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June Newsletter — Jun 6, 2009
In Dancing in the Water of Life, Thomas Merton writes:
“One lovely dawn after another. Such peace! Meditation with fireflies, mist in the valley, last quarter of the moon, distant owls – gradual inner awakening and centering in peace and harmony and love and gratitude.”
Do you recognize that feeling? It’s akin to Li-Young Lee’s in the poem “From Blossoms”:
“There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.”
Those joyful days lived from “blossom…to sweet impossible blossom” are days of grace. They come as pure gift and they also come, paradoxically, as the fruit of our careful cultivation. When we think we’re entitled to them, they slip between our fingers. They are not at our convenient beck and call, and we all go through times when they seem at best like a distant memory. When the feeling of blessing recedes, when we are immersed in cynicism, sarcasm, and our own up-welling negativity, the idea of gratitude can seem ridiculous or even infuriating. Then what? Life and career coach Michele Wahlder sympathizes with those moments and offers some strategies for working with them:
http://www.gratefulness.org/readings/grat_schmat.htm
Amongst her suggestions, Michele encourages you to keep your practice of gratefulness fresh and fun. Her ideas are reinforced in a new interview on the “Conversations” radio program, where Br. David Steindl-Rast talks about being in the here and now – Merton’s state of mind as he basks in each harmonious dawn – which allows you to be authentically grateful:
http://www.gratefulness.org/a/inthenews/index.htm
All great spiritual and philosophical traditions aim at this kind of consciousness, awakening to the present rather than being “caught up in the hamster wheel of the little ego.” It’s this larger scope of awareness which brings us into the spectrum of opportunities that make our lives meaningful. In his commencement address to the Class of 2009 at the University of Portland, Oregon, Paul Hawken observes, "What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world." This month’s Gratefulnews celebrates these people, who are awake to possibilities and work to restore Earth's well-being through art, creative housing initiatives, education, poetry, shared gardens, and much more:
http://www.gratefulness.org/gratefulnews/index.htm
These offerings to the world do not “just happen,” although they may be triggered suddenly and surprisingly into action after months or years of dreaming. One path towards building the inner stamina and sensitivity we need in order to live well is through the dynamic simplicity fostered by Quakers. A 40-day e-course offered by Spirituality and Practice has just begun, and it’s never too late to subscribe:
http://www.gratefulness.org/t/peace_links.htm
(Scroll down to “Links”: “Practicing Spirituality with Quakers.”) It’s always refreshing to consider the centrality of silence alongside the need for intelligent, compassionate action. Through silence and stillness we discover how to live as if we belonged to each other, as “The Monk and the Rabbi” video on Bokara Legendre’s television series describes:
http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/video.htm
“Only poetic language is strong enough” to carry the weight of speaking about our encounters with the ineffable. That’s why Merton and Li-Young Lee’s words convey to us a feeling that goes beyond words. That is also why the upcoming “Spirit, Soul, Mind, and Body” retreat (June 27-28) relies not just on words but on meditation, music, chanting, and prayer:
http://www.gratefulness.org/a/events.htm
Through your loving cultivation of a gratefulness practice using this wide array of tools, we wish you a rich experience of living “from joy to joy to joy,” more and more. Not only for yourself (because this joy is much greater than yourself!) but on behalf of all beings whose lives you touch.
In Gratefulness,
Patricia and Margaret
on behalf of our ANG*L Webteam
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