Grasping for Gratitude

Sometimes life can be overwhelming,
and it can feel that we are rowing
against the current of a stormy sea.
Focus on the far horizon,
not on the waves.

There are some who believe that what we focus on and think about becomes our reality, and that our "thoughts become things." Sometimes I am one of them. Sometimes not so much. Lately it's hard to know what to think, and easy to confuse cause and effect, or to know for sure whether there is any relationship between thoughts and events at all. During weeks like this one I certainly hope not, because it does not bode well for the human race if we do not gain control of our thoughts and change what we think about.

Of course in simple terms I'm talking about prayer (as if prayer itself isn't complicated). I mean, what is prayer other than focused thought on a desired outcome? Jesus taught us to pray, as well as how to pray. He said that where two or more are gathered "in his name" he would be among them, suggesting that collective prayers are more powerful than individual prayers. 

There is a group of modern day scientists who would say that there is physical evidence to back up that claim. Their suggestion is that a thought actually has mass, and (as I hope we all learned in high school science classes) anything with mass exerts a gravitational force on other objects, however small. While a grain of sand does not have much mass, nor much gravitational force to exert, the moon has so much mass and such a powerful gravitational force that it influences the tides of the entire planet Earth.

Noetic science would suggest that while one thought may not have much power to affect noticeable change in the world, many thoughts focused on the same outcome may indeed have the power to affect noticeable change. (If you would like to learn more about noetic science, go to the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) website and check it out. I am not submitting it here as something that you should or should not believe, but it is intriguing to consider the possibilities. However, that is not what this particular blog entry is about, per se.)

What this blog entry is about is this: I became alarmed this week at what I perceive to be a rising level of insanity in the world, particularly in the United States (behaviors over which we do have control and can change, but seem to choose not to); and on the tail of this observation the 8.9 earthquake in Japan followed immediately by the most horrific devastation I have ever witnessed in video news coverage. It seemed to me to be a lot of horror to take in within such a short period of time.

To recap: our own federal legislature attempting to strip Americans of a hard-won victory for human rights by attempting to repeal our newly passed health care reform legislation; followed by oppression in Egypt resulting in the deaths of many citizens, on the heels of a similar situation in Tunisia, followed by another in Libya; followed by an American state governor attempting to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights and their hard earned benefits (for which they pay entirely with no input from tax payers--this seems like outright robbery to me); in the midst of a steady and growing attack on public school teachers that has been escalating on the part of the federal government and the American public for several years, now; followed by the incomprehensible gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, Texas, where the rapists are the ones receiving the sympathy because they will have to live with what they have done, while the girl is blamed for causing the rape; followed by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on Friday. There is more, but those are the events that seemed to me to come together all at once and cause a serious amount of disquiet in my soul, and from what I can tell, the collective American psyche as well.

This disquiet showed up on my own Facebook Wall, as I felt moved to share article after article on the various crazy-making topics. It also showed up in my Facebook News Feed as my friends apparently felt the same imperative.  I've had the flu for about 10 days, so my daily gratitude statements went unposted; but all the while I was finding the energy to post these news articles about the human species and the planet we live on going absolutely crazy.

One does not need to believe that noetic science is operating on a solid theoretical footing to postulate that human beings are not in their right collective mind when the world is going that mad. One need only to believe in the power of prayer--it would be easy to surmise that at the very least the praying people of the world are not holding the forces of evil at bay by gathering together to gratefully express our thanks to the Universe for our miraculous and inexplicable existence, and to endeavor to evolve into a more compassionate race of good stewards of the earth's resources. We could easily do something to change that.

Will you join me in focusing your thoughts on the reality you would like to create? If your temptation is to say "no" because you don't believe in such, I would implore you to look at the people in this country who do believe in the power of prayer, the ones who call themselves things like "the Christian right" and "the Moral Majority"--they dofighting against these people, instead of joining with others who think like you do in a peaceful collective action of positive meditation on the improvement of the human condition for all, then I ask you to reconsider. The majority of American people who have no compunction about bowing their heads in prayer seem to be winning the "war" on compassion, peace, and justice.

