Thursday, January 2, 2020

continue...

This poem by Maya Angelou captures the essence of what prayer, faith, hope, spirituality, intimacy, mysticism, solidarity, and integrity is all about. It is called, "Continue" and I can't get enough of it!

My wish for you
Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heart

Continue

In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter

Continue

To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined

Continue

To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you

Continue

To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely

Continue

To put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless

Continue

To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise

Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good

Continue

To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit

Continue

To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing

Continue

To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name

Continue

And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally

This gets it soooo right. My deepest hope and prayer for myself this year is that I might nourish and strengthen the spirit of Jesus within me so that I can live more tenderly as a man of encouragement for others to continue. Last night I watched the movie, "Two Popes" and loved it. I wept and laughed sometimes simultaneously. Right before Christmas, Di and I went to see "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and, in a vastly different context, I found myself doing the very same thing: laughing and weeping. My hunch is that this is one of the best ways to connect with the spirit of Jesus. It is certainly a time-tested way to be real with the ordinary people Jesus came to cherish.

During the fall of 2019 I took Cynthia Bourgeault's on-line class as the Center for Action and Contemplation: "Introductory Wisdom School." it was brilliant - and opened my head and heart to some connections I have long intuited, but now realize have been true since before the beginning of time. Like surrender as the way to trust, paradox as the core of spirituality, compassion and tenderness as the essence of true life. Like Bourgeault says, "our journey is to live as gentle and low maintenance people" in the midst of a hard and often confusing world. In this season of Christmastide, where I playfully keep turning on the Christmas tree lights until the close of Epiphany on January 6, I am oh so slowly starting to return to Centering Prayer again. And after a quiet and sun-drenched trip to Tucson in a few weeks, I will start the on-line course re: the spirituality of St. Francis with Richard Rohr. I will also be intensifying my online spiritual direction work, too. The more time I take to be still and reflective, the more I see God's grace everywhere.

Earlier today I had this encouter that spoke volumes about the call to continue. I was in Wal-Mart shopping for cold meds and cleaning goods. Now, I know some who read my postings have issues with Wal-Mart - and I have no interest in arguing with you about those concerns - they are real. And, as I discovered when I went into retirement, they are also the cheapest place to buy almost everything we need for the bathroom and kitchen. You see, I could no longer afford my United Church of Christ health insurance when I retired. It was almost $1000 a month. So after trying to keep up with the past and going into debt, we bit the bullet and found reasonable health care through the health care market place called Obamacare (or the Affordable Health Care Act for those who insist on being PC.) I became eligible for Medicare, gladly enrolled but was still unable to afford a supplement until 2020.

At any rate, that's all context for how I became a willing Wal-Mart customer. It was essential for our well-being! Over the past two years I have started to get to know the cashiers and regularly engage them conversation. It is, if you will, my down and dirty ministry of tenderness among people who are overworked, underpaid, and too often taken for granted. Today, while buying toiletries, as I was checking out, I felt a tap on my shoulder: a young female clerk smiled at me and said, "I'm just going to unlock these razor blades for you and wanted to let you know so that you don't worry, ok?" She flashed a big, genuine grin, lifted up my razor blades, and dashed off to do her job. Before I could respond, she returned, handed me my package and said, "I hope all goes well for you today." I almost broke into tears - and laughter - right there on the spot. As I looked into her eyes, I heard myself saying softly, "You are blessing. Thank you." And she was. To me. Probably to her co-workers and certainly to some other tired and overwhelmed customers, too.

She blessed me with kindness so that I might continue. I pray that I might do as much for another tomorrow:

Continue

To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness

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