Day 35 Lenten Meditation: Rain

I could use a good spring rain right now. A real gullywasher, where there's no question of going out in it unless one wants to get drenched. And then I would go out into that rain and feel it drench me to my skin. 

There is something purifying about standing in a torrential shower. From the skin to the soul, rain washes away all the dirt of the day. It chills my skin, reminding me that I am alive. 

Day 34 Lenten Meditation: Reach

The word "reach" implies two things: 1) that there is something we desire just beyond our grasp, and 2) that we will exert effort to get it.

We as humans are programmed to want what we don't have. Without desire, our race would have died a long time ago. So we reach -- with our hands to grasp, with our effort to accomplish, with our curiosity to discover, with our frustration to understand, with our loneliness to love.

I would argue that our need to reach out is a sacred thing, but only when balanced with compassion. It is possible to desire too much, to reach with a greedy fist, to wrest with that hand what others need to survive. It is entirely too possible to keep grasping and keep wanting, with no desire to visit the things already obtained. 

So we as humans stand at a ledge, grasping. If we reach out too far, if we reach out too often, we will fall into the chasm. We will cease to be with others, surrounded only by what we have obtained. The thing that will keep us from falling down the chasm is to balance "I want" with "I care". 

Day 33 Lenten Meditation: Love

What can I say that hasn't already been said about love?

The Greeks a long time ago talked about different types of love, which I spoke about on Valentines' Day. Here they are as a refresher:

• Agape – love of humanity.
• Storge – love of family
• Philia -- love of friends
• Pragma – love which endures.
• Philautia – self love
• Ludus – flirtatious/playful love
• Eros – romantic and erotic love.

Love, as an emotion, has the power to motivate. Storge motivates us to care for and protect our families; eros motivates us to take the risk to commit; philautia motivates us to take care of our bodies.

Love has the power to transcend. Agape moves us to do our best for others. Ludus finds us gifting others with our moments of dazzling brilliance -- or our clumsy attempts at wittiness. Pragma transcends the ravages of time.

Love is one of the forces that changes the world. The other is anger; however, anger without love can become destruction rather than creation.

I've said nothing that's not already been said; perhaps that is the curse of being a writer. But I write with love, and maybe that makes the difference.

Day 32 Lenten Meditation: Surrender

This is a difficult column for me to write, because I am the sort of person who wants to fix things, to do things, to make things happen. I don't like getting into situations where I can't make things happen.

I don't surrender easily. I am convinced that if I beat my head against something long enough, I will accomplish it.

Some things, however, don't lend themselves to beating one's head against something long enough. A pandemic, for example. I sit here, helpless. I can do nothing. I can't even sew well enough to make masks.  

This is the point where I have to surrender. I'll be honest, I don't believe that God will take away the pandemic, or that it's His will that millions of people will get this disease. My God, when I believe in him, gives comfort and strength and the clarity for us to use our minds to solve things. So I don't surrender to God's will. I surrender to my own imperfect humanity.

Day 31 Lenten Meditation : Support

One of the most enduring traits of humanity is its ability to support each other during times of crisis. Just some of the supports I have seen during shelter-in-place are the following:

• Education units (pre-K through higher education) quickly mobilizing to online without a break, and with sensitivity to students' needs
• Textbook publishers allowing free access to online textbooks over the duration of the sheltering
• Internet Archive offering free access to their library
• Local Facebook groups helping each other meet needs
• Outreach by the Instagram cat community reminding us to take care of ourselves (I suppose there are others, but I tune into the cat community)
• Countless others
• Harbor Freight's donations of N95 masks and face shields to hospitals
• People on social media reaching out to the more vulnerable
• And so many I'm not aware of

I'm not counting the millions of businesses, small and large, who are adapting their businesses to face our current reality -- online and curbside. The businesses who are adapting their production to fit our current needs. (I'm only not counting them because there's a profit motive).

The way humanity gets through these calamities -- pandemic, natural disaster, war -- is through supporting each other. We much each be supported, and we must each provide support.

