The Mystery within... |
My posting to this blog has been inconsistent of late because I am finding it very difficult to write another book and also post regularly. So some weeks I will slip in a draft reflection from my proposed new book titled, "Both and Things." My August 27, 2017 post, "Diversity's Many Gifts," is a draft reflection from my new book. Today I share my proposed draft Introduction. I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Introduction
I remember like it was yesterday, the morning I heard the
sentence that changed my life forever, but it was well over ten years ago. I was walking from my bathroom into the
kitchen where my radio was tuned to my favorite public station. I don’t remember the program’s host, didn’t
know who the guest was, or the subject being discussed. The host remarked,
“Then it is a both and thing.” To which a
soothing, happy male voice responded, “Everything is a both and thing.” His words ended the program and freed me
almost beyond telling.
I was in the middle of writing my first memoir, “God Never
Hurries,” when I got stuck. I knew the
reason for that block. It happened after
I was returning from an errand to Home Depot and got behind a car with a bumper
sticker that read, “Silence feeds abuse.”
Up until then I was non-specific about the abuse in my writing. But that bumper sticker, and soothing male
voice, led me to write the shortest, most specific, only three paragraphs long
reflection that began, “Silence is a both/and thing.” Courage to name the sexual abuse, and the
freedom to question everything I had been taught, was that bumper sticker’s
gift. I moved forward from
victim/survivor to working on thriving. This memoire continues my journey of
discovery of self and the gifts we can be to one another.
Reflecting became a sacred act. Understanding I needed to love myself first
was my biggest step forward and came from sitting with my pain and letting it
teach me. Patriarchy and the silly
notion of infallibility became even sillier. Being present to everyday life,
and the natural world, taught me my worthiness and remains school for my
learning and growth. Freedom’s gift to choose liberated and led me to love,
serve and forgive myself so I can then do likewise to all others.
The evolutionary thoughts of the silenced priest and paleontologist,
Teilhard de Chardin, saw us creatively thinking and acting together to become
more human by moving toward unconditional love for one another. Meaning systems that advance us toward this
love begin with finding common ground and then learning to become comfortable
with our differences. There is synergy and reciprocity in diversity. Learning opportunities abound from a spacious
open mind willing to integrate and learn from one another whether male or female,
different ethnicities, or personality types.
Learning of the strengths and weaknesses of the nine enneagram personality
types that highlight diverse spiritual strengths and weakness of individuals,
of which I claim to be a One, was an important discovery for me. Learning what I need to let go of and what I
need to move toward to become more balanced and loving sometimes gives my ego
pause and helps me pull back and respect where another is coming from.
Everything is a both/and thing, including the heart. Broken into shards of bitterness and hatred
or broken open into compassion and forgiveness. This memoire shares some of my attempts to be open to the
grace from it all to better understand how to love, serve and forgive others
and myself unconditionally.
The
poet Rumi understood the paradox of unconditional love. Rumi’s “Guest House” challenges us to be the
Great Mystery to one another.
What if we remembered more often that everything is a both and thing?
The Guest
House
This being
human is a guest house.
Every morning
a new arrival.
A joy, a
depression, a meanness,
some
momentary awareness comes
As an
unexpected visitor.
Welcome and
entertain them all!
Even if
they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently
sweep your house
empty of its
furniture,
still treat
each guest honorably.
He may be
clearing you out
for some new
delight.
The dark
thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at
the door laughing,
and invite
them in.
Be grateful
for whoever comes,
because each
has been sent
as a guide
from beyond.
Rumi
What if I just accepted all the delays with my writing? Would they eventually go away?