Finding what you need

I've been trying to get here all week. I'm headed to Canterbury, NH this morning, and it may mean I'm late to arrive at my own meetinghouse for the "work day" that's also necessary. I can't be any good for the rest of the weekend unless I've been here.

This week for me has been all about continuing to learn where I fit in, what I am called to do, and how I can best serve where led. It's often in terms of other people. Today, in a non-selfish way, it must be about me for the morning. The rest of the good work will happen, in the company of others. But first I'm led to just listen......

Howard Zinn - "The Holy Wars"

I am hoping to see Howard Zinn speak on Nov 11th at BU. He is simply my hero. I have never heard him live.

The foundation of any culture resides in the way it answers the question

"Where do reality and power reside?"

For some cultures the answer is the gods,

for some it is nature; for some it is tradition"

Parker Palmer

Listening to leadings.....

I've been very busy trying not to be so busy. In an excellent twist of events, NEYM's feed sent this message to me today:

What a wonder this Divine Presence is..... Am I awake enough to really be aware.... Of the deepness..... Where am I being led?

I think being "awake" has many meanings for us today. I see a morning scramble for the coffee pot in my work life, and my home life as well. Always "on the go", fulfilling the needs, keeping things up and "running".

The kind of "awake" I require now is a calmer one. An awareness preceded by a necessary emptiness. I need to make room to be filled with whatever comes my way of true importance.

I have been often slowed, come to a grinding halt in fact these days. Sometimes a simple comment, a simple moment brings me back into a reality that I was not expecting, or even quite comfortable with. But the connections I see, the community that is forming, the ways in which I interact with others are only able for me to see if I have space in which to let them reside.

"And now I began to have openings, leading to the ministry, and this brought on close exercise and deep travail of spirit. For although I had for some time spoken to business in monthly and preparative meetings, yet the prospect of opening my mouth in public meetings brought me a renewed and close trial. Yet, I endeavoured to keep my mind quiet and resigned to the heavenly call - if it should be made clear to me to be my duty.

Nevertheless, when soon after as I sitting in a meeting in much weightiness of spirit, a prospect opened and a secret, though clear, intimation attended to speak a few words that were then given to me to utter. Fear so prevailed that I did not yield to the motion, for which, I felt close rebuke and judgment seemed for some time to cover my mind.

But, as I humbled myself under his mighty hand, he again lifted up the light of his countenance upon me and enabled me to renew covenant with him, that if he would pass by this my offense, I would in future be faithful if he should again open the way therefor. And it was not long after when I was again moved to express a few words, which I yielded to in great fear and dread.

But O the joy and sweet consolation that my soul experienced as a reward for this act of faithfulness! And as I continued persevering in this duty and this watchfulness, I witnessed an increase in divine knowledge and an enlargement in my gift.

- "The Life, Exercises, and Experience of Elias Hicks"

Iraq Today

Caretake This Moment

Caretake this moment.
Immerse yourself in its particulars.
Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.

Quit the evasions.
Stop giving yourself needless trouble.
It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
You are not some disinterested bystander.
Exert yourself.

Respect your partnership with providence.
Ask yourself often, How may I perform this particular deed
such that it would be consistent with and acceptable to the divine will?
Heed the answer and get to work.

When your doors are shut and your room is dark you are not alone.
The will of nature is within you as your natural genius is within.
Listen to its importunings.
Follow its directives.

As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life.
No great thing is created suddenly.

There must be time.

Give your best and always be kind.

~ Epictetus ~


I have a way opening up into a path that's still pretty murky and confusing and I'm not sure how it all fits. A leading, though, for sure. This poem ended up in my morning. Paying attention.