Day 30 Lenten Meditation: Inspiration

As a writer, inspiration is where the universe and my imagination connect, whether that be the world outside my door or the world inside my head. And where the two interact, sparks fly, and I am driven to put pen to paper and translate the gestalt impressions of the interaction.

Inspiration is open to all of us, not just creatives. It still marks the intersection point of internal and external worlds even if one is inspired to clean the kitchen or plant a garden. 

How can we encourage inspiration? We can by being open to the world outside our heads. We have already experienced, and are always experiencing, the world inside our heads. We need something new to reflect on and to ruminate on.

A change of scenery helps. Sheltering in place during the pandemic makes for a monotonous experience, but one's scenery can also be changed by reading or watching videos. All that is needed is inducement of the spark by external experience.

Open-mindedness certainly helps. We all interpret the world according to an inner framework, a set of rules that governs our perception of reality. Don Juan Matus, in Carlos Castaneda's writings, called this the tonal, but that's not important. What is is that our inner construct of reality filters our world for us. If we let go of it, even a little piece of it, just for the briefest moment, we can see our world differently and be inspired. 

Right now, we need to feel inspired. We need to feel that spark to motivate us, whether toward mundane or glorious tasks. Inspiration will help us see our social isolation as opportunity and allow us to remodel our inner and outer spaces to be more creative, more pleasing, and more nurturing.

Day 29 Lenten Meditation: Trust

It's easy to make a blanket statement that we should trust people more. This statement, however, is simplistic and wrong. 

We should be careful who we trust. There are people out there who would use our trust to secure unfair financial gain from us. There are those who would use our trust to destroy our lives. There are those who would use our trust to elevate themselves to the level of a cult leader, which we have seen in the form of cults of personality, religious cults, fringe political movements, and militant cults.

We cannot blindly trust. So how do we manage trust safely?

1) Don't use heuristics as a substitute for information. A heuristic is an information-sorting rule that substitutes, often poorly, for the actual information. We use heuristics every day to our peril: "He's a clergyman. I can trust him with my kids." "I heard it on TV -- it must be correct." "Nothing illegal could be happening in such a nice neighborhood."  We should be asking questions: What are this person's actual credentials? Do they extend to the area in which we are trusting them?

2) Practice risk/benefit. Does the risk of having our trust betrayed outweigh the benefit of trusting? Use this to set a boundary around every decision involving trust: Would I trust this politician to take out my appendix? Would I trust the person I've just met to take care of my children? Would I trust anyone other than my spouse with my bank account number? 

3) Weigh the emotional against reason. We often choose to trust for emotional reasons -- relief, cease from worry, desire. Emotions can be powerful, but they can be countered by rational thinking as I've outlined above: information, risk/benefit. Force yourself to wait.  

4) Be extra cautious in times of turmoil. We are desperate to trust, so we become less discriminating; we want to believe and so we give our trust to the unscrupulous. Remember that, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. 

To some extent, we need to trust, or else we will miss out on our connection with others. We will miss out on having our needs met. We will not thrive. However, we can trust wisely and protect ourselves, in times of turmoil and in times of calm.

Day 28 Lenten Meditation : Fire

It's difficult to reflect right now, as I am scared of what's happening in the United States. But I want to keep my daily rituals as a method of surviving this mentally.
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Fire consumes. It destroys -- houses, forests, lives. 

Fire warms and feeds. When we capture and contain fire, it becomes a lifesaving force in our houses.

Fire soothes, as we watch it dance in a fireplace.

Fire inflames -- we use it as a metaphor for passion.

Fire reflects human complexity in its many, many aspects, which might explain why we're so fascinated with it.

Day 27 Lenten Meditation: Struggle

In this time of contagion, all of us are struggling.

We struggle through anxiety, isolation, sleepless nights. Essential personnel struggle with overwork and worry about their own health. We all suffer uncertainty about whether we can be infected.

We were created or evolved to be concerned about our tribe, to find comfort in each other. We were created or evolved to help each other in times of struggle. In our current case, it is hard to seek comfort in a time of social distancing. Hugs are prohibited, as are gatherings. We make do with the Internet. We comfort ourselves with the belief that this will not last forever. 

