#1 Spiritual nakedness
Lay your burden
at the feet of Christ.
Give yourself
unto me.
With
those words murmured into my heart during worship, I was able to begin to truly
surrender. I have been moving toward this process since June, when Spirit
commanded me to lay down on a pew in a Meeting that wasn't my own and
surrender.
Sunday, I did lay my troubles at
Jesus' feet and gave the rest to God. Suddenly, I felt jolted awake, really
awake. A golden light invaded me and I experienced a wonderful lightness. For
me, this is surrender.
And, I believe I must do it every
day. Every, single one.
#2 Please, use my brokenness
I awoke
with a new prayer on my lips and in my heart yesterday:
Please, use my brokenness.
Certainly, I have prayed for
healing and for God to use me, but never to use my brokenness. Before the words
formed, there was an image of a mosaic, specifically the cement binding all of
the broken pieces together and I knew that's where God, silently and
mysteriously, resides. If I can admit that I am I pieces and give them to God,
then something transformative can happen. Nothing of my own volition can make
this change. I have to totally surrender and let God work.
Am I brave enough for that
surrender?
Full text: http://salonforthesoul.blogspot.com/2011/11/please-use-my-brokenness.html
Full text: http://salonforthesoul.blogspot.com/2011/11/please-use-my-brokenness.html
#3 Present in the midst
FRIDAY
Driving
home from Cleveland, I noticed a peaceful patch of woods and longed to be
there, out in Nature and away from the artificiality of the hospital.
SATURDAY
I so craved Mother Nature to
recover from the week. After peaking outside, I knew my recovery meant getting
out there.
SUNDAY
As I sat in worship, soaking in the
sacredness, someone smelling of soap and sausage plopped next to me. Permeated,
I reluctantly opened my eyes to my friend Patia. "I thought you could use
an angel," she said as she kissed my cheek and offered her hand.
MONDAY
Hurriedly walking to yoga, then
catching the silken sky reminded me of how much more there is to life than my
current obsessions. "Lift me out of my littleness," I murmured as a
prayer.
WEDNESDAY
In my sacred, Quaker Meetinghouse,
joyfully finalizing details for a workshop on sacred pain with a beloved
partner, I spot a voicemail message. My father says my mother has been moved
out of the ICU. THANK YOU, I sing and dance.
THURSDAY
I sink my teeth back into centering
prayer, almost strangled by the phrase "the end of time.” Not end of the
world or humanity, but the end of time. I live so constrained by
time. Pushed and rushed. What would it be like to live outside of time? To do
and act when Divinely inspired?
FRIDAY
My youngest wakes up sick and I am
anxious about bringing my mom back next week. The anxiety mounts. I remind
myself that I've had a few terrific days making spiritual connections. That I
have felt God present and that she will figure all of this out. The burden is
not mine.
Oh yeah, I remember.
#4 A Quaker considers gunsI really do wonder how Jesus would handle this. I think he'd take a deeper look at society and see where we are failing and demand we fix it. First, however, he'd probably walk up, unarmed, to the shooter taking his chances and look him in the eye, witnessing his wholeness and goodness, not just the evil he projects. After all, the shooter is as much a child of God as his victims.
My heart is not legislated by human
law, but by Spirit’s. Life is about constantly dying; none of it is easy. Dying
from our ego and into Divine union. I do not fear death; to me it’s the
ultimate surrender. Of course, I don’t wish to die violently, at the hands of a
shooter, but my prayer would be that I could look that person in the eye and
see that of God in them.
Maybe if that had happened once,
the shooter would not even have a gun.
Full text: http://salonforthesoul.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-quaker-considers-guns.html#5 Surrender as a gift
Spiritual
gifts, a topic near and dear to me, have been on my mind and heart as I read
and prepare for a full-day retreat on an annual Quaker renewal day.
Of course, I have plenty of play
planned. Play that gets us out of our heads and into our hearts, where we may
better discern our gifts and those of others. The person who can look inside
and see it all clearly is in the minority. Most of us need encouragement and
nurture from each other.
"It is the faith community's
responsibility to name giftedness of its members because we cannot see
ourselves clearly," Lloyd Lee Wilson writes in Essays on the Quaker
Vision of Gospel Order.
When that happens it “frees the
individual from fear, hesitation and caution,” according to Quaker Marty Grundy,
who also taught me that the burden of translation, when listening deeply,
prayerfully, to another is on the listener. I call it listening by heart,
beyond the words and to the other person's heart.
Perhaps seeing gifts in another is
a similar process. A looking beyond the surface, deeper, to that place God
resides in each of us.
#6 At odds with God
For Pete’s sake, I’ve been
discerning your message from June asking me to surrender. I can’t even be clear
on that with the help of a clearness committee. First it seemed I was to
give up the rigidity of the fibromyalgia. But it got worse, not better. And, in
this time, I have discovered healing energy in my hands, even consciously used
them on another. Now I understand my propensity to touch someone when they are
hurting. Do I surrender to this?
Next I thought it was about
direction and vocation. Now it seems more about finance and livelihood. I keep
reading about the path of descent making one holier and more pure. I tire of
that path. I don’t know anyone else on it. It’s lonely and painful.
Full text: http://salonforthesoul.blogspot.com/2013/10/at-odds-with-god.html
#7 Other side of grace
Three
days ago I felt tested, much like my Quaker friend Patia described about her
own life Sunday. "God tests those closest to him," she'd said.
So it was with surprise and
gratitude I responded to my 13-year-old's request to walk the local labyrinth.
I couldn't help noticing how much each quadrant of the sacred pathway resembled
a section of the brain. Perhaps this is why a walking meditation works so well
for me – it quiets my mind, I surmised.
A tapping webinar I stumbled onto
demonstrated how this process can release the body from its frozen state
between fight or flight in the amygdala, the part of the brain that the
labyrinth mimics, and trigger relaxation.
So relaxed and unfrozen, I
encountered a friend who practices healing touch. "You have the
gift," she told me after experiencing it. "Yes," I replied,
"when I can get myself out of the way” which, she admitted, was the
challenge. She encouraged asked me to center and place my hands on her injured
ribs. I felt the surge again and so did she. We just stood there touching each
other tenderly.
"This is what real
connection means, doesn't it?" I finally asked, breaking the silence.
"Yeah it really
is. I felt things settle, what did you feel?"
"The energy, but I
also saw green."
"Love," she said
with a smile.
"The heart
chakra," I chimed in.
Wounded healers, we agreed.
Full text: http://salonforthesoul.blogspot.com/2013/09/other-side-of-grace.html
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