Ordinary Blessings
Ordinary Time is a God-season, just as much as the holy days of Christmas and Easter are. Look to the signs that are all around you. They won't be covered in Christmas lights or available for purchase from the store. Look to your immediate places, your normal pathways; the plants, people and publications that surround your life could be whispering their own important inspirations for how to find meaning and truth as time passes through the year.
We are in Ordinary Time. Did you know? To be precise, we are in the 29th week of Ordinary Time. Perhaps this phrase conjures images of Madeleine L'Engle's young heroine Meg and tesseracts, or perhaps it reminds you of Seattle's notorious slick-wet grey days and how indeed, they have returned-in all their ordinary Northwestness-for months to come. Ordinary Time is actually a season within the Christian liturgical calendar; this English name translates the Latin term Tempus per annum (literally "time through the year"). This time (and there are two) bookends the Christian holy periods of the weeks following Christmas and Lent, and Pentecost and Advent.
While I have grown to truly appreciate the rhythms of the church calendar, I am just a wee bit frustrated with the word association of our current season. Hum-drum and run-of-the-mill are two words that come to mind; they certainly don't sparkle and bellow with bright lights. This phrase seems to denote days that are some how lesser-than, weeks that begin to lose themselves in count beyond 20. When we are told that we are in the 29th week of Ordinary Time, one can almost hear a collective sigh of consternation, "*sigh* Really?! Still just in Ordinary Time?! When will it be Christmas?!" And how can we not long for these stand-apart sacred seasons when their semblances are splashed all over shopping malls and online retail markets as early as late September? The holidays, Christmas, winter break, all seem to be calling out to us from glossy catalog covers to long for their festive, fun-filled days.
Far from ordinary, I prefer to consider this current season a time of quiet and happened-upon blessings. A period when we are challenged to look for the divine in our day-to-day, mundane activities. There are extraordinary things going on all around us, all the time! Do we have the eyes to see? Do we have the ears to hear? A public charge from Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, says it this way:
“Then [Jesus] turned to the crowd: “When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’—and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’—and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now. ”
Ordinary Time is a God-season, just as much as the holy days of Christmas and Easter are. Look to the signs that are all around you. They won't be covered in Christmas lights or available for purchase from the store. Look to your immediate places, your normal pathways; the plants, people and publications that surround your life could be whispering their own important inspirations for how to find meaning and truth as time passes through the year.
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Following are three significant blessings that came my way this week; they were excellent reminders that my seemingly mundane days are filled with the extraordinary!
Rainbow chard from our garden
Blessing of Abundance
Times are financially tight in our household. These seasons of restraint challenge us to make-do with the abundance we already have readily available at home. This week, in particular, there weren't even quarters to spare on healthy greens to augment our dinner. I've taken to simply watching my garden from the inside kitchen windows as the rains and damp cold have taken their grip on our city. However, I remembered that my now grey and nodding sunflowers were planted over my rainbow chard...I grabbed my rain boots and coat and quickly left the kitchen through the back door to examine the gifts at the feet of my dear sunflowers.
Indeed, in these dark and interior-living days, my rainbow chard had shot up more lovely stalks, a challenging statement of bright and vibrant color to the ordinary, clouded Seattle weather. We feasted well that night. We were blessed.
candles at meal time
Blessing of Life
This week we celebrated the seventh year of my first born son. We lit seven candles representing each year of his life; each lit candle corresponding to a memory of that particular year. We noted that with each year of life, the candlelight became brighter and brighter. So too should it be with our lives. With every year of life, every experience lived through, adventure had, wisdom won, we too should be shining all the brighter. Our lives become beacons of light for those who are in dark places, for we are given Light/Life to give it away. Furthermore, our task is to perceive the Light in which all exists, and to live from that perception. Our luminescence can be cleared and become brighter when we go through challenging times as well; tears of sorrow for our callousness towards ourselves, others and the earth allow us to behold one another (and the universe!) as a sacred whole.
We delighted in the candle light on our son's birthday evening. We are blessed by the light of his life and the reminder to be light to others all the time!
Blessing of Story
A couple weeks ago, we began reading E.B.White's Charlotte's Webwith our boys. Being the city-kids that they are, this 1952 classic took a bit of warming up time. However, by Chapter 10--what with rope swings and exploding rotten eggs--the boys were hooked. More importantly, their hearts were hooked. Through this tale of adventurous friendship, they have been reminded that relationship is risky; connections with others call you to give of your life and energy on behalf of each other, no matter what. This is what living life together means. Because we are in one another's life, we choose to risk: we risk our time, resources and energy for the sake of someone else. Why? Quite simply, I believe it is because of Love. The essentials of life, of which friendship most definitely is, can always be boiled down to the Golden Rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. The web that weaves all of us together-including the miraculous web that entwines Wilbur the pig, Charlotte the spider and Templeton the rat-is one based in Love and expressed in relationship.
I hugged my boys all the tighter after we finished the book this week. As tears streamed down their young, fresh cheeks (and mine as well, to be honest), we talked about what it means to be a friend, and concluded that it is the most precious thing to be.
