Butchie, Roger, Giel and Diane
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If you want to be reminded of the love of God, just watch the sunrise.
Jeannette Walls, in Half Broke Horses
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I am rarely ever unhappy. In this is grace and with grace vision. I see … and I believe.
Never had much trouble believing. It just seemed right … obvious. Think of the sunrise. When your father deserts the family there is still sunrise, and Mama and her strength of soul that is belief.
My sunrises now are of slopping emerald green pastures, purple mountains and, cows and calves gracefully, slowly eating their way down the incline as the pink on the sky fortells of the inevitable Father Sun.
We get all tangled up in ourselves and in a small screen that is our life span when there is an endless unfolding movie and we see it in the sunrise.
Context. We lose it more often than we retain it. Yet, wait – think of lunch with an old friend and his old friends – they are the sunrise and Mama’s strength and belief.
Rest your eyes and heart and soul on sunrise, cows and calves, and pastures and mountains, the sky, Father Sun, friends, Mama, belief, and God. Happiness follows.
Shalom.
… it is difficult for churches, government, and leaders to move beyond ego, the desire for control, and public posturing. Everything divides into oppositions … vested interests pulling against one another. Truth is no longer possible at this level of conversation.
… you can lead people only as far as you yourself have gone …
Richard Rohr, in The Naked Now
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Richard Rohr writes of two monks of the 11th and 12th century – Hugh of St. Victor monastery in Paris, France, and Richard of the same monastery. He tells us that these monks wrote that humans have been given three different ways of seeing. One way arises from the eyes that produce thoughts. The second way of seeing leads to reason, and to reflection and meditation. The third way of seeing leads to true understanding and contemplation.
It is the third way of seeing that is the rarest and most evolved. Whereas the first way of seeing is common, it produces little depth of experience, is more concrete and binds one to the immediate without nuance. The second way of seeing allows one to relish his or her power to conceive of the material disposition of the world. Ah, but the third way of seeing allows one to do more – it allows one to “taste” existence, to be in awe before the underlying mystery, coherence, and spaciousness that connects one with everything!
The third way of seeing is seeing as a mystic sees – seeing as God has designed us to see. This seeing exceeds the senses, does not rest on knowledge and intellect alone – but rather sees in a manner that expands his or her consciousness – and in this is transformed, made whole, lives in and above at the same time, is mortal and immortal, contented, whole and wise in ways that neither the senses nor intellect can offer.
In commenting on this Rohr says “I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the separation and loss of these three necessary eyes is at the basis of much of the short-sight-edness and religious crises in the Western world.” Hence the above quote that leads into today’s blog.
The view that Rohr shares, Dear Friends, highlights how and why “identity politics” is so destructive, so wrong-headed, so primitive, tribal, hostile, aggressive, hateful and unappetizing. Those with greater depth of human experience cannot abide that which pits one against another in a death struggle. We are, after all, not made to be enemies to one another but rather brothers and sisters to one another.
This historic moment requires us to see as the mystic sees.
Shalom.
Life demands for its completion and fulfillment a balance between joy and sorrow. But because suffering is … disagreeable, people naturally prefer not to ponder how much fear and sorrow fall to the lot of man. So they speak … about progress and the greatest possible happiness, forgetting happiness … is poisoned if the measure of suffering has not been fulfilled.
Carl Jung, M.D., in Psychotherapy and a Philosophy of Life (Collected Works, Vol. 16)
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Where are the adults and wisdom figures today? Not in politics. Not in higher education. Not in media. Not in journalism. Not in public life. Not in the law. Surely not in the established bureaucracies of the government. And most assuredly not in entertainment. Not among the Leftists and the whining ideologues, nor among the “professional” advocacy class and the liberals on television or the products of “identity politics.”
Nope, we are short of mature, wise adults.
In large measure this is due to having few people with honestly examined lives. Few who are familiar with human psychology, philosophy, the history of Western Civilization or history itself, few familiar with the Classics of literature, and fewer still who are spiritually developed and hence engaged in faith and guided by a religious narrative.
Super-power notwithstanding, a nation does not survive that is not populated with those who are broadly educated and are humbled by a life in which both joy and sorrow have been experienced.
When I look at the assembled collection of Democrat presidential aspirants I think only of this – “what a motley crew!” Not a one to whom I’d feel comfortable giving a sharpened pencil. Likewise, I prefer not to give attention to anyone in journalism – such is the state of that enterprise today.
So where does this leave one? To the task of independent self-education – becoming familiar with a range of disciplines that instruct as to the collected understanding of the human person for good and ill. And from this base – to the individual life lived to experience and know both joy and sorrow … which renders us sober, grateful, insightful, steady, humble, wise, courageous, faithful and joy-filled.
