You can probably tell that Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Learning to Walk in the Dark, has really impacted me. I continue to think about what she says and this morning was struck by how much more intimate walking in the dark is. Relying on touch and smell and sound requires a closer more involved posture.
We touch someone as a show of affection, as a way to comfort and sometimes just to get their attention. Sounds seem crisper and clearer in the dark than in the light. Smells are intensified sending us unexpectedly into the joy and pleasure, or the despair and fear of memories past.
Walking in the dark also slows us down because we need to be more careful about where we place our feet. We are afraid to step in a hole or on a rock. We don’t want to stumble and fall down. Each step needs trust – trust in our instincts, trust in the one who made path we tread, and trust even in the benefits of stepping into the unknown.
No wonder Jacques Lusseyran, whom i talked about in yesterday’s post, found that negative emotions like fear and hate destroyed his ability to walk in the dark. No wonder love and joy and gratitude provided light by which he could walk in the the dark without stumbling.
How much struggle and pain do we create for ourselves because we want to get out of the dark. We look for the light at the end of the tunnel rather than looking for the light in the tunnel. In the process we increase our fears and anxieties.
I could not help but think about this as I read this article by Jack Levison about the impact of the shootings at Seattle Pacific University last year. Students and faculty walked through their grief in a healthy way, not allowing themselves to become isolated by fear. A couple of weeks ago they hosted Tent city, a group of Seattle’s homeless population. Jack comments:
What a tragedy it would have been, however, had we left grief behind and bowed to fear. SPU might have done that. SPU might have reconsidered their invitation to Tent City 3 and succumbed to misinformed and misguided questions: Who needs tent-dwellers ruining the grass of our lovely main quad? Who needs to be greeted by honey buckets and tarps and plywood floors squashing the mud of a Seattle winter? Who wants their college kids rubbing shoulders with drunks and drug addicts?
Jack believes that their ability to welcome and embrace this city of tent dwellers was partly because of their response to the shootings last year. They had indeed learned to walk in the dark and be illuminated by this special light.
So my question for all who feel they walk in darkness today is: How are you responding? Are you allowing fear and bitterness to obscure the light, or are you inviting the intimacy of God’s light to shine in the darkness?
My own meditations on this resulted in the following prayer:
Lord, let us learn to walk in the dark,
In the places where light is dim.
And we cannot see,
But must move slowly to not stumble.
Lord, let us learn to walk in the dark,
Attentive to touch and sound and smell.
Let us cherish the intimacy of your inner voice,
The gentle love of your presence,
Lord, let us learn to walk in the dark,
Where each step needs trust,
And it takes faith to move.
Behind us, before us, around us, inside us,
Let us learn to see the inner glow of your light.
Lent is only a month away and it is time to get ready. This season is not about giving up chocolate or T.V. It is about confronting our brokenness and embracing a life fully integrated with God’s will for restoration and wholeness.
Don’t be distracted by busyness, worry or work. If you live in the Seattle area we hope you will Stop Playing Games and join us for a day of reflection and creativity. I will once again facilitate this pre-Lent retreat.
Awaken the hunger within you for deeper intimacy with God. Experience a morning of reflection, contemplation and inspiration that will encourage you to journey toward our celebration of Christ’s resurrection with renewed focus and faith. Learn from the rich presentations and reflective insights how to deepen your prayer life, draw closer to God and become instruments of God’s healing and wholeness in our world.
In the afternoon get your creative juices flowing. Exercise the insights and skills you gained to create your own spiritual practices for Lent and Easter.
What: Stop Playing Games And Return to Our Senses For Lent
When: February 14th, 2015
Where: Union Church Kakao Cafe
415 Westlake Ave N,
Seattle, WA 98109
Full-Day: 9:30a.m. – 3:30p.m. Cost: $50.
Half-Day: 9:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. Cost: $30.
Includes lunch!
Facilitated by Christine Sine, Mustard Seed Associates
Hosted by Union Church
Yesterday’s post was inspired by my reading of Barbara Brown Taylor’s latest book Learning to Walk in the Dark an inspirational book in which she questions our tendency to associate all that is good with the light of day and all that is bad or evil with the darkness of night. She argues that we need to move away from our “solar spirituality” and ease our way into appreciating “lunar spirituality” (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes). Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God’s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most. Barbara explains:
The way most people talk about darkness, you would think that it came from a whole different deity, but no. To be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up. To want a life with only half of these things in it is to want half a life, shutting the other half away where it will not interfere with one’s bright fantasies of the way things ought to be. (55)
I have long been aware of how much more my own spiritual growth is accelerated by seasons of darkness. I know too that in the garden seeds germinate in the dark, and plants even grow more quickly at night then they do in the daytime. A rhythm of darkness, as I explained in a recent post Are You Getting Enough Sleep, is essential for us to function properly. And as I read Learning to Walk in the Dark I realized that it is even more essential than I thought.
