Dear Spiritual Companions,

Have you ever had the experience where you waited and waited for something to happen and then when it did you felt a letdown?  It is like the very depressing Peggy Lee song, “Is That All There Is?”  We just experienced Easter.  If you are Christian, you had been waiting a long time for it to come.  If you are not christian fill in an important religious event in your life or if you are not involved in a religion some personal event you have been waiting for in your life.  What happens to us when it is over?

To me the buildup is never matched by the actual event.  This is especially true the more importance I place on the activity.  So what I do, sometimes, is not let myself get too excited about what is coming.  I don’t want to be disappointed.  Now I have lost the fun of the event and the time of anticipation.  By making sure I am not disappointed, I now am for sure!  Our minds are such interesting things and filled with so many nooks and craneys of pitfalls.

What is a person to do?   Enjoy, enjoy enjoy!  No matter what happens in life it is meant to be treasured.  To me, that means enjoy.  Appreciate the buildup for what it is – buildup.  Anticipation is one of the gifts of life.  It encourages us to appreciate the moment when it arrives.  Obviously Easter is important to me so I want to be present to it when it happens.  If I am then I can enjoy the gift no matter what form it takes.  Even if it isn’t all I hoped it would be, I can learn from too much expectation.   As the old saying goes, “Things are never what we hoped they would be.”  Sounds depressing doesn’t it?  Unless we let our life be dependent on our expectations. 

Easter is a startling event because it is not what we expected.  Some people are upset when things have been changed in our Easter celebrations.  This may be startling to hear, but life is changing all the time.  It is never the same.  Sometimes our expectation is just the opposite and so we are disappointed when things are different.  How silly!  I don’t want every Easter to be the same.  I want to be startled by the same story with a deeper understanding in my spirit.  Isn’t that the case in your religious or personal event?  Anything that is stagnant dies, anything that changes lives.

What do you think?

Gary

Music

   Notes put together for others

      To play or sing

Make a joyful noise God says

   But I can’t play an instrument

      I can’t sing either

         If I did it would truly be noise

Sometimes like life

   We need to just listen

      To hear God’s joyful noise

         Or watch those who joyfully sing or play

Playing is something to take note of

   For the seriousness of life

      Pushes it right out of our lives

         So we can no longer have our song to sing

A song unsung is empty

   A life unsung is a missed opportunity

      To make a joyful noise

But we live with a playful God

   Who will sing at the drop of pretentiousness

      On our part

God wants to maske a joyful noise

   But God needs you and me

      To offer harmony to life

Words

   Are just words

      Until we place meaning on them

Words spoken in a certain tone of voice

   Carry a unique meaning to them

      Which we put through the filter of our past

      Which we put through the filter of this day

      Which we put through the filter of present feelings

Words can be taken for granted

   Because surely what I say

      Means the same thing to you

But words will slowly be understood

   If we expect others to be like us

      Speaking the language of the heart

How about a little test

   Love is a simple word

      Which can mean endless things to each of us

      Which can mean endless things when spoken softly

      Which can measn endless things spoken by a friend

So how do we communicate the word of love

   Could there be a way

Maybe by not expecting others to understand

   Without us paying attention

      To what a simple word can mean to us

Words are more than just words

   When we least understand what they mean

      And by what we are meaning to send to another

         In love

Dear Spiritual Companions,

In the Christian World this is Holy Week.  It is our opportunity to reflect on the gift of powerlessness.  This thought is of course counter cultural.  Our culture lives with the thought that we are in power.  It is an illusion and a very harmful one.  To think we are in control of our lives means we have to control the world around us.  Impossible!  Can’t be done!  To think otherwise creates endless sorrow.  As the Buddhist say, suffering comes from our attachments and there is none bigger than the thought we are all powerful.

The gift of the life of Jesus, as found in this week, is discovering who God is.  Try this question on for size – If God is All Powerful can God make a rock big enough that God can’t move it?  This is the description of powerlessness.  God created everything and then let it BE!  No more interference, in the sense of fixing things.  In a sense God tied God’s Hands!  Jesus does not call down the angels of heaven to free Him from the Cross.  If people try to kill Him and His message so be it.  You have to do what you have to do is the message of life!  Unlike human parents who when asked why the child has to do something and then says, “Because I said so!” – God gives us free will.  Like a baby learning how to walk who falls often, we too have to fall a lot of times in our spiritual journey to finally be able to take God’s Hand.  The Hand is always there, but we are not always willing or able to take it.

It is hard to let life be what it is.  It is even harder to let others do things, or say things that harm us when it isn’t true.  Life sometimes isn’t fair!  As much as we would like it to be otherwise, it simply isn’t fair.  If we are unable to accept this fact, we spend our lives being fixers.  We try to fix others.  Surely if I explain what they are doing is harmfuul to me, they will come to realize what they are doing is wrong and change their behavior!  Jesus’ response is different, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Or we try to fix the situations in our lives.  I didn’t do anything to receive this kind of treatment or to have this happen in my life so if I fight against it or say it isn’t so then it will change!  Jesus’ response, “Into Your Hands I commit my Spirit.”  Life simply is what it is.  To change that fact is to spend one’s life in powerless endeavors.

I came to a realization recently, or as I have come to define it – a resurrection.  By watching  God’s powerlessness, not calling down the angels to save God’s son, or simply letting life be what it is for me, I saw True Power!  The most powerful person is not the one who can makes things happen or change people - fix things.  No Power comes from accepting life as it is.  We no longer spend our lives in the illusion of being a Fixer.  Now we are the person who is free to be with life and others in the most trying circumstances and not have to change it .  It takes great strength to be with another in their pain instead of being busy fixing it.  As Ram Dass said, “It is morally and ethically immoral to take someone else’s pain away.”  If God doesn’t take our pain away, why do we think we are supposed to or can.  The World and the Religious leaders cried out to Jesus on the cross, “You healed others and declared yourself to be God so save yourself by jumping down off the cross.”   The world tries to the bitter end to Fix things.  Religion says if you believe this or do that you will not have pain.  It doesn’t work and that is what Jesus teaches us as he dies on the Cross.

There is a Resurrection coming if we dare to change our thinking and join God in being powerless!

Peace

Gary