We've lost our son. Two people dear to me have recently been diagnosed with cancer, and one has made relationship decisions that have significant and difficult ramifications for me.
Enough.
Of course, my protests do not make things stop.
I wander around, looking for signs of possibility. Here are a few I've picked up along the way:
"Despair is a loss of our sense of connectedness."
~ David Richo
~ found on Spiritually Directed
"I am increasingly convinced that the word prayer, which has become a functional and pious thing for all believers to do, is in fact, a descriptor for inner experience. That is why all spiritual teachers mandate prayer so much. They are saying, "Go inside and know for yourself!". . . . As Jesus graphically puts it, prayer is 'going to your private room and shutting the door and [acting] in secret.' (Matthew 6:16)"
~ Richard Rohr in Hidden Things: Scripture as Spirituality
~ found on Purpletologically Speaking
Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a stance. It's a way of living in the Presence, living in awareness of the Presence, and even of enjoying the Presence.The full contemplative is not just aware of the Presence, but trusts, allows, and delights in it. All spiritual disciplines have one purpose: to get rid of illusions so we can be present. These disciplines exist so that we can see what is, see who we are, and see what is happening.
~ Richard Rohr in Everything Belongs
~ found on The Mercy Blog
It's difficult to be present these days.
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8 comments:
I'm so sorry, Gannet Girl.
Know that so MANY of your fellows in community are praying FOR you while it's hard for you to do so.
There are times that the number of folk in my life who need my thoughts and prayers is overwhelming. There are times I need a break from sadness.
"enough" resonates.
(((Gannet Girl))))
My dear friend Jane R (Acts of Hope) speaks of prayer as memory, attention and hope. Sometimes, I think, one or the other of these is impossible... but I beleive we can carry on with what we have, when we have it.
Continued prayers, friend, and much love.
...several retreats back, a director offered me the letter here which explores the relationship between brokeness and ministry. The line that resonated with me was: "A profound sense of inability, both to do and protect even after great effort, to author, perform, effect what we have wanted or with the success we would have wanted, an inability to secure one's own future, to protect oneself, to live with clarity and assurance or to ward off shame and suffering."
Prayers upon prayers for you, with you, in your stead....
Michelle, that is a gift in the same range as the stained glass. Thank you so much
It was a gift to me, I'm glad it is for you, too.
grace and peace be with you...
I'm running from being present. It's taken me this long to realize it. I'm afraid of it. I don't want it, and part of me doesn't want to want it. It's more than difficult, yet it has happened a few times, seconds only. It's almost enough to hope.
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