Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.
[Norman Vincent Peale]
Archives
Unbound
He who binds to himself a Joy
Doth the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the Joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.
[He Who Binds to Himself, by William Blake]
An Ikebana Kind of Life
Yes, it’s what I want. We’ve talked here often of contemplative prayer and its peeling away the layers of the false self. We’ve talked of Holy Detachment. Along with the question I placed in the previous post, another line from the video spoke to me: “…nothing should ever be placed in such a way that it doesn’t express its own vitality and character.” How can we express our own vitality and character, our true self rather than our false self, until the false is completely stripped away? This is why I repeated the question asked near the end of the video: “What actually is not needed, in order to see what is essential?” Perhaps we could also ask, “What actually must die in order to reveal our essence?”
I had seen the Ikebana video a while ago; it spoke to me, and so I saved the link in my drafts. Recently, one of Lucy’s posts had me thinking deeply, and the video came back to mind. Then one of those serendipitous events occurred. Lucy had quoted Anne Morrow Lindbergh in her post: “The most exhausting thing you can do is to be inauthentic.” I didn’t know the source of the quote, but I had more than a few passing thoughts that I would like to read more of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s writings. A couple of days later I was in the thrift shop looking for a small wicker basket and I took the time, as I usually do, to browse through the books. Generally, I only look at the hardcover books, because the paperbacks are usually all genres which don’t appeal to me. But for some reason I scoured the racks of paperbacks as well, and lo and behold, what did I see but Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s “Gift from the Sea.” And what a gift it was (and I’m not referring to the 49 cents I paid for it). Now, I know I’m probably coming late to this book; many of my American online friends here, particularly the women, probably read it years ago, but “better late than never” certainly holds true in this case for me. (Kristin, it is this book to which I was referring in a comment where I said it was helping me to centre and rebalance).
I know I’m making this post overly-long by doing so, but I’d like to share with you a couple of paragraphs from the book (I will be sharing more later) that coincide nicely with the Ikebana video in terms of how the artist was asking us to be curious about the weight and the fullness, to ask ourselves “where is the space, where is the line?” Becoming aware of the weight, the fullness, the space and the lines in our day-to-day existence and doing whatever it takes to simplify and bring things into balance and harmony will lead to the same thing interiorly. Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes:
“For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant – and therefore beautiful. A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of the sky. A note in music gains significance from the silences on either side. A candle flowers in the space of night. Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space, like a few autumn grasses in one corner of an Oriental painting, the rest of the page bare.
My life in Connecticut, I begin to realize, lacks this quality of significance and therefore of beauty, because there is so little empty space. The space is scribbled on; the time has been filled. There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours in the day, or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself. Too many activities, and people, and things. Too many worthy activities, valuable things, and interesting people. For it is not merely the trivial which clutters our lives but the important as well. We can have a surfeit of treasures – an excess of shells, where one or two would be significant.”
[Gift from the Sea; pgs. 114-115]
Coffee Break 4
Here
[From: The Call, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer]
“…I see and am with the fears that hook me into wanting things to be different from the way they are, fears that pull me into the belief that a different location or situation – a more creative job, a home in a more natural setting, more money or time or other resources, a relationship with someone who has the same “spiritual” goals or daily practice – is needed if I am ever to find deep abiding peace, if I am ever to learn how to love well. These beliefs are rooted in deeper if intermittent fears: the fear that I am not now and never will be able to hear the call at the center of my life accurately or fully enough to know how to consistently live who and what I am; the fear that the Beloved, tired of my inability to get it right, will simply stop calling, stop sending out the voice that can guide me home…
This is what I learned on my quest:
There is simply no place, no location or situation, that cannot be used to wake up to and live all of what and who you are, if you are willing to show up, to be present in the only place you ever have access to: here.”
[pgs. 77-78]
“And you can’t trick the universe into giving you what you want by pretending to be at peace with how things are, by imitating what you think it would look like to be fully present where you are, all the while looking over your shoulder to see if some higher power has noticed and is about to deliver you from where you are and put you where you really want to be.” (pg. 82)
Forgiveness and Trust
“Give freely of thy spirit and judge not; be longsuffering and patient, for when you are kind with the kindness of the spirit to those who are unregenerate, the act frees your own unregeneracy as well. Blessed is he that sees and understands and forgives.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Do not take on too much the suffering of the world, for the concept is not only too large to understand but is now beyond us. Trusting is part of your role; trusting in high hope, in peace and confidence. Wear these garments of joy without fearful anticipation, look upon the quiet of the hills, of a candle untroubled by the wind; be very, very simple, very uncomplex, very natural in the eternal sense. Keep in the storm center, safe, a power for victory, healing and peace.”
[From: Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood, edited by Mary Strong, 1948]
If x = …
Addiction. Everywhere we look, wherever we turn our gaze, outward or inward, we are apt to find it. My prayer for 2008 is for people to be set free. Whether we are speaking of heavy, urgent addictions, persistent venial sin, or the clingings and attachments that are part-and-parcel of our human weakness and frailty, let this be the year, the day, the moment, when new lives begin in Christ.
[Excerpt from: "The Priest Is Not His Own", by Archbishop Fulton Sheen]:
“A personal equation must be established between the soul and the Crucifix. Sins of pride are understood through the crown of thorns; sins of lust, through the torn flesh; sins of avarice, through the poverty of nakedness; and sins of alcoholism, through thirst. Moreover, sin must be seen as resisting the Spirit of Love (Acts 7:51), as stifling the Spirit of Love (1 Thess 5:19) and as distressing the Spirit of Love (Eph 4:30).
Conscience is always enlightened when sin is seen as hurting someone we love. No sin can touch one of God’s stars or silence one of His words, but it can cruelly wound His Heart. Once the penitent understands this truth, he can see why he has such emptiness and desolation in his soul; he has hurt one he loves.
Many who approach a priest still try to conceal their conscience. They offer spurious reasons to explain their actions. The priest who remains on a purely psychological level cannot always see through such deceits, and, in consequence, he cannot help the one who has come to him. It takes a spiritual X ray to penetrate such a mind.”
Direct to YouTube for this video is here.
Maybe Tomorrow
[Excerpt from "Heart of the World", by Hans Urs von Balthasar]
Or I can postpone guilt until tomorrow. The eye that looks at me fixedly always says “today.” “It is now that I want to be loved.” But I lower my eyes and say: “I will love you tomorrow. Tomorrow you’ll see what I’m capable of doing for you. You’ll see the sacrifices I’ll bring to you. Tomorrow I’ll pay you twice over if you’ll only grant me this one hour today. I must yet pluck the rose before it fades away, but the rosehips I’ll bring you for sure. Give me the spring and I’ll let you have the autumn, maybe even late summer. Just for today turn away your gaze, and starting tomorrow you’ll be able to look at me all you like.” “I’m coming now, I’m coming right away!” the child cries up to his mother when she calls him in, and he finishes playing his game, thinking that surely obedience includes a certain period of grace – a human margin. Who could all at once make a clean break with his life? Why, God, do you want to jump steps in my case? You want the whole thing all at once: one’s whole heart, whole soul, whole mind – all my strength…
