Medicine Pouch
January 04, 2010
The reason why we don't take time is a
feeling that we have to keep moving. If we
would only be still and look about, we'd
realize that we already have what we seek.
We don't have to rush after it. It was there
all the time, and if we give it time, it will
make itself known to us. Thomas
Merton
If we are to live our lives fully and
well, we must learn to embrace the opposites,
to live in a creative tension between our
limits and our potentials. We must honor our
limitations in ways that do not distort our
nature, and we must trust and use our gifts
in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave
us. We must take the no of the way that
closes and find the guidance it has to offer
- and take the yes of the way that opens and
respond with the yes of our lives.
Parker Palmer
When the Shawnee and Chippewa (and other
early people) went on hunts or vision quests
or long journeys, each traveler would carry
in a small rawhide pouch various tokens of
spiritual power--perhaps a feather, a bit of
fur, a claw, a carved root, a pinch of
tobacco, a pebble or a shell. These were not
simply magical charms; they were reminders
of the energies that sustain all of life.
By gathering these talismans into a medicine
pouch, the hunter, traveler, or visionary
seeker was recollecting the sources of
healing and bounty and beauty.
(Adapted from Scott Russell Sanders,
Hunting for Hope)
On January first, I was thinking about the first Sabbath Moment of a new decade. What would I say? I have an opportunity for the immaculate amalgamation of profundity, wit, insight, and substance. And, inspiration. The airline agent interrupts my reverie, "Mr. Hershey?"
"Yes."
"Mr. Hershey, I'm afraid you can't get there from here today. We have plane problems."
"What kind?"
"We don't have a plane."
"Oh." I am scheduled to fly from Seattle to Guatemala. "What are my options?"
"Well. What city would you like to sleep in tonight?"
"Paris sounds nice," I tell her.
"Nice try. Do you have a second choice?"
"I haven't been to Fargo in sometime." Her look tells me we have different tastes in humor.
"Here's what I can do. You can stay in Chicago or Dallas or Miami. Then tomorrow, fly to Guatemala City."
"I'll take Miami."
"Okay," she says. "But you'll still go to Chicago first."
So. Is it a bad omen when the first day of your year doesn't go as planned?
"What did you do for New Year's Day?"
"Well. I waited in line at the airport." Long lines wound through the corridor, like we were ready to do the conga, only on Demerol. Gone from the faces, last night's cheer and the uncomplicated jauntiness fueled by hope, and the gaiety and merriment buoyed by champagne.
Okay. So a flight has been canceled. Plans are altered. I have been in enough airports to know that trips have their own kismet. And how is this news?
It all reinforced to me how easy it is to buy the myth that life must evolve according to our specifications. Wait a minute, we tell ourselves. Our ability to handle chaos, disarray, mess, disorder, and disappointment depends upon our need to make sense of it all. The bottom line is some variation of control. Or closure. I even tell myself, "When this problem is resolved (or figured out), then life can go on." In the meantime we are at wit's end (as one friend wrote, "I've been drained dry.").
(One other pet peeve I have is when people tell me that the reason for any glitch or calamity, is that God is trying to teach me a lesson. Really? The creator of the Universe makes his life lessons known only after a plane malfunctions, or someone's heart breaks? I don't buy it. And here's the deal. You want God's lesson plan? It's pretty simple: read the book of Micah. "You have been told people, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." End of lesson.)
Here's a lesson I learned on Concourse A. Maybe the Shawnee were on to something. Our modern mentality replaces this primitive pouch with our own arsenal of expectations, demands and agendas. Is it any wonder we are so easily derailed?
What if it's not about me? Or what if life is not about what I can do, or perform, or fix, or comprehend? Maybe it is about experiencing life and (in the words of Parker Palmer), honoring "our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer - and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives."
I do know that if my medicine pouch is filled with a need for control and answers, I can easily be seized with fear, panic, rage, despair, depression, exasperation and frustration. (You get the picture.)
But what if? What if the "tokens" in that pouch are the freedom to embrace the life we have been given. And to see in that life---this life, this day---even in the very muddle of the ordinary, even in the very chaos of the ordinary gone awry, the permission to experience a whiff of the holy. That God is not waiting until we have it all figured out. The gift of life is in this present moment.
