THREE BLESSINGS FOR SPRING

Whatever our faith we need times to repent and rejoice.  Repent for what we have done or left undone. And rejoice for the forgiveness we receive from those we have harmed, our friends or our family. . . .  Forgiveness also from God.  Forgiveness that is open to all humanity without condition.  What could be more freeing than repenting and forgiving? We all find that receiving a sincere apology for a hurt brings an almost immediate calm.  When someone recognizes that they have wounded us, our soul can breath again.  Repentance, forgiveness, rejoicing.  Three blessings that allow us to thrive. This is most certainly true. 

Today is the 4th Sunday in Lent, a day when Christians traditionally take respite from the penitence of early Lent as encouragement to the coming action of taking up the Cross and carrying it through the Crucifixion of Good Friday until the Resurrection and rejoicing of Easter Sunday.  

So today in church was a rejoicing Sunday. This morning's guest choir was the Duke Amandla Chorus, an African music group that performs traditional music from African countries in their native languages.   Like many, my husband and I love the traditional music of Africa.  We have visited when our daughter taught in Lebowa, at that time a nonindependent homeland for the northern Sotho people.  

The first offertory anthem today was an invitation in the Swati language from the landlocked Kingdom of Eswatini (also known as Swaziland). Here are the words of "Ngena Nawe" in English. 

Here is the door

The door to life

It has been opened for you

It's wide open for you

Enter, you are welcome

For your freedom and upliftment

Do not hesitate

It is also open for you

Here are the gates

The door to life

It's wide open for you

Wake up; listen to his Glory

Do not forget

The door to happiness

Is wide open for you

Do not be afraid

The living waters

Have come abundantly and with strength

Come in, you are welcome

This is the source of life

Drink, drink

This is all for you

You are invited to eat; eat, be merry, be filled

What welcoming words.  "Here is the door, It has been opened for you, It's wide open for you."  This could be a meditative refrain.  So affirming no matter what our beliefs are.  A place to enter for "freedom and upliftment."  "The door to happiness is wide open" for us. For me I think of the door to eternal life as well as the day-to-day happiness that is available to us all.  I hear compassion for self and others.  You may hear something else.  I wish everyone could have heard the drumming, the call and response. And felt the rhythms.  So Lent can be as energetic and joyous as Spring.  It was today.   

 

 

MINDFULNESS FOR THE NEW YEAR

The more I learn about mindfulness the more it seems to be a new(ish) word for some very old concepts.  Living with awareness of the world around us.  Doing one thing at a time and doing it the best we can. Focusing on the present rather than what's over and done. Or yet to come.  Paying attention.  Judging less. Tossing mental baggage. Seeking out the quiet soul. . . . None of these is a new idea.  Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) says,

 Forever is composed of nows 

Yes.  We agree. But how often do we remember it?

I suppose the opposite of mindfulness would be mindlessness.  When we act out of old habits.  Or don't know what day it is.  Or work at such speed we are like high-functioning zombies. Or scroll through our mail while a friend or child is waiting for a little companionship. Zone out. Hasn't this happened to us all?

Writer Ann Lamott (b. 1954) says, 

Almost anything will work better if you unplug it for a few moments. . . including you. 

So what can we do to work better this year? I've found a bunch of ideas that all sort of fit under the rubric of mindfulness.  Most are from experts in their fields.  They seem helpful. See what you think.

• Recognize the myth of multitasking.  A way to over-stress, increase errors and reduce productivity.  Who knew? That slowing down is not lazy but smart. I love it!

• Acknowledge that our brains adapt to behaviors we repeat, positive or negative.  So choose positive behaviors to repeat. Many of my negative behaviors involve thoughts. I'm going to work on this. If a thought takes me nowhere I'm going to try my best to let it wither. 

• Rejoice in ordinary things.  Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chodron (b. 1936) says,

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. 

 

Oh my. This is most certainly true.  Art and music, exercise, reading and writing,         gardening and cooking, observing people and nature. All these are ordinary things.  We say a lady bug is good luck because we rejoice in ordinary things.  We love finding a caterpillar.  Or a four-leaf clover. Or seeing a falling star. The list of ordinary things that makes us happy goes on and on doesn't it?  

• Encourage conversations at a depth we will find interesting.  I saw this suggestion in a magazine called Mindfulness Made Simple.  Focus and draw one another out. Lean in to a conversation.  Ask why or how.   Know that every person is worth our attention. 

• Try to enjoy what we do.  At work enjoy supporting our colleagues, helping others, being intellectually or physically challenged.  At home think of house and yard work as exercise, enjoy feeding or eating with our families, giving and receiving love, feathering our nest, or just being ourselves.

•  Acknowledge limits:  cultural norms, money, age, health, talents or time.  Then decide what to do about them.  American activist and academic Angela Davis (b. 1944), an advocate for the homeless, the unemployed, and the mentally ill says:  

I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change...I'm changing the things I cannot accept. 

 

I like this idea, trying within our means to help change the unacceptable. There is so much of it today.  

This is enough of a beginning for me, these six challenges. Are they new or old for you?  I think the point is to do more of what works for us and less of what doesn't.  In 2018 to find or repeat what works for us, that we enjoy or that educates us, kindles our curiosity or helps us understand the world better, makes us finer people or helps others.  This is good.  

Van Gogh