"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what't a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little bit of that." (Charlotte's Web, E.B.White)
Other and the Future
this is the hopeful intention of Waymarkers: the blog. Our lives are a pilgrimage. Each of us has been called to journey thoughtfully and intentionally through our days. We are asked to see the sacred all around us, but specifically in those other than ourselves. What exactly does this mean? It really is as simple as it sounds: anyone OTHER than you. This includes those that don’t look like you, act like you, live like you, or think like you. We are called to see them, travel with them, and yes, even live on BEHALF of them. This process of linking Other to our self begins the transformational unfolding of Other becoming Neighbor, and ultimately, in practicing the universal command of “Love your neighbor as yourself”, becoming your self. For when this conversion occurs, we suddenly cannot look away from the injustices and pain experienced by those other than ourselves, for it is now happening to US. We now journey forward on behalf of a common good for ALL.
This post initiates me into the blogosphere universe and I find that I am both excited and apprehensive. Like that of any new journey, the excitement comes from a seat of knowing that there has been much preparation and direction to get to this point and the time has now come to cross the threshold (into the blogging world, that is). The tension to the thrill is held by trepidation; I mean, what if these words, thoughts and stories mean nothing to all of you who inhabit these virtual landscapes? This nagging fear of the unknown, quite honestly, slows my poised fingers as they hover over the keyboard. There is great risk when one travels with transparency and journeys out from places of comfort. But, I have a strong sense of solace knowing that without these steps away from what is known and familiar, that which is HOME to me will never expand and challenge me to continue to become all who I am intended to be.
And that is really quite it; that is what I have been thinking about, reading about and talking about for years: in what ways are we intentionally living (for the sake of metaphor, insert 'journeying') out our lives so that when the pilgrimage cycles commence and begin again, we are engaging in this dynamic cycle of calling, departure, arrival, to—ultimately—Home again. It is this sense of Home that is compelling to me. Of course we have our structural residences, but I’m talking about the conceptual framework of this internal habitat. What is it that is so familiar and comfortable that it is like home to us? What does it look like? Who are the neighbors? Who lives and visits within the walls? What meals are shared? Who do we encounter on our Journey that is brought into the hearth of our Home and how does this simple act of hospitality create a culture of common good?
One of the ancient principals of pilgrimage was that the pilgrim was journeying on behalf of something. Whether that was a prayer, a petition, in penitence or even traveling in place of someone who couldn’t make the trek themselves, there was an elemental understanding that the journey was taking place on account of something, or someone, far greater. This positioned the pilgrim to travel in such a way that employed a keen eye and an astute ear; no longer were there such things as trivial events and random people. The value of fellow pilgrims and strangers alike was considered great, so much so that every encounter was acknowledged as a source of wisdom and possible enlightenment. The significance of ‘the Other’ was recognized as a sacred way marker and seen as a critical component to a journey well made.
So here it is, and this is the hopeful intention of Waymarkers: the blog. Our lives are a pilgrimage. Each of us has been called to journey thoughtfully and intentionally through our days. We are asked to see the sacred all around us, but specifically in those other than ourselves. What exactly does this mean? It really is as simple as it sounds: anyone OTHER than you. This includes those that don’t look like you, act like you, live like you, or think like you. We are called to see them, travel with them, and yes, even live on BEHALF of them. This process of linking Other to our self begins the transformational unfolding of Other becoming Neighbor, and ultimately, in practicing the universal command of “Love your neighbor as yourself”, becoming your self. For when this conversion occurs, we suddenly cannot look away from the injustices and pain experienced by those other than ourselves, for it is now happening to US. We now journey forward on behalf of a common good for ALL.
And how does the Future fit into all this? The Future isn’t now and it certainly isn’t what was, so why concern our self with it at all? Well, in a very real sense, the Future is Other to us. Our modern Western culture certainly has made great strides in our era, but a monumental failure was its inability to assimilate indigenous people’s capacity to see forward and understand their behaviors had long-term implications. This ‘seven-generation sustainability’ concept has its origins with the Iroquois people. This 'Great Law of the Iroquois' maintained one should think seven generations ahead (a couple hundred years into the future) and decide whether the decisions and actions they made would benefit their children, and children's children, seven generations into the future. This is a call and a challenge that we need to heed today; this view transmutes the Future, and our ecological concerns, into today and makes it a ready companion to our every action. It becomes our neighbor. It becomes our self. It becomes our HOME.
There it is folks. These are the foundational themes to this blog. Am I excited about thinking aloud with you all around these topics? Absolutely! Am I scared that I may not get it right and my own personal stories of living on behalf of Other and the Future might not be your version of virtue? Yes. There is that tension mentioned earlier again…but my hope supersedes this. I pray that by inviting you into my HOME you too will help hone me. That by saddling up together on this journey of life, we will see one another and our stories as sacred. That by living forward in ways that see the Future as important as today, we will all seek out that which is the common good for us all. And we will get lost; one most certainly does on a trek that carries with it much treasure. In these times of uncertainty, in these straying seasons, may we return to our God-given travel mates—Other and the Future—and ask them for guidance. May they be our way markers that point us all towards HOME.