These 5 meditations can be read all together or one at a time or in groups. The photo of the painting by my friend, Nicki Lang, is used with permission.
We Are What Is Left Lions and tigers and bears, oh my Language and logic and lies Fictions seem to last longer than the truth which is always derivative in this world of either/or and the land of certainty, built on shifting sand. It is the home of egos and some of survival’s necessities. Like a vision with blinders, we just name things – this is… You are… They will… Nouns name; that’s all. These little thoughts are in fast company. Easy are these directions without depth. Though many voices speak, one voice says – this way – mistaking representation for reality. We might get comfortable living here in this place where our home is not, where all seems locally linear. The time measured here eats his children, and this servant can control the master. Love can sometimes find a space, and perhaps fear always does. We believe stardust can always start over. We Are What Is Right Moving and fishing and flow, oh my Integration is both more difficult for us than deriving and is a softer presence in this, our home of both/and. It is at first liminal, then shared, and then renewed, for a time whole and healed. Presence and the integral are related to that and that to the flow. Waiting at the gates of heaven, may we find dancing and laughter and joy. The beginning of wisdom is awe at God’s presence. (or as it is written, the fear of the Lord) We can take time and take our place too as well as taking only what we need while queing up to be integrated. Space is connected and will be made whole. May we find the fullness to grow in word and grow in silence, in the light and in the dark, in the waves and rainbows and music. Blues for All of Us See the damage to earth Storms are coming again Even if we could hide – just abide Heaven knows we don’t know where to begin We have stolen the land and have poisoned the wells Our injustice will show – then we’ll know when the angels ring bells Hear the emptiness call the left side of your mind When the suffering comes – hear the drums It won’t leave you behind When we live for ourselves we get caught in a trap Hear the rumble inside – that’s our pride just like fools with a map Will the humans be done both the humble and proud Can we see other roads – lift other loads Will we tell it out loud Confession Even the blues got lost after finding an occasional melody, building to cacophony and the way of sorrow and the dark. More than any revolution we seem to want just a resolution for this chaos, while dressed up idolatry and other small gods replace what’s left of integrity. The prisons are full, but count us also among the lawless. The flood is still rising, and the sun is setting. Is the suffering and sorrow of our time ending? This hollowness betrays no promise for us or for them – at least for our small selves. Is there anyone listening to the cry of God within? The price for any coherence is 40 days in the desert as well as a time for our mutual forgiveness Waters of Life Will a time of compassion begin? Stand or sit or kneel and be forgiven. My humanity is caught up in yours. Let us find Shalom. May you live in the grace, whose path is looking informed by love. though love is not a thing but a verb. May you find your peace with uncertainty and also with the feeling of fullness that is prayer. Be free to stumble and rise again. Find yourself at home. Let all judgments take into account the many others in these experiments with seeing and thought, with language and intuition and imagination. Our long journeys toward wholeness are similar May they be safe places for souls to show up.
Reflections and Connexions
The third line of the final meditation, “My humanity is caught up in yours,” is Desmond Tutu’s translation of the Zulu word Ubuntu. Another explanation that may be necessary is the simile “like fools with a map.” The point here is that the fools have the map but miss the experience and reality that the map, whether graphics, words, ideas, just represents. My aim in making these meditations is to make them about us, about our common humanity. We can be manipulative and attentive, selfish and generous, fearful and courageous, callous and compassionate. We more easily see these things in others. My hope is that these meditations will perhaps provide an opportunity to see them in ourselves as well as to see them in the whole human enterprise.
The first two meditations have their themes from Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things. The Left and Right in their titles refer both to our asymmetric brain hemispheres and to what’s left to us plus what we get right. McGilchrist’s book on neuroscience, truth, beauty, goodness, physics, metaphysics, evolution, consciousness, intuition, imagination, reason, science, philosophy and the sacred is wonderful and wise but also long and complex. I will say no more here about his ideas except to direct you to his website.
The last three meditations are from Part 2b of Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert. He tends not to put words on his jazz piano music. The titles of his albums are just the Paris Concert or the Tokyo Concert, titles like that and the tracks are just 1, 2a, 2b and so forth. But I was so drawn to the different yet flowing musical flavors of track 2b of the Koln Concert that I needed to write down words. What you have in these 3 meditations are the fifth or so iterations of journal writing in the presence of his music. I have not captured what he expressed most elegantly in music though I do hope that his inspiration to me has become something worthy of poetry. John O’Donohue has said that music is what language would like to become if it only could. Perhaps poetry gets it part way there.
The fourth inspiration with these poem is Nicki Lang’s painting of the Oregon Coast and in its reproduced form is actually here. It is a particular place where Nicki especially feels God’s presence and the fullness that presence brings. I have thought that the two large rocks could represent our divided selves receiving God’s healing presence, but perhaps this language is a poor substitute for the art in itself. I am grateful for Bishop Tutu, Iain, Keith, John, and Nicki and their generousity to the world.
Blessings…
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