Living in the Precious Present

Living in the Precious Present

“God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment. The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God...we find all that is necessary in the present moment.”—Jean Pierre de Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence (1921).

We will write about Spencer Johnson’s famous book about living in the present, The Precious Present (in A Daily Spiritual Rx for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany). C. S. Lewis also writes that God speaks to us in the present, not the past or future. Many mindfulness exercises are about getting into and living in the present moment. Other spiritual practices, such as walking the labyrinth, using the rosary, waiting in silence, and walking meditations, also lead us to the present moment by quieting the committee in our heads.

In his book Sadhana, Anthony de Mello teaches us that living in our body and not living out of our head keeps us grounded. Our bodies keep us in the present moment by grounding us to the earth. Our mind is always in the future or the past. Spending time in nature connects us to the present. The trees photosynthesize and transform the energy within us to perceive beauty. Beauty grounds us in the present.

Watching and participating in sports events helps us live in the present moment. Playing with and watching children keeps us in the present, for that is where children live. We may soon have more opportunities to play with children tomorrow this Thanksgiving. Take advantage of that.

gray kicking

The child within us also lives and connects us to the precious present moment. Connect to that place of delight.

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

More about Chiasmus, a feature of Hebrew poetry

Chiasmus = ‘X’

Guest Writer: Ken Fellows

     At a retirement dinner in Philadelphia honoring a friend …an intense but respected hospital president …my toast to him included this bit of borrowed wisdom:

                                             “People don’t care how much you know

                                                  Until they know how much you care.” (anon)

     This language form …a syntactic ‘switcheroo’… is called a chiasmus. Even though its usage can be traced to ancient Sanskrit and Egyptian texts, Chinese writing, Hebrew poetry, and the Old and New Testaments, the term remains obscure.   A number of wits and writers—Churchill, Shaw, Ben Franklin, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and George Carlin, among others –have used the chiasmus as an effective language tool in recent times.

     The dictionary definition of chiasmus is: “a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases.” The letter ‘X’ in the Greek alphabet is “chi,” and the Greek word “kiasmos” means “crossing”—also “to mark with an X.” The term is well known to neuroanatomists:  behind the eyes, the optic nerves going to the brain cross (right eye to left brain, left eye to right brain) at a junction called the “optic chiasmus.”

     In literature, the clauses of a chiasmus are written parallel to each other, usually with two lines connecting the keywords:

                                               “Never let a fool kiss you

                                                          or a kiss fool you. (anon)

                                                 “One should eat to live,

                                                          not live to eat.”

     Chiastic phrases can also be constructed by reversing letters and sounds:

                                               “A magician pulls rabbits out of hats.

                                                   A research psychologist pulls habits out of rats.” (anon)

     The best wits would be less witty without an occasional chiasmus or one of its variations.

When a young member of Parliament finished giving an address, he later asked Churchill what he could have done to put more fire into the speech, to which Sir Winston replied: 

                                     “What you should have done is

                                         to have put the speech in the fire.”

     There is also the ‘implied chiasmus’ –a word reversal in a well-known saying that stands alone:

                                                 “A hangover is the wrath of grapes.” (anon.)

                                                  “Time’s fun when you’re having flies. “(Kermit the Frog)

                                                  “Time flies like an arrow: fruit flies like a banana.” (Groucho)

                                                  “The waist is a terrible thing to mind.” (anon.)

     These implied versions are double the fun –first recalling the original saying, then marveling at the creative transposition of words.

        I’m including a painting, Brave Boat Harbor Reflection, of a reflected sky* ... in my mind, a chiasmus is not only a ‘cross-over’ but a ‘reflection’.... ‘same thing seen from varying perspectives.

     Like a sumptuous dinner of rich food, listing chiastic examples becomes too much of a good thing. Since this blog tends to talk about our spiritual life, the conclusion of this exposition ends with a favorite chiasmus

                                                    “I find Peale appalling

                                                        and Paul appealing.” (Adlai Stevenson)

                                Addendum: “Chiasmus” has had other names over the years, such as inverted parallelism, syntactical inversion, reverse parallelism, crisscross quotes, and turnarounds. William Safire suggested ‘contrapuntal phrases,’ but it never caught on. Similarly, Hemingway invented “double dichos” (dicho, the Spanish word for ‘saying’). Chiasmus is the only enduring rubric.

Ken Fellows

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Crafton: Living with Limitations

Crafton: Living with Limitations

“Just because you’re disabled doesn’t mean you’re not anything else. Have you lost an ability you used to have? Something you loved? Have you had to say goodbye to it? Maybe there’s another way or another place where you can still do it, or something like it.”—Barbara Crafton, eMo from The Geranium Farm (geraniumfarm.org), August 16, 2018.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. NYC. Van Gogh

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports on its website that 61 million adults, or about one-fourth of adults in this country, have a disability that majorly impacts their lives. The most common disability involves mobility, which affects one in seven adults. This limitation is more common in women, especially those with lower income in the South. Cognitive impairment is the most common disability in younger adults.

Barbara Crafton, who once visited St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock, contributed to an almost daily email eMo from the “Geranium Farm,” including a picture of artwork related to her story. For example, one week, she featured a Van Gogh painting, “Summer Wheat Field with Cypresses,” painted in the artist’s last year, a view from a window in his room at a mental facility. Her last eMo was now several years ago. We honor her today for so many years that the many faithful daily waited for her wisdom.

My experience is that each of us has what the Apostle Paul calls a “thorn” in our flesh. We are mistaken if we imagine another person doesn’t suffer from this “thorn” in some form.

We have a choice of how to respond to a disability. But, more and more, I believe we can ask in our prayers how that thorn brings fresh light into our lives. Those in recovery will say their addiction brought them to an alternative life they never dreamed possible. I encounter people with cancer changing and improving the lives of others with the disease. I recognize parents with disabled children who are experts in patience, kindness, and love.

There is a new pathway. It may not mean overcoming the disability, but rather waking up to a divine message or being open to a new direction in becoming the person God created us to be.

Barbara Crafton

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