Advent(ure)
How would you like to begin, again?
Today, Ellen (my daughter) and I drive back to Maryland. I can feel the shift of energy in my body like the turning of the tide. My gaze is moving back towards the structure and focus of regularly scheduled life. The energy I spooled out with freedom for rest and play is being gathered back in, wound around the reel of time and action. (What time will we get on the road? Definitely later than I said last night.)
We have had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with my parents in Gatlinburg and we developed a friendship with a wonderful woman who is a park ranger in the Smokeys and a free spirit of joy in the universe. She guided us through the wilds of Dollywood just as easily as she led us on an unmarked hike through Greenbrier to see lots of little waterfalls. What a gift!
She met my parents a few years ago because she and a few friends decided to trick-or-treat on Halloween in order to knock on doors and get to know their neighbors. It was the end(ish) of COVID and they had been renting a house in the area but were still very isolated. So a grown up ghost with a sheet over her head knocked on doors and made new friends, “Trick or Treat!”
I don’t want to loose the energy of play and joy, even as I take up the slack in my line and return to a schedule with responsibilities and productivity. I have a life to build and I would like more capacity for nature and joy and laughter and friends. I keep wondering how I might organize my life to be more compassionate to myself (and others). I have the freedom to make many foundational choices as I build my own business, choose community, and consent to expectations.
Will I choose a grueling schedule that makes me feel responsible and accountable to the impossible yardstick of the world?
Will I choose a pattern of life that responds to the natural rhythm of rest, work, and play?
The choice is mine to make… the choice is also yours. How do you choose to live? It’s not easy or simple, but it is a choice.
I want the spaciousness to throw a sheet over my head and go meet the neighbors… or hike into the woods and go meet the nature neighbors. I want the spaciousness in my heart to show up for people with compassion as deep as the ocean because I am free to be present. I want the energy to give my whole heart to what matters in the world, and let go of the rest. I want to make my offering with generosity and allow communion to flow from the table.
So… it is Advent, again, and I believe that it is time for Adventure. The year begins again, and I am looking for the path that is full of both kindness and truth, compassion and honesty; a hike full of attention and intention so that I can be spacious in the present moment. I can waste so much life in the shadowy heaviness of the past or the anxious fear of the future. However, as Jesus reminds us, this present moment is all we can attend to.
36But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,[a] but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day[b] your Lord is coming. (Matthew 24:36-42)
Maybe he wasn’t encouraging everyone to puritanical austerity, scrupulosity, and anxiety. Perhaps, Jesus was just saying, “Look, you don’t know what is around the corner. A flood, a swim, a fire, a forest, a meal, or a famine. So, wake up to the adventure of being alive and knock on some doors, visit some waterfalls, and enjoy the lights.”
Want to join our zoom book study? Become a paid subscriber and join us tomorrow at noon for a conversation about “When Things Fall Apart” by Pema Chodron.
Session 4: Compassion and Connection (Ch. 12–15)
This kinship with the suffering of others, this inability to continue to regard it from far, is the discovery of our soft spot, the discovery of bodhichittah... We awakened this bodhichittah, this tenderness for life, when we can no longer shield ourselves from the vulnerability of our own condition, from the basic fragility of existence. In the words of the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, “You take it all in. You let the pain of the world, touch your heart, and you turn it into compassion.“ (pages 87-88)
Themes and Ideas:
kindness and truth go together in maturity
blame and judgment keep us separate from others
compassion for self helps us have compassion for others
Bodhichitta- the awakened heart
Relating to others’ pain as shared humanity opens our heart
Tonglen meditation (sending and receiving)
Discussion prompts:
Why do you or people you know choose grim discipline and truth without kindness?
How is compassion different from pity or fixing someone’s suffering?
What experiences have opened your heart to others’ suffering?
How might you practice Tonglen in daily life?
Practice suggestion:
Think of someone that you feel a lot of judgement and blame towards. Imagine how they might be suffering in their life at this time. For a few minutes each day, try to practice tonglen for them, inhaling their suffering and exhaling peace to them.
Do your thoughts of judgement and blame shift or soften?
How has the quality of your heart changed?
Do you feel more compassion for yourself?
That Matthew passage would make a nice meditation on death. We never know when that’s coming either, so we’d better put our faith into practice now.