Walking Each Other Home

Walking each other home

“Find those who tell you, Do not be afraid, yet stay close enough to tremble with you. This is love.”—Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh, p. 90.

I had most often described courage as “fear that has said its prayers.” Many may recognize that as a 12-step recovery saying.

 Cole Riley expands our thoughts about fear. He tells us that fear is not something we need to handle alone. We are to live in community with other friends who can understand our worries and may even share them. Friends walk with us through fear. Neither of us knows what will happen, but their presence, not their words, makes all the difference. This, indeed, is love.

We sit with those who are sick and fear dying. We stand with each other when no others will.

I see the image of Dr. Joycelyn Elders when she was Surgeon General holding her young son’s hand and walking with him to court when he was accused of using drugs. That was love. 

I see parents and friends sitting at the bedside of a child severely injured in a car accident.

I see men and women in Ukraine standing beside each other to battle an invasion of their country when they were shopkeepers and teachers a few months earlier.

I see members of a town devastated by a hurricane, flood, or tornado who hold each other up and pick up the pieces together.

I see young men and women in the military protecting our country who went to proms and graduations just a few months earlier.

And so today, we give thanks for all those known and unknown who have done this for all those we love.  

Loving Kindness Meditation

Loving-Kindness Meditation

 “Sitting comfortably, lying down, or while driving, sitting in a meeting, waiting in the hospital, or any other potentially stressful situation.

 Silently repeat these words, intending loving-kindness to be sent to yourself:

‘May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be safe.’

Next, silently repeat the exact words, intending loving-kindness to go to a person you love:

‘May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be safe.’

Next, silently repeat the exact words, intending loving-kindness to go to a  neutral person in your life, someone you barely know:

‘May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be safe.’

Finally, silently repeat the exact words, intending loving-kindness to go to someone you are in conflict with or dislike:

‘May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be safe.’

Take a breath. Inhale and exhale.

Notice reactions to this meditation. Accept what you are noticing. Be aware of your thoughts, emotions, or responses to this meditation or to the people you directed your meditation towards.  This is the practice of mindfulness.”

—Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury,  “What is Loving-Kindness Meditation?”

https://positivepsychology.com/loving-kindness-meditation/

 

Dr. Jay McDaniel, a retired professor of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, and Theology at Hendrix College, spoke recently at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church about using this Loving-Kindness Prayer if we have difficulty loving our enemies. The Loving-Kindness meditation is an ancient Buddhist meditation on unconditional love, with no expectations of receiving anything in return. The many forms of the Loving-Kindness meditation direct our thoughts and love toward ourselves and others.

The original name of this practice is metta bhavana, which comes from the Pali language. Metta means love in a non-romantic sense. It is our word for friendliness or kindness, thus loving-kindness. It is an emotion, something you feel in your heart. Bhavana means development or cultivation.

Our nation desperately needs healing. We can start with this loving-kindness meditation and see what happens.

Faith

Faith

“Faith means receiving God. It means being overwhelmed by God. Faith helps us find trust again and again when, from a human point of view, the foundations of truth have been destroyed. It gives us eyes to see what cannot be seen, and hands to grasp what cannot be touched, although it is present always and everywhere.”—Eberhard Arnold in Why We Live in Community (Plough, 2014).

Faith is believing in something we cannot see or understand. The mind takes us to a certain level of belief, but then faith must be present for us to take the leap from there. My favorite quote about faith, attributed to a multitude of people, is: “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” If we are so sure about something, we have crossed back over that line, away from the place where faith abides.

This gives all of us doubters great comfort. In fact, we know that our doubts lead us into deeper faith—across the line, down new pathways, and sometimes even onto major highways. We may take a wrong turn, run a red light, and hit someone, or become completely lost.

The Supper at Emmaus Caravaggio

Then, that stranger who met us on the road to Emmaus shows up. He may remind us of a quote from Scripture that was meaningful to us in the past. He may ask us if we remember how we have been continually cared for by the God of our understanding and by God’s stand-ins, our community, and our friends. He constantly feeds us precisely what we need to continue the journey, and before he disappears, he leaves on the dinner table a GPS.

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