I was particularly struck by the author’s recounting of the story Jacques Lusseyran, a blind French resistance fighter.
The problem with seeing the regular way, Lusseyran wrote, is that sight naturally prefers outer appearances. It attends to the surface of things, which makes it an essentially superficial sense. (105)
Our eyes skid over objects and glide quickly over things that we do not properly attend to. Being blind made him attentive to everything. And he noticed that when he was sad or afraid his inner light decreased. When he was joyful and attentive it returned. The best way to see the inner light was to love. In 1944 Lusseyran was captured by the Nazis and shipped to Buchenwald. He discovered that when he let himself become consumed with anger, he started running into or tripping over things. When he learned to love and live at peace with his circumstances, the inner light brightened and he could find his way without difficulty. As Lusseyran says:
If we could learn to be attentive every moment of our lives, he said, we would discover the world anew. We would discover that the world is completely different from what we had believed it to be. (106)
Learning to be attentive to all that is around us, is one of the challenges of life. Yet as Barbara Brown Taylor asks:
If you do not have the time to pay attention to an ordinary table, how will you ever find the time to pay attention to the Spirit? (106).
This has reinforced my desire to take time to notice. To run my hands over surfaces and allow them to speak to me. To listen to sounds that I usually ignore and hear what God would say through them. To inhale the aromas of God’s world and allow them to stir my spirit. This is my resolution for this year and this book has challenged me to pursue it.
I took this photo of the sun shining through the clouds from our prayer tower a couple of days ago. At first I was really frustrated because I could not get a clear view of it without the interfering cable, telephone and other wires that got in the way. I tried to zoom in but the image became fuzzy and unfocused. I thought of walking to a place where the wires no longer got in the way but I knew that by then the sun would have set.
I thought about doctoring the image on photoshop to get rid of the wires, but that seemed like cheating. These wires represent the infrastructure of our society. They carry electricity, and internet. They give us light and connectivity. They are as much a part of our landscape as the sun and the clouds are. They are there, and they are there to stay.
As I reflected on this I wondered: How often is my view of the sun obstructed by the framework of our society? How often is my view of God obscured by my connectivity and the work I give my time to?
Yes I know the clouds obscure the sun too, but, at least on the day I took the photos, the sun still shone through. The clouds added to the beauty of the sky, they did not detract from it. The wires, on the other hand, seemed ugly and out of place.
It is only when I pause to gaze on the beauty of God and God’s world that I also become aware of the ugly wires in my life that obscure my image of God. At other times they don’t even register on my consciousness.
This morning as I sit here reflecting on this I would like you to reflect on two questions with me:
What else that I don’t even notice, obstructs my view of God because I don’t take the time to gaze beyond it to the beauty of God?
Where has my image of God become unfocused because I have tried to ignore these obstructions?
What could Ido to change this?
Sleep an essential rhythm of life for all of us
It was a busy weekend. Saturday I took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island to spend the day with friends and Sunday Tom and I drove out to Camano Island after church to see his son West and then drove up to Bellingham to speak at a church. We arrived home after 9pm. Not late, but as our dog Bonnie had kept us up most of the previous night, we were really flagging and dragging by the time we got into bed. And yesterday I was not much better. As you can imagine, my head felt as though it was stuffed with cotton wool. Everything I did took twice the time I intended and I felt as though my brain had ceased functioning.
The reason I am writing this article today is not because I want your sympathy, but because for many of us sleeplessness is more a function of our lifestyle than anything else. And the problem is getting worse. A couple of days ago I read this interesting article Reading On A Screen Before Going to Bed May be Killing You.
You’ve heard that using screens before bedtime can mess with your sleep, but new research suggests the problem is even more serious.
Reading from an iPad before bed not only makes it harder to fall asleep, but also impacts how sleepy and alert you are the next day, according to new research fromBrigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, said the findings could impact anyone who uses an eReader, laptop, smartphone, or certain TVs before bed. Read the entire article
This was not good news for me because I love to read before I go to bed and reading on my tablet means I don’t disturb my husband.
Sleep is one of the essential rhythms of life. Many of us hate the 8 hours we need to spend in bed each day but without adequate sleep we soon cease to function properly, without any sleep, a condition that is fortunately fairly rare, we will soon die. There is even evidence that taking a siesta in the afternoon boosts our memory and cognitive functioning. There are many causes for sleeplessness from anxiety and depression to serious physical illness. Helpguide.org has some great suggestions for those who struggle regularly with insomnia, including some simple ways to diagnose what may be the underlying cause of the problem.
