Our Neighbors

Our Neighbors

“The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self—to encounter another human being, not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince, or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.”—Barbara Brown Taylor in An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith (HarperOne. 2010).

Our older son once took his daughter to high school each day on his way to work, before she started driving. If they had extra time, they would stop at their favorite coffee or smoothie haunt and have a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or smoothie together. What a treasure it can be to have a few minutes a day with one of your parents, and maybe even share a cup of your favorite comfort drink. They are both introverts, so they may not say much, but each offers the other a presence in this one-on-one experience and a chance to get to know each other better.

I grew up in a small town with fantastic neighbors. Mrs. Rick, a widow with pearl-white hair, lived across the street in a house that seemed huge at the time. One of our neighbors on Second Street had to move away due to health reasons. Mrs. Rick then started walking at 9:00 every morning for seven blocks from Second Street to Ninth Street, up to Riddle’s Drug Store, to meet her neighbor for coffee. Our next-door neighbor, Paul, cut Mrs. Rick’s grass every week.

I have a friend who calls me every morning. Unfortunately, most people are too busy working to contact or talk to one person a day regularly and realize it is a pure gift.

These are the kinds of relationships that work best to “spring” us from ourselves. We don’t have to pretend anymore. Other people can learn who we indeed are if we allow such intimacy. When we are with them, we begin to let down our masks and become the person God created us to be.

I share more pictures of our neighbors across the street.

Sacred Grounds

Sacred Grounds

Guest Writer: Kimberly Applegate

sacred ground. Murfee Labyrinth

Understand that this is sacred ground, and it hurts to walk here.  But at the same time, I "need" to walk here. I need the strength, the sense of purpose, and the knowledge of self that walking here imparts.  …  What do I want from you?  I want you to be my sister and to walk here with me.  I know it's a challenging walk.  I know it causes you pain.  But this much I also know: If ever we learn to tread this ground together, there's no place we can't go.—Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Especially this weekend, I am reflecting on the painful and tragic events that occurred on January 6, 2021, at our nation's Capitol. But, of course, we cannot do it without understanding our 400-year history of race and faith in America. But how many of us genuinely know these histories?

The COVID pandemic provided me with this opportunity through an amazing program called Sacred Ground, curated by the Black Episcopal Church: https://episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground

"Sacred Ground" is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race grounded in faith.  It invites small groups to walk through chapters of America's history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity.

The 10-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings focusing on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.

"Sacred Ground is part of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church's long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, ministries, and society. This series is open to all and specially designed to help white people talk with other white people. It invites participants to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day–all while grounded in our call to faith, hope, and love."
 It cannot be more timely.

Kimberly Applegate, MD

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

 

How God Calls to us During the Day, Both in Doing and Being

How God Calls Us During Our Day

“The many things we have to do, the hundred and one calls on our time and attention, don’t get between ourselves and God. On the contrary, they are to us in truth, his Body and his Blood.”—H. A. Williams in The Joy of God (Templegate, 1992).

Well, this is a novel idea! Of course, we anticipate the quiet time when we will write, walk, or practice Centering Prayer during the day. Still, our interactions with people during the day and at work are as much a part of our relationship with God!

The God within us meets with the God in our neighbor, the patients we work with, our co-workers or partners, the children we teach, or our fellow students. This is like turning on a switch in our brains. Our life is not divided into parts. Every part of our being is an offering. Every second, every hour, is an opportunity to share the love we have been so freely given. We should tape this Williams quote to the back of our cell phones to read whenever we get that last-minute phone call just as we leave our office.

My experience has been that such calls are among the most important we receive. It could be a novel idea to imagine God is calling each time.

Such awareness is a blending of the doing and the being aspects of our lives, our Martha and Mary parts. Perhaps we are called into a state of being; at other times, we are led to concentrate on doing. Williams asks us to consider both of these states as offerings to God.

I wonder if Jesus’ story of his visit to Mary and Martha would have been different if Martha had believed her doing was as important, but not more important, than Mary’s being?

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