Alas the miss-mash we see in the nonsense of a secular society stripped of wisdom and insight ought to call us back to common sense, more silence than chatter, and quiet application of life dedicated to proper education and conduct now simply honored in their abandonment.
Shalom.
Happy Easter!!!
“… dying he has destroyed our death, and rising her has restored our life.”
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There is no human life on earth that is not subject to sin and death. Sin fractures relationships with others and indeed fragments our very self. Death is “that ubiquitous reaper.” But Christ changes that default setting that bedevils man and woman, child and adult.
Christ on the Cross redeems each of us from sin and neuters the dread of death, the pain of this mortal exodus. In Christ we are upright in soul and being – sin does not imprison and death does not threaten.
In Christ we have a whole new existence – human wholeness, spiritual expanse, contentment, strength, truth, humility, certainty amid the unknown, community, friendship everlasting. In Christ, all troubles teach and insight and wisdom abounds, patience too.
In Christ, love prevails as love is practiced in all manner of life’s encounters.
Imagine a culture in which consciousness of Christ was for each of us – the substance of each daily transaction, each moment, each idle hour, each day month after month, year after year. Imagine Western Civilization restored to its formative reality – Imagine America and Americans at their historic best – humble, compassionate, brave, sacrificial, honorable, hardworking, strong, independent, dignified, sober, gentle, just, forgiving, confident, grateful for each day and each breath, faithful and kind.
The worm, Friends, is turning. We have gone too long divided, disgruntled, angry, joyless, self-serving and without Christ.
The truth of the matter is quite simple – we need not “fundamentally alter America.” Those who think this are mistaken, ignorant of many things – and in need of faith. For them we might pray.
Shalom.
3:03 a.m. – how nice it is to awake in the full night of silence to think about faith
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Faith is a backward-looking virtue. It concerns who we are … “the mystical chords of memory.”
Deirdre N. McCloskey, in The Bourgeois Virtues
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In faith you are connected with those who have come before you – with a stream of being that reaches to the very distant past, the sacrifice of others, their fidelity. Their story is our story.
In faith we belong to others – to Saint Peter and Saint John – to Abraham and Martha and Mary and Lazarus … to Aquinas, St. Augustine, to Simon of Cyrene, the men on the road to Emmaus – to centuries of faithful Jews and Christians.
In faith we have identity … a place in a long story that has no end.
In a world too often focused on the immediate, the immaterial, on desire, immersed in anxiety, loneliness, doubt and worry – we have in faith: certainty, confidence, cause, connection, and a call to life.
In faith we have as Aristotle says “another self,” – in faith is solidarity and union with one another now, in the past and in what is to come. In faith we know love – a love that runs to what has come before, what is now, and what will be in all the tomorrows yet to come.
In faith, particular differences do not matter for the faith others possess is the faith we possess. Ethnicity, race, age, social status, wealth and such do not matter to those who share a faith.
The broad identity of faith is the union of belief. We are, in faith, what we believe. Therein is our solace, our identity, our purpose, our meaning, our stability and our happiness.
Shalom.
March 19, 2019 – My Mother’s Birthday.
My mother saved my life. Without her I would have been lost. She always put me first but always insisted that I live humbly, that I do what was right and good. A petite lady of strength and faith, I owe my life to her.
Thank you Mom, for all you did for me!
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You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell …
Numbers 35:34
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These are God’s words to Moses.
Today some among us freely defile this land with their words, their hatred, their division. In this, they show godlessness. They express hate. Their words are the words of racism. They express hatred of White men. They defile those who were indispensable in the founding of this nation. In this they dishonor themselves.
Criticisms come from many who have served self, not others.
Among these critics and malcontents are those who wish to radically alter this country. We see them in Leftist candidates for public office. Their number includes young upstarts who know little and have done less. We even hear now from one who came to us from a failed Marxist-Muslim state. Her bigoted words defile. They tell us she deserves only contempt.
No one comes to our house to set it aflame. For God dwells here among us and our children deserve the blessings of this land – a free, safe, lawful and prosperous nation among many failed and corrupted countries.
Shame on the malcontents. The door to our house swings both ways. They are welcome to leave by the same door they entered. Should they leave, they will not be missed.
This land is for the grateful and the faithful – those who wish to be good neighbors to one another, work hard, abide by the law, respect us and take pride in who we are and what we have built.
Shalom.
Writing at 3:11 a.m. – writing in silence and at night. It is just like being … yes, it is being – just being … This is what is intended for us.
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind …
Anonymous
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Be. Just be.
Seems so simple, but so rare.
Imagine being cheated out of being, out of being you – God makes one-of-a-kind in each of us. No carbon copies. Why do we miss something so obvious? Such a simple truth … so easily lost.
In the dark and silent night I am. It reminds me of my time in monastic living … of the silence … of the holy nature of that silence which said without words – “you are, just be.”