I didn't think about carrying a medicine pouch until the other day, near the boarding gate, still unsure which direction I was headed, and Bruce saved my emotional bacon. In my iPod I listed to Springsteen sing This Little Light of Mine; I'm going to let it shine. And I knew that my day was not really about where I would land, or what time I would arrive, or what meetings I would miss. And I knew there might actually be moments of purpose, determination, love, hope, faith, a will to live, festivity, and the freedom to help activate healing forces in the people who are around me.
Okay. So it wasn't a sacred claw or bit of fur. But it worked.
I started dancing in the concourse (well, what ever you would call the middle-aged-white-man-shuffle). And I knew this: My light can shine, and not only when I have answers or it all makes sense.
I don't know what you're carrying in your medicine pouch today. I hope that whatever it is, it has the gift to nourish and heal.
(Okay. I'll come clean. I didn't end up in Miami. I was routed through Austin and then Houston and into Guatemala. And one of the reasons I wasn't in a panic about missing my flight is that I'm in Guatemala in order to have dental work. It is far easier to be accommodating and long-suffering when you are avoiding pain.)
Today, from my friend's balcony I can see the volcano, Agua. Clouds cover the peak, as if a veil is waiting to be removed for a special ceremony. I've got nowhere to be, so I'll wait here to see what the fuss is all about.
Prayer is "no vain exercise of words, no mere repetition of certain sacred formulae, but the very movement itself of the soul, putting itself in a personal relation of contact with the mysterious power of which it feels the presence-it may be even before it has a name by which to call it." William James
For gentle reminders to PAUSE---to rest---look below.
For almost daily updates, follow my blog --
blog.terryhershey.com
On January first, I was thinking about the first Sabbath Moment of a new decade. What would I say? I have an opportunity for the immaculate amalgamation of profundity, wit, insight, and substance. And, inspiration. The airline agent interrupts my reverie, "Mr. Hershey?"
"Yes."
"Mr. Hershey, I'm afraid you can't get there from here today. We have plane problems."
"What kind?"
"We don't have a plane."
"Oh." I am scheduled to fly from Seattle to Guatemala. "What are my options?"
"Well. What city would you like to sleep in tonight?"
"Paris sounds nice," I tell her.
"Nice try. Do you have a second choice?"
"I haven't been to Fargo in sometime." Her look tells me we have different tastes in humor.
"Here's what I can do. You can stay in Chicago or Dallas or Miami. Then tomorrow, fly to Guatemala City."
"I'll take Miami."
"Okay," she says. "But you'll still go to Chicago first."
So. Is it a bad omen when the first day of your year doesn't go as planned?
"What did you do for New Year's Day?"
"Well. I waited in line at the airport." Long lines wound through the corridor, like we were ready to do the conga, only on Demerol. Gone from the faces, last night's cheer and the uncomplicated jauntiness fueled by hope, and the gaiety and merriment buoyed by champagne.
Okay. So a flight has been canceled. Plans are altered. I have been in enough airports to know that trips have their own kismet. And how is this news?
It all reinforced to me how easy it is to buy the myth that life must evolve according to our specifications. Wait a minute, we tell ourselves. Our ability to handle chaos, disarray, mess, disorder, and disappointment depends upon our need to make sense of it all. The bottom line is some variation of control. Or closure. I even tell myself, "When this problem is resolved (or figured out), then life can go on." In the meantime we are at wit's end (as one friend wrote, "I've been drained dry.").
(One other pet peeve I have is when people tell me that the reason for any glitch or calamity, is that God is trying to teach me a lesson. Really? The creator of the Universe makes his life lessons known only after a plane malfunctions, or someone's heart breaks? I don't buy it. And here's the deal. You want God's lesson plan? It's pretty simple: read the book of Micah. "You have been told people, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." End of lesson.)
Here's a lesson I learned on Concourse A. Maybe the Shawnee were on to something. Our modern mentality replaces this primitive pouch with our own arsenal of expectations, demands and agendas. Is it any wonder we are so easily derailed?
What if it's not about me? Or what if life is not about what I can do, or perform, or fix, or comprehend? Maybe it is about experiencing life and (in the words of Parker Palmer), honoring "our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer - and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives."
I do know that if my medicine pouch is filled with a need for control and answers, I can easily be seized with fear, panic, rage, despair, depression, exasperation and frustration. (You get the picture.)
