The Gods Speak of God

by Stephen Mackey

I'd been thinking about God and I'd been thinking about poetry, and then this poem appeared:

It doesn't interest me if there is one God 

or many gods. 

I want to know if you belong 

or feel abandoned. 

If you know despair or can see it in others. 

I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world 

with its harsh need 

to change you. If you can look back 

with firm eyes 

saying this is where I stand. I want to know 

if you know 

how to melt into that fierce heat of living 

falling toward 

the center of your longing. I want to know 

if you are willing 

to live, day by day, with the consequence of love 

and the bitter 

unwanted passion of your sure defeat. 

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even 

the gods speak of God. 

    —"Self Portrait," by David Whyte  

(I've posted a bit on David Whyte before, when I talked about Irene Belknap's art, so I guess I'm a fan, although every time I encounter his work I think it's the first time I've discovered him. What a wonderful feeling, to keep discovering someone I like.)

When I was thinking about God, I was wondering if I could verbalize what I believed to anyone, and if that someone could accept what I said without needing to hear her own view reflected back to her. So this poem affirms something that I feel deeply, that the question of God isn't as important as all that gets tied up with God, and that God is a word that means something more than God. Thank goodness for poets and poetry; I always feel so relieved to find someone who can artfully say what I feel.

1: The Seed Point

Circles, 1926, by Wassily Kandinsky
via Bauhaus

Welcome to a new series. I'm reading The Beginner's Guide to Creating the Universe, and I will be posting a little segment on each number 1 through 10, as I work through the book. I love this book because it incorporates myth, art, science, and geometry, and it encourages you to "create the universe" with your compass and straightedge. By mindfully creating simple shapes and recognizing patterns, perhaps I can live a little more harmoniously in the world.

Here is Michael Schneider's meditation on drawing a circle, the symbol of unity:

"To construct a symbolic universe, begin with a point, the circle's essence. . . . A true point is impossible to draw, having absolutely no dimension, not length, width, or height. . . . The point is the source of our whole of wholes. It is beyond understanding, unknowable, silently self-enfolded. But like a seed, a point will expand to fulfill itself as a circle. . . . Ponder the point as a seed enfolding a sacred mystery."

In this post-modern world, points and centers aren't very fashionable, but I like the idea of the center being illusory and unknowable. Is our center an unsolvable mystery?

Spring!

Look out for spring!

And Then It's Spring is Philip and Erin Stead's latest book together. I think the video captures the feeling of waiting for spring so well. Isn't there something primal in the faith it takes to plant seeds and wait for them to sprout?

This year, spring has come early for our part of the world, so there was less faith involved and more wonder at the sudden signs of life. I walked outside one morning, and suddenly the trees were white and cloud-like.

Nevertheless, the video has me thinking about sowing seeds and tending my garden. What habits would you like to cultivate?

Sacred Space: Anshe Kenesseth Israel

via Really Borning

Some places of worship find themselves in disrepair, in neighborhoods without the funds to renovate them to their former glory. Some churches get transformed into apartment buildings or offices, but others are simply demolished. This seems to be the future for Anshe Kenesseth Israel in Chicago.

I find myself circling around the idea of reusing spiritual ideas for this particular time and place, and I find myself wishing that buildings like this could also find a new life. 

Dance Till You Feel Better

I remember watching this clip from So Think You Can Dance years ago, and I still think it's one of the best moments from the show. When I watch Will Wingfield dance this solo, I feel like I'm listening to a gospel choir. His dancing has a beautiful synchronicity between between the music and the lyrics, and it really does make me want to get up and dance.

Postmodern Hymn: Bowl of Oranges

Today's hymn comes from Bright Eyes, an indie group headed by Conner Oberst. I love Bright Eyes for the bravely earnest lyrics and for the creative melodies. "Bowl of Oranges" is one of their more uplifting songs: 

"And we'll keep working on a problem we know we'll never solve 

Of Love's uneven remainders, our lives are fractions of a whole. 

But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall. 

Then I think we would see the beauty. Then we would stand staring in awe 

At our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges, 

Like a story told by the fault lines and the soil."

Lent and the Conditions for Happiness

by Jose Manuel Ferrater
via Sebastian

We're now in the second week of Lent, for those who are counting. Growing up, I learned that Lent was a time for sacrificing something (usually, something that gave me pleasure, like chocolate) and that somehow my abstaining from a bit of food was like Jesus's temptation in the wilderness.

But since the onset of adulthood, I've found this practice of fasting to be unhelpfully negative. Wouldn't it be better to commit to a positive practice, like an increased regimen of prayer and meditation?

Enter in my latest thoughts on Thich Nhat Hanh and conditions for happiness. Over and over again, he stresses the joy that can be found in the breath, and in simply noticing all that is well with your body. His view is a rather dramatic opposition to figures such as Augustine, who are so sure that the body is the way of sin.

So this Lent, I'm practicing the joy of the body, not in some hedonistic, let's get drunk and have orgies kind of way, but in the simple way of noticing my breath and noticing my body and taking pleasure in that. Will you join me? I think it might prepare us for a fantastic rebirth on Easter.