A New Series...Thoughts on Playing the Back Nine...Part 1

 

“The desert is a book of many pages, and just when you believe you know all there is to know, it will surprise you with the unexpected.”  So wrote Louis L’Amore in his great book “The Lonesome Gods.  As a book I have read and reread, I never saw these word before or, if I saw them, (I actually had to) they did not register as they did last night.  They spoke to me and got me thinking.  I have been turning pages in this Arizona desert for close to 58 years, so what has the daily page turning revealed to me for my necessary education?  An education that is essential not only for survival, but for education, and formation as well.  So what has this desert journey taught me, and continues to teach me as I make my trek through this is awe-full, wonder-full, mysterious part of The Gracious Creators ever evolving creation? I cannot really verbalize it, but maybe in the reflective writing about this deserted journey some thoughts may bubble up from the depths where they have been hiding.

I have had to learn that in writing thoughts that otherwise would not come to consciousness are there before you in black and white.  I am surprised by the many, many thoughts that are brought to mind by writing.  I have to stop and ask myself the question where did that come from? I did not know I knew that reality, or that this had become a part of my thought process.  Yet, here it is right before me.  It is through more writing that there is an expansion of thought, and an elucidation of mind.  This in turn led me to many, many hikes in the Arizona desert, and endless journeys through many of the Western States.  This present attempt must have been triggered by my editing of thousands of photographs which are archived in my computer.  As I worked on each one I was reminded of the geographical location and what was going on in my moment to moment, existential reality at the time.

Let us never grow weary in the asking, part 3

As we are so limited in our human-ness we're always in the need of understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and reconciliation.  We have to remind ourselves of the depth of the compassion of our Compassionate Creator.  The Psalmist dares to be so brave as to remind The Creator of The Creators compassion and love which he says The Divine has from  "of old."  The compassion and love are from of old,  but there is never any weariness in their application to our wounded-ness,  and brokenness. Pope Francis reminds us of "the willingness of The Divine to offer forgiveness again and again."  The Divine never wearies,  it is us who grow weary.  Our journey asks of us to persevere in our asking, and never grow weary.  For this to be a reality un our lives we need Grace. and loads of it.  The Loving Creator always makes room for us.  We are not puppets at the end of a string, being pulled here and there with no control on our part.  We have been endowed with the freedom to choose life or death in each and every moment.

 

Let us never grow weary in the asking, part 2

 

We are never alone on this journey.  This is 2020 and we are getting fed up of that word quarantine.  It has been with us for so long, and it will be our challenge for some time to come.  The death toll is horrendous, and getting worse.  Over 205,000 have died, and the future offers no consolation as so many will not respect the wisdom of the scientists.  It is our obligation in justice and charity to obey and observe, suggested protocols.  We must take seriously that number of 370,000 plus by January 1st, 2021 !!! The scientists reveal one side of the truth necessary for a healthy journey, and then we have spiritual guidance to make our daily hike a journey into wholeness, into holiness. Quarantine makes one go deeper in order to endure the challenge of aloneness and solitude.  Is it not amazing that what we do not want,  The Creative Loving Spirit uses as the place where we encounter the compassionate Power which always leads to gifts never imagined.  Life is sure a mystery,  always attracting us.  That attraction is innate.

Let us never grow weary in the asking

We all have an unique womb as our place of origin in this life, but we all have had eternal existence in that same Womb of Love from all of eternity.  A Loving Womb which is also our place of destiny.  In the in-between time we make our journey on this spaceship we call earth.  This is a mysterious journey that demands a great deal of trust.  Remember that old commercial that told us, "Love is a given, trust is earned." Our journey we call life is a journey into an ever deepening understanding of love, and an ever deepening journey into trust.  Merton's great prayer, "My lord God I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me, nor do I really know myself..." must be our prayer as well.  To add to that prayer we have those wonderful words from Psalm 25: "Your ways O Lord make known to me, teach me your paths, guide me in Your truth, and teach me."  There is so much depth to those words it takes a life time of meditation, and reflection to reach the understanding that will ease the burden of being a spiritual being immersed in the human condition." (deChardin).  We are in a continuous need of the help that is essential for our in-depth appreciation of the gift of who we are and Who it is that journeys "in us and through us and with us."  We must constantly ask for the grace to grow in the wisdom, not the knowledge, that is essential for a happy journey in this "vale of tears."

 

Desire is enough, part 3

The Creative Divine Spirit is a master crafts-man, Who cannot be rushed. How I wish it was otherwise. I have shrunk an inch and a half in my body, but in other ways there has been ever slow, and pain-full growth. A growth that always leads to to "new freedom and a new happiness." We must concentrate on Easter Sunday, and the Resurrection, rather than on Good Friday, and the crucifixion. Both along with the experience of the tomb, always leads to new awareness and growth. That quiet invitation to pass beyond the safe and secure self (the false self) into the unknown self (the real self) is very threatening to the ego. The first introduction I received into this endless search was at a Neil Diamond concert way, way back in San Diego. I heard these great as not understood words, "and Jonathan began the longest journey of all, the journey into self."  To help with this mysterious journey I bought James Finley’s "Merton’s Palace of nowhere." Did I understand everything I read, I remember being very frustrated in not being able to really connect with what I read. That has come much later as an understanding of the true self and the false self slowly deepened.  (I notice I have been using the word "slow and slowly" a great deal).  We journey along the spiritual path at a snail's pace. The Creative Divine cannot be rushed. All we can do is "be alert because we do not know the day nor the hour" when the awareness brakes through.  So we have to "be alert."

 

Desire is enough, part 2

The internet is so great. This is from a blog "Prodigal Kiwi(s)Blog)": "The experience of self is the condition which makes it possible to experience God. Whoever responds with integrity to this invitation to pass beyond self into some experience of transcendent reality ALREADY has an obscure experience of God." (Karl Rahner).  We start out really small and then with the cooperation of an awakening will there be slow growth. We started really tiny in the womb of our mothers and then there has been ever so slow growth. This will go hand and hand with the experience of creative love. Here are the words of a mystical Jewish martyr before she died in a concentration camp, "God cannot be born except in the womb of love.  So God offers that womb." Eily Hillsman (1914-1943).  As each one of the wombs we have been birthed from is unique in time and so is our unique starting point.