In this, we are united with others worldwide -- with China, with Italy, with all the world that has been touched by COVID-19. It is a sign of our shared humanity that we can worry, we can sorrow, we can all catch this disease. The world is our tribe, and although we may be powerless to help others through their struggle, we can at least think charitably toward others, even though they are not of our tribe. Because that is how we survive in struggle.

Day 26 Lenten Meditation: Justice

The dictionary defines justice as "the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness:to uphold the justice of a cause." (Dictionary.com, 2020). We can break a discussion of justice down into procedural justice, that is the justice of laws and courts, and social justice, the justice dealt with in society and in philosophy and religion (Beyond Intractability, 2020). For this essay, I'm going to focus on social justice.

Social justice is, de facto, the justice of the "other". The majority are comfortable, or at least stable in their well-being. Those who need to be brought into equity are the minority. 

In this day, "social justice" is seen as the realm of liberals who agitate for better conditions for those in poverty, those who have escaped brutal conditions in their former countries, those whose differences have marked them as "other". Perhaps this is because philosophy and religion, to a large part, are failing at their job. 

Religion used to be the force for feeding the poor and caring for the afflicted in hospital; to some extent it still is. But that care often came with strings attached, failing the "other" by rejecting its needs, and that is not social justice. 

It is only social justice if it can be granted to the downtrodden, the sick, the needy who are truly the other, who are not like us. Those who are not practicing social justice need only look to our religious books to see the exhortation to social justice.

References:

Beyond Intractability. (2020). Types of justice. Available: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/types_of_justice [March 22, 2020]

Dictionary.com (2020). Justice. Available: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/justice [March 22, 2020].

Day 25 Lenten Meditation: Craft

(Note to readers: I am struggling with intermittent panic attacks over the whole COVID-19 situation. I will, however, give you my best.)
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A craft is not a hobby. A craft, instead, represents a set of skills, tools as it were, used to create. We can create with words, with music, with wood or clay, with yarn or fabric. But the key is creation.

A craft requires a human capital investment in one's creative and maker skills. This takes time and money. Practice, classes, mentoring -- all of these are how the crafter hones their skills. This is why those in the crafts get frustrated when someone offers "exposure" for a handcrafted sweater or a sketch. 


A craft brings beauty to the world, as it is an expression of the primal creation.

Day 24 Lenten Meditation: Grace

As ever we needed grace, we need it right now, in the middle of this pandemic.

Divine Grace means "Love and Mercy without us having done anything to earn it." As a Quaker, though, I can't help but think of "that of God in everyone", and concentrate on what we need to do to manifest grace on earth.

In Divine grace, love embraces all of humanity, not because of their pecuniary worth but because they are, simply, a miracle. It extends  a hand regardless of what the other can do for you. It means being bigger than squabbles, greater than divisions.

In Divine grace, mercy means relinquishing power over other people and holding only goodness. It means accepting their faults and looking beyond them at their humanity.*

We need divine grace right now. We need to see ourselves as denizens of a world that is suffering even as we are, perhaps suffering more -- a world where we are all nations, all ages, all genders, all socioeconomic statuses, all religions and none. We need to offer love and mercy, not because we will receive it back, but because it is demanded of us.



*Mercy doesn't necessarily mean becoming a victim. You can protect yourself from harm without denigrating the other. 

Day 23 Lenten Meditation: Freedom

I highly doubt the person at the Unitarian Universalist Church who created these daily meditations counted on COVID-19 and social isolation. For the sake of our fellow humans, we have forsaken our freedom to congregate in groups and socialize in mass events. Freedom, it seems, is defined by not having it.

In these days, we realize that freedom has a cost. Those who speak about the military say "Freedom is not always free". What they're missing is that freedom is never free. Freedom to congregate in the days of Novel Coronavirus means the virus will spread faster. Freedom of choice at the supermarket leaves us bewildered. And freedom to choose weapons that can kill tens of people in minutes costs society many more innocent lives. 

If we have freedom, we have responsibility to others. A free market economy requires corporate responsibility to customers and workers, which doesn't always happen, thus the need for laws. The freedom to bear arms requires responsibility to keep those guns from the hands of children, which sadly fails too many times. We do not handle our freedoms well.

