Healing and restorative
Buddha’s teaching method was counter intuitive, to say the very least. More often than not, he didn’t even talk. He just sat there.
There is a well-known story about The Buddha sitting in a place with hundreds of people gathered around him. (Waiting for pearls of wisdom I suppose. That would make sense.) However, he just sat, and after a while those gathered started grumbling about how he was a fraud. Then he stood up and held out a flower. One of his disciples, Kashayapa, smiled. He understood. (Kashayapa became one of the forbearers of Zen Buddhism).
So that’s it?
He held out a flower?
That’s the moral to the story?
Please tell me there’s more…
On this first day of Autumn, I can tell you that my spirit feels the weight from juggling the world’s unpredictability and yes, a kind of fatigue. And I can tell you that today, my soul is nourished and reassured by a flower’s invitation. And the well-being of my spirit, is gratefully, well-fed.
Ingrid Goff-Maidoff’s mindfulness comes to mind, “God spoke today in flowers, and I, who was waiting on words, almost missed the conversation.”
Oh yes. As I write this, I am relishing (and taking comfort in) the autumn blooms on Olivia Rose Austin (a David Austin English rose) as they reach for light. The buds are small, carrying soft petals, with an air both fragile and exquisite.
No, I wasn’t planning to use my garden visit for a Sabbath Moment. But it does make me ponder the interesting way we humans are wired. We want tales that we can parse or figure out. Tales that in the end, resolve something, or at least provide a band aid. I get it. I know that when my world is rattled, I want someone to make it right, or help it make sense.
In other words, “what’s the lesson here?” (In the New Testament, Jesus’ disciples were continually aggravated because he wouldn’t give them the Cliff Notes to understand his parables.)
But here’s the deal: all the while we are looking for the revelation or the fix, we miss the flower, and the healing restorative power.
I smiled big at a recent magazine article about people who have shunned cell phones. “They will find me if they need me,” said one man. And the article quoted a lawyer who practices Shabbat, turns off his cell phone and computer and email on Friday at sundown.
He’s got the right idea. And that part resonates with all of us.
Simplify. We’re on the same page. Except that the next thing you know, we are tempted to make an assignment out of it, as if there will be a test.
It reminds me of an out-of-the-box take on the Sermon on the Mount: And Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
And Simon Peter said, “Do we have to write this down? Are we going to be tested on this?”
What we forget, is the healing gift of “the flower”.
Let’s remember Mr. Rogers’ invitation, “How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?”
I’ve long been a fan of Michael Leunig. Michael is an Australian cartoonist, writer, painter, philosopher and poet, and his cartoons speak straight to the heart. This week, one called “My Device.”
One fella is laying on the ground staring up at the sky. The other standing by, looking down with curiosity, and asking, “What are you doing?”
“I’m using my device,” the fella on the ground answers.
“What is your device?”
“My device is the sky,” and he points up.
“Does your device have many applications?” The man asks.
“Yes. It has sun, moon, clouds and birds.”
“And do you have to recharge your device very often?”
“I don’t ever have to recharge my device. It recharges me.”
So. What does the flower—or cloud, or bird or moon—represent?
Well, that’s just it. I don’t know.
Perhaps it’s the heart.
Or being present.
Or awareness.
Or openness.
Or vulnerability.
Or most likely, all of the above.
Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, is my role model. “Wow,” he tells Hobbes, “Look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously reexamine your life.”
I believe this is why Autumn’s invitation is so replenishing.
Summer is always filled with activities and expectations, and with a busyness that seems a given. And being tuckered out is not uncommon. So, it is no surprise that we often lose sight of the practices and rituals that keep us grounded and deeply fed.
And we forget the power and soothing balm of pause, allowing practices and rituals that stretch and grow and balance and ground us. Let’s call them rituals of gentle cleansing and replenishment.
This is our invitation: Let us slow down. Let us take stock of our lives and reflect on what is most precious. And let us begin to let go of stuff that weighs us down and no longer serves us, letting go of distraction and internal voices that derail us.