So will you join me? It only takes a few moments of focused thought each day to create a landslide, a tsunami (if you will) of positive change in the world. I hope you will join me. Start right now: I am grateful for all of the good that is in the world, and all of the good that is in people, and all of the good that we will do together, and all of the positive change we will will create. And I am grateful for you. 

What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet." 

--Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene ii, verses 1-2

This morning I read a short blurb on the NPR website entitled New Bible Updates Language; 'Booty' Falls By Wayside. Apparently the Old Testament is getting a language upgrade in the next edition of the New American Bible: "booty" and "virgin" are falling by the wayside in favor of "spoils of war" and "young woman." Other old-time-religion favorites didn't fall victim to the editor's red pen, however--"he" will still be the preferred pronoun reference for God, traditional die-hards will no doubt be pleased to know. 

Does it make a difference whether we use "booty" or "spoils of war" to describe plunder (which is that to which both terms refer)? I suppose it depends on the reader. 

This reader thinks language is important, but for different reasons. I still prefer my New Jerusalem Bible translation, as well as my New King James Version (NKJV) to the more modern translations, because there is a kind of poetry in those books that gets at the original writers'/translators' interpretation, from the points of view within the times and locales in which they did the writing. 

This is important to me, because I do not read the Bible from a "this is God's word, delivered point-to-point directly from Heaven, conveniently shrink-wrapped, to bookstores everywhere on Earth" point of view. I read the Bible as a collection of sacred stories passed down from generation to generation of ancient humans, no doubt orally at first, until it was finally written down (at which point it ceased to evolve and keep up with the Universe as we understand it today).

These stories are important to me, because they help me to understand where we humans have been, and that the same questions and problems which confront me every day are not as insurmountable as I can sometimes make them out to be. Reading the Bible reminds me that others who have gone before me were faced with the same moral and ethical dilemmas, and questions of identity which I am continuously sorting out. This is a great comfort to me because the stories remind me that I am not alone in the Universe; there are forces at work greater than me which have guided humankind and all living things through millions of years of evolution. It is also a comfort to me to know that I am not the first person to make the kinds of mistakes that humans are so particularly prone to making, and that others have made those same mistakes, learned from them, and gotten on with their lives, which reminds me that redemption is possible for me, too. 

So, for whatever reason you may read the Bible, if "spoils of war" works better for you than "booty," and if "young woman" works better for you than "virgin," then good for you--the The New American Bible is probably the right book for you. But I'll stick with my antiquated New Jerusalem Bible and New King James Version for the poetry of the human experience. It's all the same to the Universe, anyhow. 

His Eye Is On The Sparrow

I've been feeling decidedly NOT spiritual lately, chafing against too many irritations and inconveniences to mention, none of which should matter in the big scheme of things. The good news: I noticed that I was feeling decidedly not spiritual, and made a mental note to be more conscious and focused on the NOW. At one point last week I woke up with a seriously stressful issue on my mind in the early morning, and having previously made a mental note to be more conscious and focused on the NOW, and also having made note of the fact that I was feeling very not spiritual, I spontaneously entered into the Lord's Prayer as soon as I awoke with the stressful issue already at the forefront of my mind.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....I've been reading a terrific book for about two years now, in roughly three minute increments on the John (my apologies to all of my friends and family who share the name of the seat of my private morning "meditations" ;-). I'm about halfway through it. It is not intended to be a devotional book (I don't think), but Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World has turned out to be just that. Michael Dowd's writing has been a great comfort and validation of my spiritual evolution from what he calls "flat earth religion" to a Christianity that is in tune with the current scientific information available on the workings of the Universe and the world. I highly recommend this book, and will likely write more about it in upcoming blogs. I digress....