I hadn't expected this to be such a somber reflection. We usually talk about freedom in lofty terms in the US, leaving the costs of freedom on the shoulders of soldiers who fight for American interests. But we all have a responsibility to make decisions for the whole about how much freedom we should allow.

Day 22 Lenten Meditation: Remorse

Remorse: Deep regret or guilt for a wrong committed. This is what the dictionary tells me. I look at this definition, and I realize that remorse isn't the garden-variety guilt we get from sneaking cookies into the movie theatre or taking the last parking lot. Regret exists in the context of having committed some wrong.

Remorse, as the definition says, is also deep. No twinge of guilt for picking up the last roll of toilet paper on the shelf. Remorse drops us to our knees. It is heart-rending.

Remorse is necessary. It exists to spur us into action, into remediation, into restitution. It exists to bring us back into community, as we were meant to be.  

Remorse is vital to our lives. 

Day 21 Lenten Meditation: Wind

This is not so much a meditation but a cautionary tale about wanting to wield strength indiscriminately:

Anna raised her arms, stretched out her fingers. The slightest breeze tickled her fingertips and rustled her cloud of fine, frizzy blonde hair. She remembered what the old woman had told her at the market as Anna clutched the basket full of potatoes and leeks. “Your family were weather talents for the Crown way back when,” the woman asked, regarding her with opaque eyes. “The talent died out, or so they say. Nobody knows why.”

Anna reached toward the words, feeling them sing in her chest. Talent, she thought. I could be a talent. Something different, something more. More than the youngest child of a farmer in a small village running errands for her beleaguered mother. Anna ran away from the old woman without bidding her farewell.

She had run straight for the forest with the basket, avoiding her mother, avoiding her house. It was not hers to be the child of a farmer. She knew, she knew in her heart that there was a name for her difference and her destiny now.

And so, she stood in the deepest part of the forest. She imagined the breeze tickling her fingers as she froze in that uncomfortable position, arms outstretched. Minutes later, she felt it – the breeze increased, stirring the leaves around her, making them whisper.

Was it her? She concentrated harder. When she squinted, she could see the invisible currents eddying around her, her own chilling microclimate she was insensate to. She wove the currents, warp and woof, as she had many days at her mother’s loom.  This, this was her destiny, to call the winds up for the King, to live in court, to leave behind her existence on the farm.

The breeze became a torrent of air, tangling her hair and snapping branches. Her vision drilled down to individual particles she could not name. She stirred those particles like a pot on the stove, watching them whirl.

This is mine! She felt the triumphant surge of her heart. Mine and only mine, to smite anyone who would gainsay me!

Her heart felt lighter than air.

Anna’s mother noted her child’s absence as the wind howled. She feared for her daughter, the unbiddable one.

Then she heard the voice in the wind: Mine and only mine, and she thought of her family stories of talent and consequence.

In the morning, Anna’s father found Anna standing upright in the woods, devoid of life. When he touched her shoulder, however, she crumbled into dust as if all its substance had dissolved into air.

He brought the tidings back to his wife with a handful of the dust that had been Anna. His wife merely nodded; she had heard the tales of her family’s wind talent and its price.

Day 20 Lenten Meditation: Change

Right now, the buzzword is "social distancing" in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. We didn't know how ingrained our habits were -- going shopping, going to classes, meeting with friends -- until we were advised not to do them. 

Our discomfort is palpable, mingled with the fear of the unknown contagion. The hesitation when we think for a moment of our habits, then realize that we've had to change the way we look at our everyday routine.

Change, even anticipated change, hits us this way: discomfort, disorientation. A feeling like walking in the wrong direction, like we are uneasy in our own bodies. Fear of the unknown.

Because of this, we often avoid change. We avoid the messages that we need to change, such as in this COVID-19 pandemic, we avoid making beneficial changes because the status quo is so comfortable. 

How do we make change easier? Information -- the more we can penetrate the unknown, the more we know what the change will create. An analysis of pros/cons or risk/benefits for each option, change or no change.

We need to choose change by testing that it is the best option, whether it reduces harm or increases good. 