And if honoring this release and gentle cleansing brings tears and grieving, let us honor the gift.
“Gentle cleansing, I like that,” I tell the opening blooms on the Austin rose.
Here in the PNW, our leaves are unabashed with their parade. Katsura, with leaves amber and orange. And our Red Maples, now with deep crimson leaves. Regal and majestic. Yes. Healing restorative power indeed.
Let’s give Henri Nouwen the last word, “I feel a tension within me. I have only a limited number of years left for active ministry. Why not use them well? Yet one word spoken with a pure heart is worth thousands spoken in a state of spiritual turmoil. Time given to inner renewal is never wasted. God is not in a hurry.”
Quote for our week… “Lying back against a voluptuous swirl of smooth pink rock, I idly watch a scuffle of soaring birds, trying to decide if I’ve baked long enough in the late July sun to make the ice-green water at my feet once again gratifying, rather than mortifying, to the flesh… I find myself thinking that we’ve finally succeed in getting away from the world, and then realize I’ve got it backward. The world—the phenomenal world, unmediated—is just what we’ve found our way into.” John Jerome
BULLETIN BOARD
Today’s Photo Credit: “Good morning, Terry! My husband, Ed, and I are nearing the end of a 2.5 week trip around 3 of the Great Lakes. This site is just outside of Munising, MI on the shore of Lake Superior. The predawn sky was a solid orange and by the time I got outside to shoot, the foreground had a lovely light on the path to the lake. May we see every morning as an invitation to the Light! Blessings!” Madeleine Gallagher, Paso Robles, CA… Thank you Madeleine… Thank you to all, I love your photos… please keep sending them… send to terryhershey.com
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Letters that do my heart good…
–Good morning Terry, I really appreciated this morning’s thought I think you recorded it earlier, but that doesn’t matter and I’m really working on learning to be awake and learning that in my mindfulness training that I’m doing and my meditations and it’s difficult and what you pointed out about when you’re awake, you’re awake to it all And the flowers you mentioned is great but the dirt that needs work and gets grimy and all that it’s just like wow so thanks for the reminder that we need to just say it’s OK and let it be and just letting it be is being awake and being real, and your reminder of compassionate. And mercy and kindness is always needed so I appreciate your thoughts and your heart to share with others and remind yourself and others of this needed needed especially today’s work. It seems like a lot of our religions went to escape some of those things and just think of the sweet bye-bye instead of living now today and both are good and the bad. And being diligent and all of it so anyway, thank you so much. Have a blessed day. Stephen
–Good morning, Terry, from south Texas, where the sun has condescended to stop trying to broil every living thing for another year, and become friendly again. We are grateful. I loved this morning’s post! From “Get in,” to my favorite e.e. Cummings poem, it was a lovely start to my day. I’ve long loved the tight rope walking story, and have used it in teaching about belief and faith. There is a big difference between those two words, and it is the “Get in” that makes the difference. I learned that slowly and painfully myself, and have great personal reasons for being thankful for the patient faithfulness of God! But the treasures of finally getting it and getting in are worth it all. Rita
–Terry, As always so grateful for Sabbath Moment, for your wisdom and kindness. My “word” for this year is Presence. A daily reminder to be grateful. An example of “wisdom” learned from you. Blessings. Fran
POEMS AND PRAYERS
How Perfectly
How perfectly
and neatly
opens the pink rose
this bright morning,
the sun warm
on my shoulders,
its heat
on the opening petals.
Possibly
it is the smallest,
the least important event
at this moment
in the whole world.
Yet I stand there,
utterly happy.
Mary Oliver
Amazing God,
there is more to life than we can see or fathom.
Yet how often we try to shrink the mystery,
tame the dream, limit what is possible.
Remind us that the Spirit of always blowing new life
into our days, surprising us with wonder and blessing.
Forgive us for dull awareness and hesitant witness.
Let us be made new again and again, no matter our age.
And let us hear again and again, of your mercy and your grace…
Amen.
