New Day

New Day

“Waking up this morning, I smile.
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment
and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” 
—Thich Nhat Hanh in The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (Broadway Books, 1998), p. 102.

caterpillar becoming pupa

Richard Rohr compares Christians and Buddhists in his daily email. “Christians are usually talking about metaphysics (‘what is’), and Buddhists are usually talking about epistemology (‘how do we know what is’). In that sense, they offer great gifts to one another.” 1

I know that Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s writings often speak to me. What a marvelous idea to wake up in the morning and say, “We have twenty-four brand new hours before us. I don’t want to waste a second, a minute, an hour. It is a new day.”

Yesterday is past. We went over what we had done and left undone the night before when we prayed God would forgive us of wrongdoing, also called sins. We remembered where we found joy, often where we least expected it. We recalled where we found love. We remembered the day’s experiences in which we saw God working in our life.

This is an extra day, a new beginning. We can no longer regret the past. If we have harmed others, we will make living amends where we need to; but today, we are offered a fresh start. We hope we have learned from the past. We will not continue doing the same thing every day and expect different results. Instead, we will look for synchronicity, moments, or serendipity in which we make connections and see how events are related.

I write about the Eucharist one morning, and someone unaware of that later confides in how important the Eucharist is in his life. We receive a message from a friend we have been thinking about that day. We think about someone we have not seen for some time. Later, that person calls. She tells us what we did or said was precisely what she needed at the time. That is synchronicity. These are God connections, constantly around us each new day.

1 Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation, Meditation: Mindfulness, cac.org, August 24, 2018.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Storm Warnings

Storm Warnings

“Jesus also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens.… You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?’”—Luke 12:54-57.

patti martin

I sit and watch a storm come up the beach in the early morning. The sun is out, with blue skies to the east, but the sky is grayer to the west. Clouds move overhead. Sometimes this dark overhead carpet seems so close I think I can touch it. Fishing boats return to port to weather the coming storm. Birds take shelter. The great blue heron moves inland. The pelicans are nowhere to be seen. The mighty osprey is the last to give up looking for one more meal before returning to her nest. A violent wind precedes and announces the pivotal event, almost horizontal driving rain.

Jesus reminds us that we see signs that indicate storms may be coming in our life. Our children act out, or their grades at school drop. We get random hints that a project is not going well, but we are too busy to take care of that matter right now. Later. Too many other things going on. We remember how a particular food affected us in the past, but we eat it anyway. Our clothes no longer fit, but we do not change our eating, exercise, or lifestyle. We ignore pain, a sign that some body part needs attention.

The same is true in our spiritual life. Our prayer life seems dry. We cannot remember our dreams. We can no longer write. All we read appears dull and uninteresting. We think of every excuse not to attend corporate worship. We stop going outdoors. It is too hot. Too cold. Too sunny. Too cloudy. We stop talking with friends. We isolate ourselves. 

In medicine, a sign is an outward or objective appearance that suggests what is going on—like the red butterfly rash across the nose characteristic of lupus erythematosus. On the other hand, a symptom describes something subjectively experienced by an individual, such as lupus fatigue or pain with a urinary tract infection, which requires some interpretation.

We are constantly given signs and experience symptoms in our outer and inner life that can direct us. God never abandons us. We are called only to keep ourselves “in tune” to see and hear. Spiritual directors, spiritual friends, and spiritual practices are all gifts that can help us along this journey. They assure us we are not alone, and that a directional move or change in course may be needed in our outer or inner life.

My own experience, however, is that I am so much like that osprey, waiting until the very last minute before I surrender to something greater than myself.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Hound of Heaven

Hound of Heaven

“The name is strange. It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, but rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem, this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood.”—J .F. X. O’Connor, S. J., in A Study of Francis Thompson’s Hound of Heaven (John Lane Company, 1912), p. 7.

Once a week, I meet with friends who share how God is working in their life. I attend this meeting on Saturday morning because I believe in miracles, which are always affirmed by what I hear and see. These are people once caught in addiction who thought there was no way out—but somehow, through the grace of God and with the help of community, found a new life. I give up my Saturday morning to meet with people I have seen for years and others I have never met. There are people from all walks of life, many I would not have known otherwise.

People often talk about when they realized there might be a way out of their old lifestyle. They call it a moment of clarity. Many were desperate. Some knew this was not the path they would ever choose, but there they were.

They were initially very uncomfortable when they came to the group for help. I went to this 12-step group around Thanksgiving for the first time. I can remember seeing posters about a Thanksgiving potluck. I remember thinking, I don’t enjoy being here, and goodness knows I don’t want to eat with these people either! Today, over thirty years later, most people I go out to eat with are those I met through this community!

Many talk about how they did not understand what gave them the courage to attend this meeting. Story after story reveals that there is something greater than all of us—caring, loving us, and calling us to become the persons we were created to be. I also see this phenomenon in people who come for spiritual direction. Something is calling us out of our God hole—the God, the Christ within us, who, deep down inside our being, makes us aware that we are unconditionally loved.

In 1893, Francis Thompson wrote this 182-line poem about his experience of being “hounded” by God and called it The Hound of Heaven. I could not have given a better description.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

12-step Eucharist tonight at St. Mark’s at 5:30 in the chapel and every first Wednesday of the month.