Day 19 Lenten Meditation: Resistance

In movies, we root for the resistance, the underdogs who fight unjust systems -- Star Wars, for one shining example; The Matrix, V for Vendetta, The Help, Hidden Figures, Remember the Titans, Erin Brockovich, for others. 

It's a popular trope, yet we do not often resist the unjust powers over our own lives. We lament, we grouse, we vent, but do we resist? Resistance requires us to stand up to the power, whether overtly or covertly, and that means to step into potential danger. 

There are many understandable reasons why we do not resist. First, because we don't perceive ourselves in enough potential harm to take the risk. Second, because there are people in our lives we want to protect. Third, we're just plain tired and it just can't get any worse, can it?

It most certainly can get worse. Think of Nazi Germany and any parallels to the current state of America. I will not say we've become complacent, yet the Democrats squabble over their candidates and the Republicans believe that Trump is their best choice in the primaries. Yet we do not move.)

Resistance, in my opinion, needs to be non-violent as long as possible, so I'm not going to advocate the Star Wars solution until or unless we're facing destruction from star destroyers. 

• It can be protest, which may accomplish something if enough people do it for long enough. I think about protests in Poland, which have prevented some authoritarian actions there. 
• It can be subverting the paradigm -- I think about the Norwegians in WWII and their use of humor against the Nazis, destroying their morale: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/during-the-nazi-occupation-of-norway-humor-was-the-secret-weapon
• It can be refusal to take action, but this must be clearly because the action is wrong and not because the person doesn't want to do it. And the action has to be clearly wrong. Civil disobedience is my favorite example: occupying buildings and other public spaces, risking arrest to protest war, violence, disruption of rights, and corporate irresponsibility.
• It can be social media, which is the resistance I see the most in America. The issue, though, is the swell of resistance is pitted against conspiracy theories, Russian bots, and other misinformation. We must prove our assertions with truth, even when accurate information seems useless -- the truth will out.
• It can't be offensive -- which encompasses everything from riots to mailing dangerous materials to bomb threats to violence.  Resorting to violence makes the resister look like an extremist, which means they've lost. 
• It can't have worse consequences than what the resister is fighting. I think about people who refuse to vote if their presidential candidate isn't nominated. By inaction, they may be choosing the greater of two evils.

There will always be injustice toward people. So resist injustice, even if the injustice is not aimed toward you. 

Day 18 Lenten Meditation: Music

A long time ago, a friend told me, "I don't believe in God, but I do believe in music. Music is a force holding together the universe."

Even to this day, I can't say he was wrong. The music of the spheres in the greatness of the universe, a lullaby sung by a mother, the communal experience of a mosh pit or a church service, the sad song on the playlist -- all have the sense of the divine in them.

We turn to music for celebration, for comfort, for commemoration, for unity. We praise, we seduce, we tease, we shout for joy, we share our humanity, we lament -- all through music. To quote my friend Greg again, "Music is a force holding together the universe."

Day 17 Lenten Meditation: Doubt

I thought Doubting Thomas was the most reasonable person in the Bible. I don't know if I believe the story went as written; so many hands have messed the Bible up. I guess I'm like Thomas.

He had very understandable questions in the aftermath of Jesus' resurrection. It was a violation of natural rules, observed for millennia, and he pointed this out. In a more educated time, he could have gone to college and become an academic. He had the right to question, and in that, he represents all of us.

We live with doubt, and for good reason. Because of doubt, we avoid the false cures of snake oil salesmen and the too-good-to-be-true promises of scammers. Doubt is a potent defense mechanism.

There is, however, a point where doubt is counter-productive. What if good research tells you that the doubt is unfounded? What if there's more true benefit than risk? What if doubt is keeping you from a richer human experience?

We need doubt. We need to know when to let go of doubt.

Day 16 Lenten Meditation: Wisdom

Note: I apologize for missing two days of meditation: I was at a cabin retreating from life for a little while. It didn't have reliable internet so I didn't post. I did, however, meditate a lot.

