Not the answer

"What helpful spirit can I bring to this moment?"  
The answer changes each time the question is asked, but it is never "fear"; it is never "hate"; and it is never "belittle".

Seeking unifying questions

I seek and welcome guidance from the Holy Spirit as I perceive it.  But I also seek unifying questions - useful questions which require no faith in God, but only intellect, concern for others as well as oneself, and kindness. Here are some drafts:
"What that is universal can I bring to this moment?"
"What contribution can I make here and now?"
"What spirit - what shared human experience that is wiser and more compassionate and powerful than I alone - can I bring to this moment?" 

Well, how about that!  It seems to come back to what my mother taught me as a child: 
"Do your best to leave things in at least as good condition as you find them."

Scarcity and abundance

When I feel scarcity, I usually want something without doing the work to get it.  It's like being in a well-stocked kitchen wishing for a Big Mac. I am neglecting imagination - other than the desired thing or feeling - and abundant opportunities.
When I accept things as they are - including imagination and opportunities and, yes, even yearning - I find abundance at hand.

June 19, 2016

Last Friday, I attended the funeral mass for a twenty-six-year-old woman.  The loss to her family and friends was heartbreaking.  The collective grief was vast and nearly overwhelming.  But the love – the shared, inspiring, comforting love – was the most powerful presence.

The recessional hymn was, “Here I am, Lord.”  In that hymn, to God’s question, “Whom shall I send?”, the refrain is “I will go Lord, if You lead me.”

When we seek a spiritual calling, when we experience such a calling, and when we act on such a calling, we are addressing, connecting with, and strengthening that seed or spark of the Holy Spirit – of the spirit of love – which is within each of us.

And when we come out from our spiritual and emotional bunkers to answer that call, we experience a freedom which is attainable in no other way.

June 5, 2016

In Meeting for Worship, I have always focused my meditations on my life: my values and my fidelity to them; my relationships with others and with society as a whole; my explorations of what I perceive as a holy spirit.
Until today.
Today, here, there appears the opportunity to try to imagine, and to understand, the lives and perspectives of others.  A sixth grader in an urban middle school with a very different home life than mine, seeking his or her place in the world.  A refugee seeking safety and freedom for his family, praying the boat from Turkey to the Greek Island of Lesbos doesn’t capsize and send them to their deaths.  A frustrated and angry American voter, trying to figure out the best thing to do for the nation in this election year.
Today I see that it means nothing to perceive myself as striving to understand and serve God – indeed, it would mean nothing to “be holy” – without constant striving for compassion.