The End

Why does death have to be seen as the “end?”  Why can it not be seen as the fulfillment of a life well-lived in the deepest sense?  Such a life probably planted some good seeds you don’t even know about.  People say things at your funeral that they never told you in person, wonderful things.  Plus, the end implies there is nothing after.  The ego cannot take extinction.  If I have been trying to surrender a too big ego, then death is not so much seen as the end followed by oblivion.  I don’t think about oblivion.  In my faith there is the next step.  But even if you have no such faith, the end a of life well-lived in love and service really will live on in others who benefitted from your spiritual practice flowing over into relationships and the work you did.  So don’t waste your energy on fear, whining or such, but on the deeper path in which much died in you so that you could live a fuller life.   

Surrender

If someone gives you the seeds of a spiritual practice, nothing will take root until something dies in you.  Without surrender you are simply too shallow soil.  As a child, a faith tradition is easy to accept and practice.  Not much to give up yet.  But the practice has to mature as you get older.  What gets in the way, and needs to die is the too big ego, self-will run riot, self-centeredness to name a couple of things that come with those double digit years of age.  A mature spiritual practice is not all about you and your feeling good.  It is about service to others, commitment to daily meditation and some reading or aural listening.  It connects you to your deeper self, soul, and your truest identity.  That is then expressed in service to others whether they see it or not.  

The Sower

 If you want to share your spiritual practice with someone who seems interested enough to ask, then become like the farmer who sows seeds on all kinds of soil.  You just don’t know what will take and what will not.  Don’t worry about the soil.  Just have hope.  In Recovery Programs, newcomers enter the room.  Some are good soil.  They are ready.  Some are not.  Give them all the seeds of the program, and give it with an attitude of hope.  Let God do whatever.  Even someone with little soil, shallow, will go away with your sense of hope.  The program works and the hope is that it can work for the newcomer.  

In Charge

 In baseball, the pitcher is in charge until he is not.  The batter is guessing what the pitcher is going to throw,  The pitcher knows what he/she is going to throw.  But if the pitcher does not execute the pitch correctly, bad things can happen to the pitcher’s team.  Batters feast on mistakes.  So goes my day.  I am in charge when I get up.  I have my plan, but if I don’t execute my plan, then my day can become a loss. Part of the plan is to make room for the unexpected.  Stuff happens, but if I have made room for it in my plans then the day can still be a winner.  So I pray early.  I exercise early.  And I make my bed.  

Drop The Ball

 There is the phrase, “Dropping the ball.”  It means you did not get something done and the day is not a winner.  It comes from football and baseball, though different sports.  If you throw the ball and your teammate catches it then good things can happen.  If they do not catch the ball, lots of chaos can result.  The spiritual life is like that.  I wake up and God throws me the ball of opportunity to pray, do good for self and others, exercise and so on.  But I have to catch the ball of opportunity.  A wasted day is most often when I dropped the ball, rather than nothing was thrown my way.  

Newcomer

 When people come into a group setting, communal group of some sort and say they are “returning,” they are sometimes judged and treated by that judgment.  “Oh yeah.  They are coming back again and they will just revolve out again.”  We judged them not worthy of our attention and time, as if such was so valuable to us.  But the “Newcomer” is treated much better.  They are new, so no judgement, even if they have been there before.  “New” seems to get more effort on our part than the “returner.”  So I like how recovery programs do it.  They don’t have returners.  They have newcomers and treat them as very special.  No matter how often the person comes and goes, they are always “Newcomers.”  

The System

 When it comes to some things, certain groups want no change and others are very open.  The reason?  What is at stake.  If it were economics, life-style, the rich are set up in the system.  It works for them.  Any change is seen as loss.  The poor on the other hand seem to be more open to economic change because they have far less to lose as they see it.  In my personal life, I ask how much I have to lose if things change around me.  It becomes all about me.  There is little empathy for someone who might benefit from my loss.  In groups, the newcomer has the least amount of power to make a change.  I try to keep this all in mind when change suggestions come up.