Today's meditation is about wisdom. Wisdom is not just knowledge, it's knowledge put into play in the context of the wider world behind it. Knowledge is knowing the facts; wisdom is knowing how to use the facts. Wisdom is the knowledge that comes from experience and learning from experience, and is flexible enough to take everything into account.

Some people say wisdom comes from age, but there are many old fools out there that prove the lie. Some of those fools, unfortunately, are in the government and think themselves very wise. However, knowledge is knowing how to build a nuclear bomb; wisdom is never building it in the first place. 

Wisdom doesn't always follow the status quo; it forges new paths to promote the well-being of human beings all over the world as well as the earth and nature itself. Wisdom requires us to use our knowledge in new ways, evolving with the needs of creation.

Wisdom is what will save us; knowledge is not enough.

Day 13 Lenten Meditation: Dance

If I don't dance, nobody gets hurt.

It's true. I'm preternaturally clumsy. I once broke my foot dancing. In Renaissance garb, so I looked twice as impressive in the emergency room. I could just as easily broken my partner's foot as we took a full gallop down two lines of dancers. Renaissance dancing wasn't very demanding, even, and I broke my foot.

I'm sure the person who wrote these meditations meant this in a spiritual sense, but this is not my metaphor. To me, "dance" means "spend three months in a cast". 

I'm kidding, sort of. I'm also the person who wrote the lyrics to the following song:

To dance naked in this pool of light
is all the moment requires of me -- 
eyes closed, as if I were alone
but I know you are there almost
almost close enough to touch,
almost close enough to feel
My hand reaches out to touch your face
and touches air -- I am not close enough
I am not close enough

In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other's eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other's eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
I am not close enough
I am not close enough

Last night I woke up from a terrible dream
I was standing lonely in the wilderness
with no one close enough to hear
but I knew you were there almost
almost close enough to touch,
almost close enough to feel
My hand reaches out to touch your face
and touches air -- You were not close enough
You were not close enough

In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other's eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other's eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
I am not close enough
I am not close enough

I shed my clothes to dance in light
alone, spinning wildly into sky
my hand reaches out to touch your face
and touches air, and touches life
almost close enough to touch
almost close enough to feel
my hand reaches out to touch your face
I touch your hand and we are close enough
and we are close enough

In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other's eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other's eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
And we are close enough

Day 12 Lenten Meditation: Inclusion

It is easy to avoid those who make you uncomfortable. Those of a different culture, those who act differently, those who speak differently. It's easy, but it's not fair. Or kind. Or right.

It's easy to ostracize those who are different. Those with disabilities, those of a different color, those who are too smart or not smart enough. It's easy, but it's not fair. Or kind. Or right.

Inclusion is difficult. In a classroom, it means having children with disabilities, especially those that get in the way of learning, in the same classroom as other children, working with aides who help them work around their disabilities. In the workplace, it means teaching the majority how to treat the minority with the same courtesy one treats their acquaintances. In everyday life, it means cultural competence and the ability to see the world through the other's eyes. All of these require effort, discomfort, and honesty to oneself.

Inclusion is necessary. Humans evolved because of their ability to adapt. They evolved from genetic difference that led to more adaptation. We evolved socially with differences among people. We only adapt when there is difference -- different attitudes, different experiences. We must include others for the sake of our own future.

And because it's fair, kind, and right.

Day 11 Lenten Meditation: Play

Play is necessary to life.

Play is a way to engage ourselves with the world in unexpected ways, ways that invite laughter and more play.

There's a common trope that says we lose our ability to play when we get older, but I see a lot of evidence to the contrary. Cosplay, practical jokes, puns, Internet memes -- all of these are evidence that play still exists. 

For those who have lost play, I suggest one simple exercise: Find a swing set, and climb into the seat. And then swing, heedless of who might see. Feel the laughter break forth from you, and that's the result of play. 

Then work your way up to fingerpainting, or talking to yourself in silly voices. Engage yourself in the messy, the ludicrous, and feel that laughter again. Get rid of the self-consciousness and just play. 

Day 10 Lenten Meditation: Imagination

Imagination is perhaps my greatest gift.