Lack of time outside in the sunlight, lack of time in the dark at night, lack of exercise, stress and the inability to relax our minds before we go to bed can all contribute to lack of sleep. I am concerned too that many of us reach for over the counter or prescription medicines before we even consider how the practices of our faith can help alleviate our symptoms.
So here are some thoughts on how faith practices can help us relax and enter into that sleep which is indeed a gift from God.
- In her article Christian Meditation – God’s Gift for Healthy Sleep Deborah Kukal talks about the important part that meditation on psalms can play in help us to relax and sleep. So when you’re struggling in the night, remember David’s words, and let God’s peaceful gift of meditation fill your soul with comfort, and your body with rest. read more
There are other Christian practices that can help too.
- Lectio divina and a reflective reading of scripture before we go to bed is a wonderful way to relax and go to sleep in the presence of God. Meditation and yoga are other practices that many people.
- The prayer of examen which helps us to review the day in the presence of God, encouraging us to leave the cares and worries we have encountered in God’s hands, is a wonderful way to end our waking hours. I have done this sporadically over the years and realize I need to reinstitute this practice.
- Breathing prayers which encourage us to breathe deeply and regularly can also be of great value. Evidently many of us spend most of our lives breathing too shallowly and deprive our lungs and other organs of the oxygen we need to remain healthy. More than that it can relieve anxiety, stimulate our immune system and even alleviate the symptoms of trauma. Read more. As you know I love to write breathing prayers and have found them to be wonderful tools for relaxing me.
- Centering prayers provide a way for all of us to sit in the contentment of the moment, shutting out the noise in order to focus completely on God. This is not a practice that comes easily or naturally to most of us which is probably an indication of the stress that we live under. If you don’t know much about this form of prayer I would heartily recommend Basil Pennington’s classic Centering Prayer to you.
- Prayer beads are, for many, a great stress reliever and can be a wonderful way to prepare yourself for sleep. You might like to design your own prayer to say with your beads before you go to retire for the night.
This week is garden planning week. Thursday evening a group of people will gather at the house to discuss our vegetable garden at the Mustard Seed House for the next year. It is a fun time but one that always gives me itchy fingers to get outside and enjoy God’s creation.
It is not only those of Christian faith who find a closeness to the divine presence through gardening. I have been updating some of my garden resources that I will post in the next few days and in the process came across some great resources from Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist traditions that I want to share with you.
Muslims Practicing Their Faith
Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh are organic farmers in Upstate New York have worked to create a community supported by their farm and other small businesses. They sell produce at farmers’ markets and also run a CSA from their farm. Their Muslim faith and Islamic laws guide food production and consumption as an article in Gastronomica explains:
The Qur’an categorically divides human action into acts that are either permissible (halal) or forbidden (haram), with some gray areas in between. At its most basic level, Islam decrees that all foods are permitted for human consumption except for those identified by the Qur’an as haram—namely, pork products, alcohol, illicit drugs, flowing (excess) or congealed blood, carnivorous animals with fangs, birds of prey, and the meat of animals and birds that have not been ritually slaughtered. The Kurdiehs believe that these tenets also encourage responsible steward-ship of the land and animals. Their farming techniques, carried out with considerable effort and soul-searching, are a logical extension of these precepts.
There is an additional, more-complicated Islamic principle that many the Kurdiehs and many devoted Muslims strive to follow. It is called tayyib, a word that translates as “good” or “pure.”
In order for a particular food to be considered tayyib, it must be created in a wholesome manner. Although the concept of tayyib far predates the emergence of industrialized agriculture and factory farms, it is clearly relevant to the present realities of the mainstream American food industry. According to Zaid, produce that has been sprayed with pesticides, for example, or harvested by poorly paid migrant workers, would not be tayyib. Neither would fast-food cheeseburgers or sodas filled with high-fructose corn syrup and preservatives.
Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, who farm some of the least fertile land on the continent, have developed a training manual The Islamic Farming toolkit, to encourage more sustainable farming practices among millions of African Muslims facing a threat to their food security from climate change. It is well worth reading.
Jews Practicing Their Faith
The Jewish Community Gardening Collective is a project of the Farm at Pearlstone aimed at brining together and facilitating the creation of Jewish community gardens around Baltimore. They have published a very helpful guide, Jewish Gardening Resource Manual, which explains:
Gardening is a distinctly Jewish act. The echoes of God’s command to Adam (Gen. 2:15) “l’shomrah u’lovdah” (to guard/till and work/tend) resound through the generations as a call to remember that adam is inextricably linked to adamah. As Jews, we strive to cultivate an awareness and ultimately a practice that recognizes that “the land is God’s; [we are but] strangers and sojourners with God” (Leviticus 25:23). Through gardening, we learn to care for God’s planet, to recognize that Creation is a gift to be blessed and shared. Our tradition provides ritual, blessings, liturgy, holidays, and mitzvoth that connect us with the sacred rhythms of Creation and its Author.
