Spiritual Life

My sense is that Maria, my wife, and I have created a "zone" of love, spirit, service, healing and well-being on and immediately surrounding this property. Today while doing my morning ceremony and mowing the front lawn I could feel it. The plants and animals on our property seem to sense it too, and do well accordingly. My wife and I treat this property as sacred and attempt to act in accordance with the zone. In the words of Patricia Loring "We can cultivate an environment among us which will foster one another’s spiritual growth by directing and redirecting intention and attention to God; by discouraging what draws us away; by loving support for each other in the vicissitudes of our utterly human lives; by respecting and cherishing the uniqueness of each life."

Understanding Is Not Required

Today I had the last of three MRIs done for the medical people I deal with and I was very aware of the clash between their world view and mine. I had the MRIs done on the recommendation of my most recent neurologist who wants to re-diagnose me since my current condition does not fit with my existing diagnosis of cerebellar degeneration, especially since my condition has not gotten progressively worse. There is a very strong effort to fit my condition into some known and well defined category. The clash comes in because I am quite comfortable living with the "unknown and unknowable". My world is not neat and well defined - and I am good with that. Understanding is not required.

Presence

During my daily activities I regularly encounter a loving, creative and very powerful force which I have come to know as God. I sense this force, presence or power while meditating, doing my healing work, working in the garden and exercising. It’s always there and all around us - we just have to be open to it, a wonderful thing. As Elaine Pagels says "Yet I sometimes encountered, in churches and elsewhere—in the presence of a venerable Buddhist monk, in the cantor’s singing at a bar mitzvah, and on mountain hikes—something compelling, powerful, even terrifying that I could not ignore, and I had come to see that, besides belief, Christianity involves practice—and paths toward transformation."

Seeking Guidance

Tonight I was looking over yesterday’s blog entry and I kept thinking of another comment by Patricia Loring, that "To undertake to live a discerned life, to endeavor daily to be attuned to authentic movements of the Spirit leading us into greater fullness of life, is a strenuous undertaking." Today I am exploring what the next step I should take is. I do that through a lot of contemplation and meditation – quiet time – mixed with periods of simple activities like shopping, cooking and exercising. I try not to place any sort of judgement on what comes up and to just stay open. When I write that it sounds easy but it is not, it requires a good deal of clarity and non-attachment.

Service Work

Today I met with two other people at an assisted living facility for a "wellness and spiritual support group". It was a wonderful, loving and supportive experience for all of us. I was primarily in the role of support based on my own experience, but in the role of a "giver" I also receive. My, very human, hope is that this sort of activity will continue and expand - We shall see. I have to remember that I am not in charge! "It requires even more discernment to discover whether the ministry called for from a particular individual in a particular instance requires prophetic speech, humble and hidden activities, bold and dramatic action, professional service or some ,novel and previously unimagined course." (Patricia Loring)

Being Of Service

I lead a peaceful life of loving service along with many other activities that support me and my efforts. I spend a lot of time each day maintaining the inner silence that my life requires in the hope that what I do has a positive impact on the world. In the words of Seeger "It [inner silence] is to establish an inner peace, an inner harmony, which will allow us authentically to contribute to the establishment of an outer peace and an outer harmony in the world at large." He goes on to write "For after all the beautiful and simple words have been spoken, it is still the pattern of that Life which compels attention: its obscure and humble birth; its education in poverty; its temptation, mortification, and solitude; its acts of compassion and service; its desolation at moments of apparent abandonment of the Divine; its painful death of the self; and its final absorption into the Source."