But what if? What if the "tokens" in that pouch are the freedom to embrace the life we have been given. And to see in that life---this life, this day---even in the very muddle of the ordinary, even in the very chaos of the ordinary gone awry, the permission to experience a whiff of the holy. That God is not waiting until we have it all figured out. The gift of life is in this present moment.
I didn't think about carrying a medicine pouch until the other day, near the boarding gate, still unsure which direction I was headed, and Bruce saved my emotional bacon. In my iPod I listed to Springsteen sing This Little Light of Mine; I'm going to let it shine. And I knew that my day was not really about where I would land, or what time I would arrive, or what meetings I would miss. And I knew there might actually be moments of purpose, determination, love, hope, faith, a will to live, festivity, and the freedom to help activate healing forces in the people who are around me.
Okay. So it wasn't a sacred claw or bit of fur. But it worked.
I started dancing in the concourse (well, what ever you would call the middle-aged-white-man-shuffle). And I knew this: My light can shine, and not only when I have answers or it all makes sense.
I don't know what you're carrying in your medicine pouch today. I hope that whatever it is, it has the gift to nourish and heal.
(Okay. I'll come clean. I didn't end up in Miami. I was routed through Austin and then Houston and into Guatemala. And one of the reasons I wasn't in a panic about missing my flight is that I'm in Guatemala in order to have dental work. It is far easier to be accommodating and long-suffering when you are avoiding pain.)
Today, from my friend's balcony I can see the volcano, Agua. Clouds cover the peak, as if a veil is waiting to be removed for a special ceremony. I've got nowhere to be, so I'll wait here to see what the fuss is all about.
Prayer is "no vain exercise of words, no mere repetition of certain sacred formulae, but the very movement itself of the soul, putting itself in a personal relation of contact with the mysterious power of which it feels the presence-it may be even before it has a name by which to call it." William James
For gentle reminders to PAUSE---to rest---look below.
For almost daily updates, follow my blog --
blog.terryhershey.com
Poems / Prayers
Wherever our most primal fears reside-our fears of the dark, of death, of being devoured, of meaninglessness, of lovelessness, or of loss-changes are good that beneath them lie gems of wisdom and maybe a vision or a calling. Wherever you stumble-on a tree root, on a rock, on fear or shame, or vulnerability, on someone else's words, on the truth-dig there. Gregg Levoy
The Hope of Loving
What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.
I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover's
warm gaze.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither
like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.
Meister Eckhart
My God, my God, my holy one, my love,
May I be open and balanced and peaceful.
Scott Russell Sanders
Dear Lord,
please give me
A few friends who understand me and remain my friends;
A work to do which has real value,
without which the world would be the poorer;
A mind unafraid to travel, even though the trail be not blazed;
An understanding heart;
A sense of humor;
Time for quiet, silent meditation;
A feeling of the presence of God;
The patience to wait for the coming of these things,
With the wisdom to recognize them when they come.
Amen.
News and Notes
NEWS and UPDATES
The Best Spiritual Books of 2009 -- By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat spiritualityandpractice.books
Books to Nourish Your Soul from 2009 beliefnet.com/2009
Cathleen Falsani's new year column, syndicated via Religion News Service, of the most intriguing thoughts and prayers from 2009.
suntimes.falsani
Speaking of resolutions. Here a great New Year idea. Starting January 10 and continuing for 30 days, Loyola Press will send you an email pause reminder -- a powerful pause for each day. Gentle reminders as a way to trigger those parts of our soul that can stop and listen and pay attention.
BE INSPIRED THIS WEEK
Two BRAND NEW Terry Videos --- Let your light shine (Shine I and Shine II)
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There are only a few perfect songs in the world, and "Let it Be" is one of them. This gospel remake of the beautiful song does not disappoint. From the movie Across the Universe.
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This is the wonderful single from the great and the good in the music industry, radio and TV. We are very grateful to all of them for giving their time and talent to help BBC Children in Need. You will be able to buy this from HMV as a single from Tesco's or from www.charitygoods.com
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On June 24, Iranian Superstar Andy Madadian went into an LA recording studio with Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and American record producers Don Was and John Shanks to record a musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran. This version of the old Ben E. King classic is not for sale. It's intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people, to give voice to the sentiment that all people of the world stand together. The handwritten Farsi sign in the video translates to "we are one". If you know someone in Iran - or someone who knows someone in Iran - please share this link
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Piano healing Songs at Christmas - Ron Noecker
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