Because of the validation I've experienced through Michael Dowd's book, as I began praying the Lord's Prayer (a verse of scripture I've known by heart since I was a pre-schooler), I felt perfectly comfortable interpreting the Lord's Prayer in my own mind in language that fits with my evolved understanding of Jesus' teachings: "Our Father who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name (great and mysterious Universal Whole, wondrous beyond my comprehension, I trust and revere your incomprehensible perfection). Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (though you and your mysteries are incomprehensible to me, I trust your perfection and open myself to the possibility that all can be made right in the end, and my stressful situation will work out for my good, and the good of all others involved). Give us this day our daily bread (thank you for a Universe of plenty and abundance), and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors (thank you for being bigger than my mistakes and shortcomings, and give me the grace to overlook the shortcomings and mistakes of others). Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (I thank you for not being the Cosmic Kill Joy, trust that you are interested in my success and well being, and am grateful for providing me with positive alternatives in every situation). For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. (I submit myself to the natural laws of the Universe and your infinite perfection, and acknowledge that I am but a small part of an infinitely greater whole.)"

That was the most peacefully and naturally I have prayed in...well....a long, long time. I not only felt at peace; I was at peace. The stressful situation left my mind (really), and I got on with my day. That was Saturday morning, about 6:00am.

Later, around 10:00am, my husband returned from walking the dog with a little sparrow cupped in his hands. He normally just takes the dog down to the place where he takes care of his "business" and comes straight back. But this morning he stopped by his truck to check on something. When he did, there was a little sparrow lying beside the truck, conscious but not moving. He picked him up and brought him inside to warm up and get himself together, assuming the poor thing had flown into the window of the truck and stunned itself.

I haven't had anything that might fall into the category of "supernatural" happen to me in a long, long time. In fact, I think this is one of the things that was causing me to feel not spiritual. This, of course, is merely a case of misunderstanding the relationship of cause and effect--feeling follows behavior, not the other way around. When I saw that little sparrow, helpless and stunned, I was forced in that moment to admit to myself that I had not been behaving in a very spiritual way, which is of course the reason that I had been feeling not spiritual.

What does the sparrow have to do with feeling spiritual (or not spiritual)? Despite the fact that I've been a spiritual deadbeat for months now, for whatever reason (probably the Michael Dowd book) I responded exactly as I should have when confronted with what I sometimes call "Morning Terror" (waking up early in the morning with the first thing on my conscious mind being some problem or difficulty causing great distress): I surrendered to my frail humanity and gave the problem over to the forces of the Universe, because the problem was too big for me, so big that it bludgeoned me before I even got my eyes all the way open. So I prayed, because I was truly overwhelmed by the scale of the problem I was facing.

The Universe is faithful. I responded immediately to a big problem by surrendering the problem to a higher power, admitting that it was too big for me, waving the white flag. I was immediately rewarded with peace. Four hours later I was further rewarded with a gift: the helpless little sparrow who depended on our charity for his life.

One of my all-time favorite hymns is "His Eye Is On The Sparrow," by Civilla D. Martin and Charles H. Gabriel. When my husband came into the house with a helpless little bird that was facing a problem that was too big for him, I was immediately reminded that I had exercised the same kind of blind faith in a power just as great and mysterious to me as we were to that little bird. The Universe is indeed perfection, and the lesson was not lost on me. Thanks, Universe. I get it. 

So, what happened to the little sparrow? He warmed up enough, after about an hour, that he became restless and behaved as if he was gearing up to start flying around the house. So I picked him up, took him out to the front porch, and opened my hands so he could fly away. He did so, and was immediately picked up by the wind and blown into the front bumper of my car. Bummer, dude. He hopped underneath my car, sat there for a minute, and then flew away. 

That was a good message for me, too: things don't always work out as perfectly as we would like, but that's OK. Things turn out the way they turn out, and we have to make due with the result. The little sparrow made due. And so will I.