Jewish community gardening is the marriage of the universal and unique aspects of tending a piece of land. A garden is a gathering- place, a home for community-building, and an expression of our deepest values. A Jewish community garden is a hands-on classroom to teach about Judaism’s relationship to Creation. The education may consist of lessons on tzedakah, brachot, t’filah, bal tashchit, or the agricultural roots of the Hebrew calendar. A Jewish community garden is a laboratory, an experimental, experiential test- ing ground for Jewish engagement, identity building, and relationship forming. Reach out to your neighbor, your students, your family, and dig deeply, for surely you will uncover hidden treasures.
I also recently came across this Jewish Children’s Garden Curriculum developed by the staff of Shalom Children’s Center at the Asheville Jewish Community Center. The authors explain:
For young children, the very hands-on activity of gardening is one way to make the quite abstract concepts of the Torah, holidays, and the calendar come alive. Showing them a sheaf of wheat or an etrog, or even growing these in your school garden, will tangibly connect them to Passover and Sukkot.
The curriculum is rich with ideas and projects for children of all faith traditions.
There are a number of Jewish communities that across the United States that grow gardens. A few examples include:
- Ekar: Community Urban Farm and Garden in Denver Colorado.
- The Jewish Farm School which teaches about contemporary food and environmental issues through innovative trainings and skill-based Jewish agricultural education.
- Eden Village Camp in New York State, is a living model of a thriving, inspired, sustainable Jewish community, grounded in social responsibility and vibrant spiritual life.
Buddhists and Gardening
The first book I read on spirituality and gardening that inspired me was Gardening at Dragon’s Gate by Wendy Johnson, who has meditated and gardened for more than 30 years at the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, located near Muir Beach, California. In addition to its Zen training program, the center also manages an organic farm and gardens. Formal Zen meditation and training is the foundation of community life at Green Gulch Farm, and is an integral part of the Farm and Garden Apprenticeship Programs.
Wendy Johnson explains:
In some many ways meditation practice is like gardening. Very garden comes alive in the mind of the gardener. By investigating your land, and the plants you love and know so well in your garden, you come to know the heart and mind of your place, and your own heart and mind as well. When you select your favourite tools and begin to shape the ground, in this digging and cultivating, the garden shapes you. Eventually, you free your heart and mind from what you think you know and prefer, and in this work you also free the true heart and mind of your garden. (63)
This video on how to create a Zen style meditation garden is also very interesting, not just for an insight into Zen gardens but for any of us who love creating meditation spaces in our gardens.
If you are interested in being a part of the Mustard Seed House garden team here in Seattle over the coming year – with an opportunity to learn more about gardening organically, a chance to share the produce and enjoy good fellowship with other gardeners, please let me know.
This is photo is of the peace candle in my Advent garden. The full word peace is obscured, the leaf behind is splattered with red wax – a little like blood. I could not help but think of that this morning as I read about the terrorist attacks in France and grieved with the victims and their families.
As the Christmas season, the season of “peace on earth” ends, we are very aware that the peace we long for in the coming of Christ is not fully realized in any part of our world. Hopefully that does not stop us longing for it, and working towards it.
Like so many of us I enter the day with a heavy heart for the victims of violence and the fear it leaves behind.
This first prayer was written by my friend John Birch as he thought of Paris but was aware too aware that in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and other countries such deaths are all too frequent.
Loving God, we pray
for those whose lives
have been cut short
by acts of violence
fuelled by hatred
or religious zeal,
and the individuals
who perpetrate
such horrific acts.
May those who mourn
for loved ones lost
feel the warmth
of your compassion,
and those who rejoice
at such loss of life
meet face to face
the one true God
and understand
the difference
that love can make.
©John Birch, faithandworship.com
—————————————–
The second prayer here is one that I wrote this morning as I thought about the terrorist attacks in France and all the other places of the world that face continual turmoil and unrest. I am very aware of the inadequacy of our words and of the mixture of grief, fear and anxiety that events like this instill in us. Resting in the presence of God, and allowing God’s love to flow through us to those who are victims of these situations is often the best that we can do.
God who weeps, God who mourns, God who comforts,
Weep in us, mourn with us, comfort through us.
God who lives, God who cares, God who loves,
Live in us, care with us, love through us.
God who heals, God who transforms, God who brings peace,
Heal in us, transform with us, bring peace through us,
make all things new through us.
Let all you have created be made new,
In us, with us, through us.
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