September 14--Driving Around

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.  --Local liquor store sign

    I drive by that store almost every day, and the sign always makes me smile. Another one was "God created my wife then said, 'This should be interesting.'" And "School has started. Teachers, we can help." I have never patronized this store because it is at an awkward corner for getting back into traffic. 

    And that brings me to one of my foibles--I do not like to turn left onto a busy street. I would prefer to say that it is potential danger that stops me, but it is actually my impatience. I will drive out of my way to avoid a left turn, even as much as a mile-square block. It's just another version of the "scenic route." 

    Yesterday I drove a total of about 11 miles. In that short distance I saw three certified red-light-runs (as in my green left turn arrow was lit when they entered the intersection.) I know Wichita drivers are generally bad, but I suspect this is happening everywhere. 

    Be careful out there!

        Leta

September 13--Arms Stretched and Ready!

CHERISH yourself. Your tender self. Yes, you. Cherish your family and friends, your colleagues and clients. Cherish the birds and trees and animals and sky and the incredible beauty of nature. Cherish the chance to live out this day with choices and chances.  --Mary Davis

    I have attended a Monday night addiction recovery meeting for decades. We met in person until the pandemic shut down our meeting and then we converted to a phone meeting. The "regulars" on the meeting have known each other for many years. Occasionally we meet at a coffee shop for face-to-face social time and lots of hugs. Today is one of those coffee-shop meetings, yippee!!! These are folks who know the good-bad-ugly-beautiful about each other and the love continues. My life would be completely different had I not met these fellow recovering humans. I am so grateful. 

    Hugs ahead!

        Leta

September 12--Your Empire Choice

Brian McLaren (CAC's Daily Meditation, Sept 10) contrasts the Roman Empire with Jesus' offering of the empire of God:

Rome’s empire was violent. God’s empire was nonviolent.

Rome’s empire was characterized by domination. God’s empire was characterized by service and liberation.

Rome’s empire was preoccupied with money. God’s empire was preoccupied with generosity and was deeply suspicious of money.

Rome’s empire was fueled by the love of power. God’s empire was fueled by the power of love.

Rome’s empire created a domination pyramid that put a powerful and violent man on the top, with chains of command and submission that put everyone else in their place beneath the supreme leader. God’s empire created a network of solidarity and mutuality that turned conventional pyramids upside down and gave “the last, the least, and the lost” the honored place at the table.

    Note that in every case, the "Rome's" at the beginning can be replaced with "Trump's." It is inconceivable to me that any Trump supporter claims to be a Christian. 

    We can do better.

        Leta

God's empire

September 11--We Can Still Celebrate

There must always remain in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful. — Howard Thurman

    I know this is a day of mourning for so many Americans, the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I grieve every act of violence perpetrated on my fellow humans. 

    However, I choose to celebrate on this day, because it is my grandson's first birthday, and he was born on the birthday of his great-grandmother, Madeline, my mother. 

    Despite the tragedy of 9/11, many, many beautiful things came of it. Let us join with the angels in celebrating those. 

        Leta

September 10--Good Questions

The progress you have already made, no matter how small, is an integral part of your growth. —Morgan Harper Nichols

    Well, we are where we are. Over there, I am healed and my life is back to "normal." Right here, I am still impatiently struggling with stretching, strengthening and stamina. 

    I have written about the book I am reading, "The Body Keeps The Score," by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. It has been truly enlightening in helping me understand why I am the way I am. It is clear that my life-long means of coping has been to numb out. Having a mother who was an excellent cook, I used food to accomplish the numbness for many, many years. When something upset me, I learned to pack up those feelings, put them away (in my body), and move on. Literally and figuratively, the weight piled on. 

    The question that goes along with numbing out is then what makes the numbed-out person feel alive. For me, the things that enliven me are gardening and painting, i.e. creative pursuits, and swimming and pickleball--physical movement. Another powerful question offered in the book is whether pain is necessary to feel alive. Geez, I hope not, but that has certainly been the case over the past six months. 

    More to come,

        Leta

The exuberant sunflowers
in my garden

September 9--Happy Here and Now

This is from the Richard Rohr "Daily Meditation" of September 6. It is a reminder to me that we make God too hard.

Practicing the Presence at a Stoplight

Father Richard describes a moment of spiritual awakening that led to a regular practice of presence in his daily life:

The Center for Action and Contemplation is located in the South Valley of Albuquerque on a street called Five Points Road. For many years I made it my job to take care of the mail. People around the center and at the post office used to tease me by calling me the mailman. I would pick up and deliver the mail for my own little hermitage, the local Franciscans, and the Center. I just felt so useful, bringing mail back and forth. It was an obsession, really, and every day I would sit at the five-way light at the end of our road. To my Type A personality, it always seemed like an interminably long light, but one day, it seemed even longer than usual, and I clearly heard God saying to me, “Richard, are you really going to be any happier on the other side of Bridge Avenue?”

I had to wonder, “If you’re not happy on this side of Bridge Avenue, you’re not going to be happy on that side of Bridge Avenue. So why not just be happy now?” It’s that simple and that hard. It became a place for my little daily meditation. Every time I stopped at that red light, I thought, “Okay, here I get to practice it again. Everything is right here, right now. If I can’t experience God and love and myself and everything that matters on this side of Bridge Avenue, I probably won't experience it over there.” I hope you can find your own examples.

That’s what we mean by the practice of the present moment. I cannot think of any spiritual practice which will transform our lives into love and into God more than simply trying to live in the naked now, in the sacrament of the present moment. There’s nothing to “figure out” about this practice, so don’t even try. Figuring it out isn’t really helpful. When we are an alert presence, placing one foot in front of the other, there is no separation anymore between the secular and the sacred, between ourselves and God.

    Like so much of life, it's the little actions that truly count!

        Leta

September 8--The Power of Safety

If we want to turn over a new leaf and really set a new humanity afoot, we must begin to turn humankind away from the long and desolate night of violence. May it not be that the new humanity the world needs is the nonviolent human?... This not only will make us new people but will give us a new kind of power…. It will be power infused with love and justice, that will change dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope.  
--Martin Luther King Jr.

    Dr. King was assassinated 57 years ago. We have only become more violent, as supported and encouraged by the current political powers. 

    One of the topics in the book I am reading, "The Body Keeps The Score," (see yesterday's post), is the fundamental need for a human being to feel safe. The statistics relative to those of us who were not or are not safe in our own homes are staggering and distressing. I doubt that we can expect wars to stop if we can't even create peace and safety in our own homes, in our own hearts. 

    It ain't easy, but we can do better!

        Leta