The Wonder and Connectedness of It All!

Most every day there is available from Richard Rohr a daily thought, prayer, meditation. It comes from the Center For Action and Contemplation. It is sometimes more impactful than others but they are all good. The address is http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/ . Of late I've been riding my bike on the path along Bear Creek. It is a good form of exercise but is also very connected to the birds, butterflies and all in the wetlands. And yes the other bugs and pollen as well. Everytime I find a butterfly in my path I remember the 100 or so we released at Sherita's memorial. A great example of trancendance and connectedness of nature and spirit and our human nature. Several of Richard's tidbits are especially lush statements of this reality as well. I will quote a few of them here but I will suggest signing up for his insights on a regular basis.

"Nature itself is the primary Bible; the world "as is" is the primary locus of the sacred.
Notice that Paul is not saying that Revelation started when the Bible was written. No, revelation started at the moment of creation, what we now call the Big Bang; and the primary Bible is reality, what is! The written Bible has only existed in a nanosecond of geologic history, and a very small part of human history.
Do you really think God had nothing to say until the last nanosecond--that God was completely quiet until we wrote the Bible? And we did. I'm not saying that it isn't inspired, but we wrote it, so we are more at home with something we wrote than with what God wrote in creation.
We are given a natural way to reconnect with God every day in creation. And it doesn't depend on getting a degree in philosophy or theology. It depends on being present!" (The Soul, The Natural World, and What Is, R.Rohr).

Of course, as with most things, there is a need for balance. There is no question, in my opinion, that the cognative reflection inherant in the areas of Language, Symbology, Art and Music truely are the most obvious traits we possess as being created "in the image of God". In his latest book, Falling Upward, Richard relates the balance between the two "halves" of life as being the best goal of a transcending being. I am begining to see that on a larger scale that transcendance could be in the offering for the whole of the human race. Maybe with the grace of God one day soon may see that tipping point toward a more Loving relationship with all beings within creation!

In another "Daily Meditation" Richard speaks of another philosopher, Bill Plotkin..."speaks of the first half of life as doing our "survival dance". The second half of life can then become our "sacred dance". Most of us never get beyond our survival dance to ask the deep concerns of the soul (we are too busy "saving" our souls, whatever that means!"....Come Sacred Come! I attended the screening of a new movie called "The Journey of The Universe" this past weekend. Very good movie but stopped short of delving into the more spiritual implications of creation. Well worth the viewing however. One speaker at the showing mentioned what should have been obvious to me. He broke down the word Philosophy into its roots of Love and Wisdom. The Love of Wisdom. Way better than most of the reliances we seem to have to the various "ologies" out there. Butterflies are beautiful but wouldn't be here with out the Caterpiller and Pupa stages. :O) RV

The Mystical Nature of the Ego!

This is really a very important post for me to make. In a fashion this is really the crux of all that I've been trying to get to in this journal/blog. The nature of the ego is really at the center of the best and worst of our journey as human beings transcending to our divine nature within the image of God. We have started looking at the latest book by Fr Richard, Falling Upward. At the inception it seems that this is a book to support his talks and balance between the two halves of life. I am beginning to see that this communication actually goes far deeper into our human nature and how we must balance to move onward to transcendence. It may be applied to the Young and the Old, the Male and Female, our past Cultural and Religious History and Our Future. The picture attached to this post is that of a "Black Pearl". I try to find a picture for each of these inputs which will be "worth a thousand words". I found several in this computers archive including complex and beautiful flowers, butterflies, a French "Formal" Garden, and Gandhi. May not all seem to be related but I saw a message in each which points to the beauty and mystery of this pilgrims path we all find ourselves upon. A pearl is a very interesting gift of God. At first it is "merely" a mollusk in the sea. When it acquires an irritant within then it "transcends" into a prized jewel. Kind of a cool metaphor for the transcendence of a person into recognizing his or her divine nature within the kingdom of God. It follows after the failure or fall or irritation knocks us off our old ego driven mode of operation. Interesting that Sheritas middle name is Pearl.
The healthy balance of our necessary self image and confidence counterbalanced with a servants or stewards attitude of service to all of creation is really what we are all faced with on our path. We need both expressions of life but when one dominates to the exclusion of the other is when we spin out of balance, and miss the mark. Another name for sin.
The past few months have seen several momentous events in this ol life of mine. With Gods Grace I will learn from them. We have moved into some new books of the Emergent framework. I'm feeling an interesting correlation between Brians and Richards work relating to the connection of two, or more, phases of life. Richard has delved very nicely into the shared mystical nature of God espoused by many of the world spiritual leaders. And the degree to which we can appreciate that symbiosis is directly related to the level of spiritual atunement with which we have been blessed and awoken too. I choose to say atunement as opposed to the word achievement. I hope that the word atune hearkens toward recognizing an existence already there as opposed to the word achieve with hearkens toward something I'm doing. A big difference. One of Brians books ""A Generous Orthodoxy" approached, in my opinion, the same phenomenon, a mystical symbiosis, from the perspective of our "religious" history. Both of these gentlemen look at the past as being a necessary step of progress in our growth as humans. A past to be learned from, not condemned. I am feeling that Richards "Falling Upward" to be expressing such a growth in the personal life as compared to our cultural transcendence.
My eldest Daughter and her husband are expecting a boychild in October of this year, on my birthday as a matter of fact. Very cool. As a parent, I am of the opinion that having and raising a child is probably one of the most effective ways in which we as humans have the opportunity to learn stewardship, subjugation of the ego, and a firsthand appreciation of the "divine DNA" available in all of creation.
This month has also marked the graduation from SOU of my other daughter. A time of much joy and some stress as well. I am very proud of her accomplishment and movement onward. I started to say the next couple of sentences to her but chose not to as this was one of those necessary ego moments. A time of graduation is akin to a time of transcendence from ego to expansion. June 11th was all about you, but also marks your movement into a bigger Us. Even if transcendence is initiated usually by "Great Love or Great Suffering,(Fr Richard)" it can occur at a relatively young age and in increments. I recall with joy that this is the same daughter who made the reflection about the public demeanor after Osama Ben Laudens death. Happy Summer to All! Pax Christi! RV