Imagine

Emily Dickinson, the poet, said, “The possible’s slow fuse is lit by imagination.”  Imagination is the engine, the beginning of possibilities.  It does not begin in the thinking mind.  So don’t go to catechism to begin any God-searches.  If God is the ultimate possibility, then begin with how you imagine God.  Let your imagination explode with possibilities. This will give rise to your questions, your personal search.  Since God may be no one thing, God can be all and anything to each person.  The imagination is not just about fantasy, and fairy tales, though there is much truth in fairy tales.  Unbelief resides in the reasoning mind.  I am not sure that God hangs out there very much for people like me.  Don’t bother to think the possible. Imagine it.  Most great discoveries came about from the power of imagination as the starter engine.

Liveability

I hear people talk about faith focused on its credibility.  I am more interested in the liveability of a faith.  Does your faith change your life so that you are more aware of the wonder within each person, and all around you?  If I can see the Graced Presence, the inner beauty of a person, see the wonder all around me that opens me beyond myself, then I will be less depressed, less resentful, angry, whinnie, and selfish.  This would be a good faith.  Many people have a doctrine-focused faith that appeals to the mind, but does not affect the heart too much to become transformed, to open to the beauty all around them.  Yes, people have faults, imperfections, can disappoint us, but they also have a beauty that is hidden within them, invisible to them in their worst moments.  But if we can see it and act out of that in-sight, then we might be able to help them to get out of themselves. That takes a lot of faith! I am living at 8,000 feet altitude and this dark morning had a very clear sky.  I went outside. Yes, it was freezing. But I looked up and saw all these stars filling the heavens, and thought, “The one who made all this, is in all this, loves little me.”  Awe is my faith boost.

Magnifying Glass

Someone suggested, “Throw away the magnifying glass.”  What? Well, put a magnifying glass close  to a page of text.  What happens?  Some words will stand out quite large and other words will seem quite small in comparison.  But in reality, all the words on the page are the same size.  The point?  We sometimes live our life through a magnifying glass.  We make some things, such as problems, as we see them, much bigger than they are, and put everything else of value into the background.  We have no time for love, because we have this “HUGE” problem or situation that must be dealt with or solved.  Or we make “falling in love,” such a big deal that we have no time for other things.  We miss out on some of the wonder and awe of life, by magnifying other things.  So, right size problems lest you miss some gifts waiting for your attention.  Throw away the magnifying glass.

Margins Of Inclusion

In the monastery, I live on the "Margins of Inclusion."  While I am here I am not included in the other places I live with the events and friends I have there.  People's lives go on without me.  I am not completely forgotten. That is why I live on the margin of inclusion.  Whenever you step aside, silence or turn off your cell phone, iPad, Android or whatever, and sit in silence and solitude, you are going to the margins of inclusion.  You are just outside of where people can connect with you.  But this is where you want to be in meditation so that you have no rivals, or busyness that gets in the way of you and the Presence that seems to reveal itself when you rest beyond the margins of inclusion.  For many people who say they do not believe, I suggest that God is still with them, beyond the margins of their including God in their life.  God does not go away simply because someone says they do not believe.  Just because someone does not believe in love nor that anyone loves them, does not prevent someone from loving them.  I believe that my friends love me and have not forgotten me.  They are just having fun and a full life without me.  It  keeps me humble, being on the margins of inclusion.  Hello out there!

Fred

Fred died recently.  He was a challenge for me.  At one time he was my sister Maureen's husband.  I did not quite take to him when I first met him.  But I thought marrying Maureen would be punishment enough for any shortcomings he might possess.  When I visited them as a married couple, Fred and I would drink some together and I would like him.  But then I liked most everyone when I drank.  But then he and my sister got divorced.  She had four kids to raise.  So I did not like him again.  Years past and he would come to children's weddings.  I met him at some of these events and he seemed OK.  Maybe we had mellowed.  I think he came to Maureen's funeral.  I was crying and so distraught at her dying at age 64, that I don't really remember.  But there was a wedding event after that and he was there.  I think that he had found Christ in his life, and I had come into more acceptance of him.  As I aged and saw my own shortcomings nibbling at me, I found more compassion and forgiveness for the past.  But it was work and a long process.  He got to live 14 more years than my big Sis Maureen.  It is God's world and I am not in charge though I wish she had those fourteen years.  But I don't have to make my wishes, hopes, desires, and disappointments control my attitude toward people in my life.  So I pray for Fred.  I hope someone is praying for me when my time comes.  So I had better be nice and make amends where I have been the source of chaos.

Mom

My Mom died on this date 15 years ago.  I remember looking at her still and dead body and thinking, among other things, "This body gave me life."  It brought a "Thank you," to my lips,  in the midst of my grief and loss.  I was an amateur care-giver at the time, on the job training and my parents were my lab experiments.  They did not die from lack of my care.  At least that was not given as the cause of death.  To this day, of all the good things my Mom did for me, a bozo for quite a bit of my middle years, I am most grateful for the fact that she gave me life.  Her body brought me into this world and loved me, even when I did not so much love myself.  So this is a good day too.  It is a reminder to be grateful.  And for whom am I life-giving, with kindness, compassion, forgiveness, patience and acceptance today?  How about you?

Dad

Today would have been my Dad's birthday.  I was with him when he took his laugh breath.  It is a blessing, and the luck of good timing to be with someone you love when they take their last breath.  They are going on an important journey from this way of life to a new way of life and it is good to have someone there to say goodbye and I love you and thank you for your life.  These many years later, I still ask my Dad to pray for me in the gift of life I have on this side of my last breath.