Divine Ready

December 21, 2018

Expectant Joy

20181221155052019 — Grandmother Linley (Gin)

This year my family awaits the arrival of my youngest niece’s baby boy, due December 28. He will be the firstborn of his generation in this branch of the family. Our Advent season of waiting, wondering, hoping and praying began in the summer when she shared this news and has now taken on the true mystery and magic of this time of year.

Somewhere during this long Advent, I started an overdue project of going through boxes of family photos, which brought joy as well as poignant moments peering at the faces of those lost too soon. Along with photos, I have become the recipient of a small cache of family history in letters, articles and pamphlets allowing me to catch swirling, snow globe glimpses of my origins.

I smile at letters between my grandmother Virginia, known as Gin, and her sisters and brothers, each with their own nifty nickname like Ede, Bunch, Pike and June (a junior). In the summer, while visiting my younger brother, we strike a deal–I will get the painting by our great aunt of our father at 20 (we think) who our nephew strongly resembles, with a promise to send my brother portraits of my grandparents in exchange.

The strong cheekbones and curly hair of my oldest niece look out at me in a young photo of my other grandmother who got short shrift in my self-absorbed youth. I make a silent wish that I could talk to her now and an apology that I didn’t do so more when I had the chance. Not too many days later a packet arrives from my uncle that includes an old photo of me with her and one of a great grandfather I had never seen.

I realize they have all been clustering forward this year, reminding me they are still here, even very near, and always have been. Perhaps on the other side they are throwing a going away party for the soul about to join us, sharing wisdom for the journey, sad to see him go, yet filled with joy at the promise of his life. What past will he carry? What future? How will we nurture his awesome light and honor his courage to come? We wait with love in expectant joy.

May 11, 2017

Cain Is Abel

For many years now I have walked through the woods on the cliff along a dirt path to a clearing near the George Washington Bridge where the view turns decidedly urban. To the south is the Manhattan skyline—inviting, intimidating, energizing and enervating all at once. The bridge itself is also impressive. About 500 feet shy of a mile, the double-decker, 14 lane suspension bridge carries over 100 million vehicles a year. From my perch at the west side of the GWB, I can see many of those cars and trucks crossing.

It has long been a silly game of mine to read the signs on the trucks and find a takeaway from the oracle of the GW Bridge. I might get a message right away, or I might have to watch dozens of trucks. Shred It. No. Budweiser: King of Beers. I don’t think so. White Rose: You deserve the best. Yes! More than once, I’ve been captivated by the tagline on a logistics company truck: Kane Is Able.

I saw a Kane truck not long after I read about the suicide of 27-year-old Aaron Hernandez, the once promising pro football player turned convicted murderer. On a larger scale, it made me think of the wars ongoing and those that seem to be looming too close on the horizon, of the immigrants and of all of the displaced and how divided we are in our stances. The erosion of democracy is a real threat in places we never thought it would be. On the heels of the Climate Change march, I think of the ways we have collectively abused and continue to abuse our Mother Earth and how some still don’t believe global warming is real. Civil rights, basic human rights and the sanctity of life all hang in the balance.

It is uniquely human that we have the ability to make choices and to take sides. The danger is in feeling too righteous about the sides we’ve chosen, leaving us stranded on islands without bridges. Each side couches their differences as moral outrage, and I struggle with the idea that the middle ground seems to have gone so far underground as to be nonexistent. We are living in a world of wild extremes. Islands.

The peacemaker George Mitchell said: “There’s no such thing as a conflict that cannot be ended. Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings.” Desmond Tutu said: “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” Is Cain able?

There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus. –Thich Nhat Hanh

March 19, 2017

Imagination Is More Important than Knowledge

The Cloisters Museum and Gardens is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to medieval art and architecture. In addition to the gardens, one of their most popular permanent exhibits is The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, consisting of seven large tapestries woven in the late 15^th/early 16^th century. They depict a hunt which ends with the precious unicorn in captivity. The unicorn is a legendary creature said to have been endowed with magical powers such as the ability to purify water and heal sickness.

Whose vivid imagination created this mystical being and whose the story? What inspired it? Who designed and wove the tapestries–stunning in their size, color and detail, rich with symbolism? Whence does the gift of imagination spring?

Imagination is the bohemian twin of Intuition. She takes her sister’s hunches and runs with them. She is comfortable at play in every conceivable arena as well as those not yet conceived. She gave Franz Kafka Metamorphosis wherein Gregor Samsa wakes up to discover he’s turned into a gigantic insect. JK Rowling conjured an alternate world inhabited by Harry Potter and other wizards. In Life of Pi Yann Martel breathes life into the story of an Indian boy stranded on the ocean with a Bengal tiger. Imagination is what allows the reader to plunge headlong into these stories in a willing, thrilling suspension of disbelief. She is the fertile field with no visible boundaries that produces art, literature, music, film, ideas, innovations, inventions, dreams, solutions, recipes and so much more.

Like all divine energy, when imagination is lacking, life becomes diminished and drab. Without it, we can feel stuck or trapped, wandering around in a dark interior unable to find the passage to light. Hopeless. Possibly this is the darker, bleaker side of imagination. And if you find yourself or someone you know there, it’s worth attempting a jump-start back to the lighter side through art, nature or any creative endeavor.

Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Imagine that!

January 15, 2017

Not long ago, I woke up with the words “divine ready” in my head. The message might as well have been Sanskrit in terms of my ability to decipher it. Was the Divine ready for me, or was I supposed to be ready for the Divine? Had a celestial being stuck a numinous fork in me while I slept and pronounced me ready to come out of the oven? And if so, it’s about time! Who knew I would be a slow cooker that took decades to roast to heavenly readiness?

I have been pondering the celestial message ever since. Maybe a word was lost between sleep and waking and the message was really intended to say, “Be divine ready.” That sounds simple enough. In fact, aren’t we all divine ready from the moment we’re born? There is a difference, though, between showing up willingly and open to receive and showing up tuned out, playing our same old songs, not open to new rhythms and beats which may carry life-giving, life expanding messages.

Truly being divine ready may take some effort and attention, listening with not just our ears but with our hearts and every divine cell of our beings. It might mean being present and sometimes still, going with the flow instead of anticipating it or trying to direct it, experiencing the divine in absolutely everything from anxiety about impending news to dashed hopes and expectations to unanticipated joy and surprise encounters.

It does not have to be—and usually isn’t—spectacular and yet, what about every breath is not spectacular? The Divine is, was and always will be ready. Are we ready for the Divine? I am staying tuned for some new music, keeping my eyes open, trying to decipher if the tinnitus in my left ear is really an angel speaking to me, and remaining open to new possibilities with every breath.