Balance

  I write often about the power of love and I spend much of my day in a semi-meditative state in which I can feel and respond to that power.  I am also gifted with a very strong intellect which I switch to and use several times a day.  When I write “switch to” I mean that my intellect comes to predominate at those times.  My intellect predominates while when doing things like listening to the news, reading a scientific journal or paying bills.  My intellect is a very important tool for my daily functioning, but I am also smart enough to see its limitations.  They are both important parts of me which I balance every day.  “To understand better the value of silence in daily life, and its relation to this spiritual transformation for which we yearn, it is useful first to consider the limitation of language, of words.....It is next useful to contemplate the limitations of logical reasoning.”  (Silence: Our Eye On Eternity, by Daniel A. Seeger)

Power of Love

  Back in a basic social work class while studying for my masters in social work, I was given a surprise opportunity to address a whole class for an hour on why I chose social work.  I quickly and privately asked  for guidance and support from God. I then spoke vulnerably, lovingly  and openly about myself and my history.  Basically I spoke my truth and let God speak through me, without ever mentioning the source.  I created a sacred space.  The whole class responded by opening up — a magical moment.  After the semester was over one of the students approached me and asked “How does it feel to know you changed a whole class for a whole semester? I can describe in detail the events that took place, but not what really happened.  I cannot describe the power.  I have experienced the power of love/God many times and know the feeling well and like then I can describe the events and say the words — but not the reality.  “So long as we are satisfied to confine our attention to exact description of what is, and to study of antecedent causes, the dramatic features of the universe will necessarily escape us, and we shall get no intimation of an Intelligence operative throughout the unfolding drama.” (from Rufus Jones Speaks To Our Time: An Anthology, edited by Harry Emerson Fosdick)

My Life

  I lead a relatively quiet and peaceful life, I have even called my life monastic at times.  It’s a quiet life of service immersed in love for everything and everybody.  Many years ago I asked to see things the way God does.  Now I believe I do (except at times when I allow myself to get distracted!).  My love is a gift I am very grateful for.  “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.” (Silence: Our Eye On Eternity, by Daniel A. Seeger)