Imagination saved my life in a bleak childhood, when I spaced out in school imagining the dialogue of two princes plotting to kill each other, created story lines where I alternatively saved and was saved by classmates, and envisioned elaborate backgrounds to the music I listened to on my AM radio. 

The times when I have had nothing else -- times of illness in a behavioral health ward, lonely times in my depressive episodes, times of failure -- I have had the ability to create images in my head, create words in my heart. To see what was not immediately there.

Imagination is perhaps the world's greatest gift. We live in a world of strife, so we imagine peace. We live in a world of climate change, so we imagine solutions. Then we change the world.

Day 9 Lenten Meditation: Community

According to researchers (Grouzet et al, 2005), community is a universal goal across cultures. It appears not just a goal, but a need. Matthew Lieberman, in his book Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (2013) cites thousands of research articles to make the case that we were born craving community. 

How do we get community? Some get it through church, others through clubs and volunteer work. Some get it at their favorite coffeehouse or bar. Many of us get it online, but there we have to struggle with antagonism as well, destroying our sense of community. 

Against community, we have no way to define ourselves. We have nobody to turn to when we are suffering, nobody to take care of us when we are sick, no one to celebrate with when we triumph. Even introverts need community -- perhaps one person at a time.

Where is your community?



Grouzet, F., Kasser, T., Ahuvia, A., Fernandez-Dols, J., Kim, Y., Lau, S.,Ryan, R., Saunders, S., Schmuck, P., Sheldon, K. (2005). The structure of goal contents across 15 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 89. 800-16. 10.1037/0022-3514.89.5.800. 

Lieberman, M. (2013). Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. Crown Publishing.

Day 8 Lenten Meditation: Silence

How do we know ourselves if not for silence? We only know our outward selves -- our careers, our social networks, our consumer-driven wants and needs. With silence we lose our external selves for a moment, and find our internal one. And then we pass beyond self to the big Unity, the center of silence.

There are many ways to find silence. Unplugging from the phone, meditating, silent worship, walking alone in a peaceful place. Anything that quiets not only the external but the internal chatter, our constant defining of the world.

As a Quaker, I am accustomed to silent worship. We believe that in the silence, The Divine speaks to us. Silence isn't only reserved for worship, but in everyday life. We believe that we must live simple lives so that there's undistracted space for us to listen to our small, still voice. That's another type of silence.

A little bit of silence is my prescription to you.

Day 7 Lenten Meditation: Dust

We have a natural antipathy to dust, perhaps because it's something we can't control. Dust is ubiquitous. Dust exceeds our ability to clean as it sparkles in the sun drifting through windows. 

Dust symbolizes the useless and unclean. In the Bible, the Apostles were instructed to knock the dust of inhospitable towns from their sandals on the way out. (This is especially noteworthy as feet were seen as unclean in that culture.) Dusting is a regular part of housecleaning, and neglecting to do it will raise the scorn of neighbors.

Dust inspires poetry about death and mortality. "Unto dust you shall return ..." declares the Roman Catholic mass on Ash Wednesday. 

We do not like to think about dust. We will never love dust, and that is fine. We will fight dust, like we fight filth, like we fight against death.

But in the end, it will win. 

Day 6 Lenten Meditation: Creativity

Every morning I create the sun,
dandified provider of the morn,
huge and lurid rose against the dawn.

Every evening, I create the moon,
cool and glorious minder of the night,
phasing in and out and back again.

Every midnight, I create the world,
anchor for the stuff of dreams unfurled.

Day 5 Lenten Meditation: Sanctuary

We all need a place to feel safe. 

Whether safety means the need to get away from a hard day at work, a sense of loss from trauma, or an immediate threat to one's well-being, sanctuary is necessary.

Some find sanctuary in a closed door, a meditation session, or a safe community. Some find sanctuary in writing, or art, or other engrossing activity. Some find sanctuary in family or friends, or in religion.

Inside each of us, no matter how old we are, is our memory of childhood, which was safe or not safe, That part of fears the unknown as something dangerous. That young self yearns for sanctuary. 

We can't stay in sanctuary forever, because if we do, we are fugitives from live. Nobody needs to be safe forever. But it's good that sanctuary is there when we feel threatened.