Daily Dose (Dec 10 – 13)

TUESDAY DEC 10 —

This week, we are talking about reclaiming ourselves, to be (and feel) alive in our own skin.
To live wholehearted and unabashed in a skin (a self) that feels, values, honors, esteems, loves, fears, desires, hopes for, believes in and commits to.
With nothing to earn or prove, because life isn’t a race or a contest or a beauty pageant.
Here is what I know from my own journey (yes, my own pilgrimage): When life is a contest or race only to win or lose, it is easy to see how the “winners” are fear and downheartedness.
Rwandans understood this.
Do you want to know the Rwandan prescription for Depression?
Sun, drum, dance, community.
Okay, I love this prescription.
A Rwandan explains, “We had a lot of trouble with western mental health workers who came here immediately after the genocide and we had to ask some of them to leave. They came and their practice did not involve being outside in the sun where you begin to feel better, there was no music or drumming to get your blood flowing again, there was no sense that everyone had taken the day off so that the entire community could come together to try to lift you up and bring you back to joy, there was no acknowledgement of the depression as something invasive and external that could actually be cast out again. Instead they would take people one at a time into these dingy little rooms and have them sit around for an hour or so and talk about bad things that had happened to them. We had to ask them to leave.” (A Rwandan talking to western writer, Andrew Solomon, about his experience with western mental health and depression.)

Count me in. Making space to be gentle with this self. Space for reclaiming. And please know this: it is from this reclaimed self that compassion and kindness and tenderness and empathy and healing and reconciliation can flow to the world around us.
We spill light from those places in our life.

WEDNESDAY DEC 11 —

This week, we are talking about being alive in our own skin.
To live wholehearted and unabashed in a skin (a self) that feels, values, honors, esteems, loves, fears, desires, hopes for, believes in and commits to.

“The most visible creators I know of are those artists
whose medium is life itself,
the ones who express the inexpressible
–without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar.
They neither paint nor sculpt–
their medium is being.
Whatever their presence touches, has increased life.
They see and don’t have to draw.
They are the artists of being alive.”
J. Stone

Artists of being alive. Yes. In a world that often feels upside down, or catawampus, or at least puzzling, this resonates with me.
You see the invitation is different here. To be fully alive.
In love with living.
At home in my own skin.
It’s no longer about any label we carry (or wear) to separate us, or make us better or best, or even more important.
So. This is a paradigm shift. And my Camino walk is helping me affirm (to reinforce) this shift.
When we meet someone, in our culture, we ask, “What do you do?” Not really meaning “do” (as in “I walk my dog” or “I water my plants”). Instead, we mean, “How do you make money?” (“What is your vocation?”).
Vocations do matter. But what if we begin here…
What if we ask, “What makes you glad to be alive?”
“What did your heart good today?”
“What brought you laughter, or tears, or joy?”
You see, as long as success is measured by keeping score (weighing or honoring the wrong stuff), we lose track of our well-being that comes from the inside—the self-compassion that makes us human and therefore, glad to be alive.
As I often say, this isn’t an assignment or a strategy.
We forget (in the words of John O’Donohue), “To have a reverence always for the immensity that is inside of you. The wild flow of energy in the well of the soul. It is impossible to stop the well of energy and the well of light and the well of life that is inside of you. You might calm it and quell it, but it will still rise up within you.”

True, living into this authentic self is neither easy nor managed by a checklist. But this much is certain: living into our authentic self begins with a whole heart. And at home in my own skin, I have a self to give and light to spill; to be an anchor, a listening ear, a hand to hold, a hug to keep the heart alive.

And to carry with us through our day, this prayer…
“Walk hope, walk peace, walk joy;
God bless you in the walking.
Share faith, share mercy, share love;
God bless you in the sharing.
Live calm, live courage, live compassion;
God bless you in the living.
Be just, be humble, be kind;
God bless you in the being.
Do right, do well, do curious;
God bless you in the doing.
Amen.”
Bishop Deon K. Johnson

THURSDAY DEC 12 —

There is a parable about three stonecutters working on a cathedral, set in the Middle Ages. Each is asked what he is doing.
The first responds angrily, “Idiot! Use your eyes! They bring me a rock, I cut it into a block, they take it away, and they bring me another rock. I’ve been doing this since I was a boy, and I’m going to be doing it until the day I die.”
The second man smiles warmly and says, “I’m earning a living for my beloved family. With my wages I have built a home, there is food on our table, the children are growing strong.”
The third man pauses, and with a look of deep fulfillment says, “I am building a great cathedral. It will be a holy lighthouse where people lost in the dark can find their strength and remember their way. And it will stand for a thousand years.”

