A "Busy," "Normal" Weekend

You know how sometimes you experience moments, and they almost feel "normal." Like a moment that you would have experienced before March 2020. This weekend had a touch of that.

On Saturday we heard an excellent presentation on contemplation and grief. When I say "excellent," I mean, it was the kind of material that one works with for the rest of her life. One of the lines that I wrote down and will contemplate for a while was:

I have to believe that I can never have an experience apart from God.

Today we listened in on Zoom as our sister, Joan, spoke on the theme of beauty to inaugurate a lecture series on Art and Spirituality sponsored by the Pucker Gallery, where much of the pottery collection of Brother Thomas, who was an artist-in-residence in our community, is located.

Today, in the mild, about 50-degree weather, I even gave a haircut to one of my sister's outside!

Last night, in our Lenten vigil reflections, we heard about "sacred encounters" as this weekend's gospel was the Transfiguration. Our sister who reflected reminded us, so simply and wonderfully, that all experiences have the potential to be a sacred encounter with the present moment, with the Divine.

I have to believe that I can never have an experience apart from God, indeed.

This weekend was full of those holy moments. I hope you had a few, too.

Blessings as we continue on this journey.

Let us walk in the holy presence.

Our squirrel friend is usually not so still and centered while on the feeder pole.

He's usually an acrobat! In this moment, a Zen master! Goals.

In-between, yet again

I was indulging in some winter self-care the other morning, a February necessity. Sure, there are thoughts and memories of spring, but not yet any visible signs presenting themselves in nature. We are straddling that space—the in-between of winter and spring, as the feast we celebrated on the first day of this month, Imbolc, reminds us. Imbolc marks winter's midpoint, and it is also the Feast Day of St. Brigid of Kildare, that wonderful woman saint who you'll remember by her miracle where she turned water into beer.

I've made it pretty clear that winter is not my strong suit, but I am trudging through. I haven't been outside yet today, or checked any official measurements, but by simply looking out the window, it seems as though last night's storm wasn't as bad as predicted here in Erie. We pray for those in the south and midwest going through major power outages and conditions very much unseasonable even by winter standards in those areas.

The other day I smiled when I looked at the "divider," as we call it here at the monastery (it divides the dining room and community room), and saw this very visible reminder that we are in-between winter and spring...a poinsettia and a daffodil! Ha! Yes, there is snow outside, but it is no longer completely dark as we leave evening prayer these days.

We are on the way.

Let us walk in the holy presence.

Some Thoughts on The Words of Jesus

During quarantine I have been reading Pema Chodron’s When Things Fall Apart with my friend. We have spent time talking about the relationship between the Buddhist teachings found in the book and the teachings of our Christian faith. After reading a particularly challenging chapter, my friend, summing up what we read, used her own words to quote Jesus:

“Drop everything and follow me.”

Or, as Matthew 19, verse 21 says: “‘If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to poor people, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.’”

Jesus doubles down on what it means to follow the call of Christ. We heard it just last week in the first chapter of Mark (vv. 17-18): “Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me; I will make you fishers of humankind.’ They immediately abandoned their nets and followed Jesus.” And again in chapter 9 of Luke (v. 3): “Jesus told them, ‘Take nothing for the journey, neither walking staff, nor traveling bag, nor bread, nor money. Don’t even take a change of clothes.’”

In other words, “Drop everything and follow me.”

The reason these words left me astounded was in the connection to Pema’s writing. When I think of dropping everything to follow Jesus, I think of dropping my possessions, my agenda, maybe the physical proximity of relationships I treasure.

Pema says the way to inner freedom is through an embrace of the three truths of our existence: impermanence, suffering, and egolessness. Impermanence in every regard: of our emotions, of the present moment, impermanence even of our suffering. Nothing—not the good, or the bad, the happy or the sad, or the labels we put on any of it—lasts. Because of this, we can practice relaxing with what’s in front of us because it’s going to pass. We can practice embracing and then dropping it all: our emotions, our current realities, and especially our judgments about it all. When we are able to drop the moment, recognizing that its very nature is to come and go, we experience freedom and peace. Simple, right? Needless to say, this has been very important pandemic reading.

Our Christian dharma says that freedom comes from following and living the arc of Jesus’ life with him. Egolessness, suffering, and impermanence, by other words, are the way of humility and resurrection. The way to follow Christ is to let go. But, this isn’t just about dropping my possessions, or letting go of whatever I’m doing. To truly follow Christ I have to drop so much more, and it’s really hard stuff to drop. I have to be willing to drop my grudges, my sense of security, my view of right and wrong, my expectations, and even the things that make me happy and feel good. In that letting go, I will find a very tender openness that readies me to welcome what comes next.

In that emptiness, I have to be able to hold everything ever-so-loosely and let go even of the things I love. Haven’t we learned that over and over again this past year? All we have is the present moment. And we gracefully drop that so the next moment might arise in us unhindered by our expectations and our ego. We let life resurrect, and in turn, we find that we ourselves are doing the same.

Isn’t this the way of Christ—humility and resurrection? Isn’t that the faith we profess to live?

Drop everything and follow Jesus.

Let us walk in the holy presence.

*Bible verses quoted from The Inclusive Bible.