Sanctuary Tent

July 31, 2009

Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion. Barry Lopez

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One flower, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
Emily Dickinson

Eavesdropping in a Target store the other day, I hear a Mother tell her teenage daughter, "I don't have my cell phone with me."
"Agghhhhhh," the daughter sounds irritated, "how will I find you?"
"I guess you'll have to come look for me."

That is not what we're accustomed to. Especially now that we have GPS on our iPhones. To actually look for something? What's the point?

Here's the deal: When I do look, I pay attention.
And when I pay attention, I find the sacred (or spaces of sanctuary) in places I did not expect.
Because when I do look, I give up my predetermined expectations for what I may find, or experience, and allow myself to receive-which is another way of saying, "to just be."

This past week I worked hard, long hours, with associates in Chicago. Yesterday I ate lunch with a friend at a Cuban restaurant (technically a hole-in-the-wall, with scrumptious food). We sat outside, cooled by an afternoon breeze.

My friend would finish each paragraph or thought with a non sequitur, "Have you seen these clouds?"

I looked up. The day a perfect Midwestern summer sky, with billowing cumulus clouds, the clouds of my childhood, a slow and steady procession of silhouette and animals and make believe. "Just look at those shapes," she would say, and then resume the conversation.

It's your assignment for the week. If you are in a meeting (or in a social occasion) of any kind, just pause and say, "Excuse me, but has anyone looked at the clouds today?" (They will worry about you, but hopefully will get over it in time to take a moment in order to stare at the sky.)

After two long days, last night it was time to sit a spell. So another friend and I retreated to his back yard.
"Let's put our feet up," I say.
"First we need to build a tent," he tells me.
"A tent? Why?"
"The bugs will eat us."
"Oh."
"Besides," he says, "we just bought this great tent from Eddie Bauer."
The picture-a hexagon of netting-looks like Lawrence of Arabia meets Ikea, with the all too familiar forewarning, "Some assembly required," in six languages. This sounds like too much work.
"I like bugs," I tell him.
"I don't," he says firmly. "Besides, it's my yard and my tent."
"Okay," I say, "we'll build the tent."
(The instructions recommend to set aside an hour of time. However, in fifteen minutes we had the tent up, with two lounge chairs inside, and a table with candles and some ice-cold beverages. Instructions are never written for a couple of guys who are motivated by a lounge chair and a Guinness.)

My friend is a Notre Dame man, which meant that I needed to nurture his inner life by singing the University of Michigan fight song. Now I understand the reason for their mascot, The Fighting Irish. (Some unresolved predicament from their infancy.)

We swapped stories. He told me about working with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in the days before the Cardinal's death from cancer. Cardinal Bernadin is renowned for his dedication to peace, racial equality, arms control and social justice. At the end of the Cardinal's life, my friend spent time with Bernadin collecting words, musings and observations. (The result, a book, The gift of peace: personal reflections. www.amazon.ca/Gift )

In the last few days, my friend asked more probing questions, making a space for the Cardinal to tell stories and speak from his heart. As a young man, my friend was grateful and awed to be the recipient of such a gift, but in the end, he found that sanctuary is a two-way venture. Yes, we receive the gift of sanctuary - a safe haven, an affirmation, a place of rest and restoration. But from that we are empowered to become a sanctuary for others, even to those from whom we receive. And the lines between giving and receiving are blurred.

Sanctuaries are places to tell stories-about the glory days, or about wounds and scars that have made beauty marks on our soul. In the story telling, we find sanctuary, a place where we no longer need to weigh or measure or impress, but gratefully receive, as the press of the urgent loses its grip.

Do you remember Barry Lopez's series Crow and Weasel? In one episode Badger tells them, "Remember this one thing. The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other's memories. This is how people care for themselves. "

I just listened to Pierce Pettis sing about returning to the state of his birth (State of Grace, see below), and realizes that he finds home, in a place he least expected. It reminds me of last night. I don't know if Eddie Bauer has a name for their tent, but I'll write the company and suggest "state of grace," or perhaps, "sanctuary tent."

I returned home to my island on a noon ferry today. Sunday travelers are not islanders or locals. They are families and friends and groups vacationing or traveling or visiting or just spending the day. So they behave differently. They stand at the rail, and point and laugh and stare and gawk and take delight and take photos and absorb the panorama of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains and the endless sky.

They remind me that sanctuary may be all around us.
We just need to look for it.

Poems / Prayers

Welcome Morning

There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry "hello there, Anne"
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.
The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.
Anne Sexton (The Awful Rowing Toward God)

God,
It's so easy to dream of the days gone by,
It's a hard thing to think of the times to come.
But the grace to accept every moment as a gift
Is a gift that is given to some.
What can you do with your days but work and hope:
let your dreams bind your work to your play.
What can you do with each moment of your life
But love till you've loved it away?
Love till you've loved it away.
Amen.
Bob Franke

News and Notes

New pictures of Terry's garden
TerrysGarden

Pierce Pettis playing State of Grace off his State of Grace album. He also talks about his song and why he wrote it.
youtube.Pettis

Good Morning by Anne Sexton, read by Anne
video.google.com/Sexton

Favorites from last week:

Music from The Mission.
www.youtube.TheMission

Josh Groben's Thankful
www.youtube.Groben

Look for Terry's new book,
The Power of Pause: becoming more by doing less,
available soon.
loyolapress.terryhershey

Sabbath Moments:
To See God In All Things

Born To Dance:
Live life fully from the inside out

THERE IS STILL TIME. Take a Summer Break.

Join Terry at the
THE RELAX, REFUEL, RESTART RETREAT.

Don't miss it.
Begin making plans to attend. To register your group,
call Karin Kurtz at Loyola Press,
at 773-281-1818 x287.
www.loyolapress.com/relax

The Relax, Refuel, Restart Retreat is a great way for parish / church leaders, for your leadership team, for key lay-leaders, for anyone in parish / church ministry to rest, re-energize, and take steps to find balance in their busy lives. Find the city in your area and bring your entire parish / church leadership team! You will not want to miss this day.
Call 773-281-1818 x 287

Register

Southern California
Los Angeles Area
Monday, August 3, 2009: St. Peter Claver Church, Simi Valley
Tuesday, August 4, 2009: Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Ventura
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Friday, August 7, 2009: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Irvine
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October 4-5, 2009
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Becoming More by Doing Less
franciscanrenewalcenter

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