This would be heady stuff in the hands of Stephen Spielberg and John Williams. But not all lives are even close to the movies. Not everyone feels the nobility of the third stonecutter. Or the selflessness of the second. But we have all felt the heaviness or bleakness of the first. To wonder, does any of what I do make a difference? Let’s be clear: the parable is not simply about work.
This parable is about how we derive our value—our self-worth and our dignity and yes, “our calling”—and how that spills onto everything we do, and everything we touch, and every person whose path we cross.

Over the years I have heard, “I’m just a volunteer (or just a member, or catechist, or aid, or worker, or helper, or employee, or friend or mother or fill in the blank).”
To each I say, No.
You see, “just a” creates a label and tells us what we are not. And when we label, we dismiss. (Regardless of the label. Dorothy Day once scoffed, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”)
So, how then do we make a difference?
It is true that our work (labor) is our turf of responsibility.
But that is only part of our DNA. Because no matter where we labor or toil, our calling is to spill the light. The light that is already within.
And the good news? For this we don’t have to pass a test, or qualify, we have only to be willing. Gratefully, this I am learning… when we are alive—at home—in our own skin, we make choices from a different reservoir and inspiration.
John O’Donohue’s affirmation, “To have a reverence always for the immensity that is inside of you. The wild flow of energy in the well of the soul. It is impossible to stop the well of energy and the well of light and the well of life that is inside of you. You might calm it and quell it, but it will still rise up within you.”

FRIDAY DEC 13 —

“Every situation, like the face of every newborn child, is calling us back into true relationship. It calls for ‘presence,’ he [Martin Buber] said. ‘It demands you.’ For it is presence that is the greatest gift we can offer one another. And presence is the greatest gift we can receive. Here and now, the gift of presence coming to us through one another and through Earth.” From John Philip’s newest book, “The Great Search.”

We remind one another weekly in Sabbath Moment, “No one of us is on this journey alone.” And with Ram Dass’ affirmation, “We’re all just walking each other home.”
Here’s the deal: I want to be present.
For connection and camaraderie and fellowship and community.
And it resonates. And I do understand that presence is a gift that we can offer.
But sometimes we (okay, I) don’t believe that this me, is enough.
I remember a statement made in the Irish Times by a Connemara man after he was arrested for a car accident. “There were plenty of onlookers, but no witnesses.”
I can tell you that there are times when I feel broken. Very broken. And I don’t have the words. And I don’t have the strength. So, how can I possibly be present (“a witness”)?

Okay, this is interesting. You see, compassion (service and care and presence) and healing (restoration) are not mutually exclusive. Because the light we share is born in those broken places. Which means that being a witness (being present) goes hand in glove with renewal.
In other words, we find replenishment, and we choose to be present (a witness). Both.
This is not a pep talk. This is not a test to pass. Or a list I check off for God’s thumbs up. This is permission; the invitation and the affirmation to be and to live, wholeheartedly and kindheartedly, the truth of who I am.
And speaking about the truth of who I am. This from Albert Camus did my heart good this week.
“My dear,
In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.
Truly yours,
Albert Camus”

This past week I’ve been re-living reflections from my Camino journey. And I am so grateful that we “walked” it together. This from Mark Nepo goes to the core. “To journey without being changed, is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and to be transformed by the journeying is to be a pilgrim.”

Savor your moments of pause and reflection and replenishment and connection during this Advent season.

Prayer for our week…
May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.
D. Simone

Photo… “Terry, thanks for taking us with you on the Camino! Roads and pathways seem to me to be very spiritual in themselves if we are attuned. This is my oft-walked route in the mountains of Appalachia. On the journey with you, yes, the rain and wind too!” Bob Keener (Pennsylvania)… Thank you Bob… I’m so grateful for your photos, please send them to [email protected]