In that, I saw better – angles appeared, as did shadows, and light, shades of colors, open spaces, contours, nature’s contrasts. I heard better, too. I heard the sacred silence and the chirping of small birds, the wind and the vast emptiness of silence which is its own music.
In silence you are. You feel you. Know the quiet action within you – the movement of your heart and the sacred touch of your fingers, your hand.
If I were to give you one solid thing I have come to know at 73 it would be this: “you are, just be.” In this you would be you and life would quiet down.
In the end and fullness of time you are meant to be, to be who you are in that simple act of being. Then, it will come to you: you are as a monk is – you are … yes, you are. And He is near always and endlessly. This is the simple Truth of life: you are and He is.
3:32 a.m., Sunday Morning, 3 March 2019. The wind does not whisper its name tonight and it is dark and still. I am. He is. You are.
Shalom.
Post for Today, January 15th, 2019 is Delayed … Snow removal and stacking fire wood – walking on ten inches of snow with a glorious sun and blue sky above.
Today’s Post Late Afternoon
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The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
Carl Jung, M.D.
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Your contentment comes from being who you are. That is a process of discovery. A matter of inquiry and honest self-examination … of knowing what a man is or what a woman is, of knowing that you are mortal and wondering what, if anything, comes after mortality …
Those who know who they are and were made to me – need not play-act a personality, nor long to be someone they are not.
Finding out who you truly are is a matter of living what comes your way for you discover yourself when all matter of things (good and bad) are looked at squarely and lived through with confidence and expectation that after all is said and done trials illuminate who we are.
Shalom.
A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.
John O’Donohue, in Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
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Who among you is a friend such as O’Donohue describes? When you name them – cherish them. A friend cares more deeply about you than you do for yourself.
These people are few in our lifetime, rare in many respects … but their ethos is so clear. Their ethos is the ethos of Christ. They become your brother and your sister.
If your spouse is not your friend – you have a problem. Friends die for one another. They help. They protect. They put your needs first … and best of all they tell us the unvarnished truth even at the risk of losing our friendship!
Friends do not play it safe. They put all their chips on the board and spin the wheel. They live as life presents and share their wisdom and themselves freely with you.
Be a friend. Cherish your friends. They love you deeply.
Shalom.
Remember Pearl Harbor, 1941/Remember Benghazi Too
It is cold and the sky is clear, the colors true and the mountains firm and sure. December and the Son is near. Despite the public nonsense, it is Christmas time … and Holy Silence is here.
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Man … a wanderer and wayfarer … in search of a … holy place, a center and source of indefectible life …
the Irish monks “… simply floated off to sea, abandoning themselves to wind and current, in the hope of being led to the place of solitude which God himself would pick for them …”
Walker Percy, in “From Pilgrimage to Crusade”
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Have you seen your life as a pilgrimage? Have you imagined it so? Have you been given to live what God has given? Are you so blessed by the grace of that gift to come to that place He chose for you?
Live properly and fully lived, life is a pilgrimage. And I have come to realize this as I come to my 73rd year this month.
Yes, I have been overcome by the length of time and its passing speed, but more so the unusual continuity and scope of my life … from betrayal and poverty, to death and homelessness, to conversion and many who loved me to that place … In it all I see my gifts of interest in others, and the will to survive life’s constant and bitter combat and the desire for God in all of it.
Lately I have sought peace and quiet after years of battles – defense of others with my lawyer’s trade and growing faith – seeking truth and a just result … standing alone as loneliness prepared me so.
Seeing life as a pilgrim’s journey is a blessing that overwhelms, producing tears of wonder for the divine gift of consistency that was in me and this life so on track to be just what I had been made to be.
Imagine the innate mystery of consistency and the companionship of the right values and the best goals of service to others … a life like the Irish Monks submission to the winds and currents of a life Godly given. Imagine too the sight of God in those who loved me to this place. My shepherds … my shepherds – so many, so many … angels given, angles given …
Looking back now I see one astonishing grace – that I was given to accept life as it presented and to do so without complaint or bitter feeling – but rather to accept it as what it was – the gift of challenges that built with each hard event courage, wisdom and greater strength, greater depth, greater faith, greater insight and the reward of solitude, certainty of the soul and peace which conquers all conflict. Once lonely, I could stand alone because of Him … I am who Am.
A pilgrimage – previously unbeknownst to me. But for the grace to walk one step at a time over hills and through dark valleys for all these years I would not know how grace delivered consistency to me … and now I see that God has done as God intended … and my unwitting collaboration with His Desire for me … grace … grace … grace – the mystery of grace.
Looking back I see through tears of awe and humility for I have done by the Grace of God what God has asked of me – simply to journey as a pilgrim would.
I pray you know the same.
Do not get bogged down in the daily voices of nonsense – they hold no sway, no mystery they.
Shalom.
Spirlaw 