Getting to “the Still Point”

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Steve Shoemaker sent this Breath Prayer on March 24, 2012 during Holy Week based on Jesus’ word to another criminal hanging on the cross next to him. I waited until now to post it on Views from the Edge.

Prayers (breathing) –  8 syllables in (inhale); 8 out (exhale)

– Steve Shoemaker

Jesus Christ, Child of God, Savior: (teacher) Have mercy on me, your sister.

(brother).  (on us your siblings.)

(Have mercy on me, a sinner.)

…

Gracious God, Jesus Christ, Spirit:

Give me (us) peace, patience, joy and love.

…

Loving God, you create, sustain:

give us dreams, energy and skill.

…

Holy Spirit, Comforter, Fire:

Mold us, move us, keep us alive.

…

Mysterious Divinity:

Show us what we can know and do.

…

We have left the path, lost our way:

Forgive us, O God; set us straight.

…

Your grace and love surround us, God:

Help us be grateful, loving, kind.

…

Our life will soon be over, God:

Remember us in paradise…

I waited until now to share this prayer. It strikes me as an antidote to the onslaught of misery and hate during this campaign season. Breathing Prayer calms my soul, slows down my whirring mind, and brings it down into the heart. The ancient practices of Breath Prayer and Lectio Divina move me into the great Stillness at “the still point of the turning world”… where the dance is.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither
from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest
nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the
point, the still point,There would be no dance, and there is only the
dance.

– T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965), The Four Quartets.

For more on Breath Prayer and the variety of prayer in the Christian tradition, click on this link: Ten Ways to Pray: A Short Guide to a Long History of Talking with God.

HEADLINE: “Swine Can Stay”

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“SWINE CAN STAY AT THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR, health officials say”  – StarTribune update Aug. 20, 2012

The Fair opens Thursday. Those who don’t know about the swine flu controversy might think that the Minnesota Department of Health’s decision means that fat political parties and candidates that thrive on slop will once again be welcome at the Fair. Every Fair-goer will be at risk, but, then again, that’s how democracy works. Who’s to say who the swine are?

1227 Stevens Street – Swine Party headquarters

The photo in the article shows 1227 Stevens Street as the address of the Swine Barn with a sign next to the address:

Stay Healthy!

Please wash hands

after visiting the animals.

My home in Chaska is another address threatened by the Swine Flu. I get emails every day in this campaign season. I wash my hands a lot these days but the swine are hard to budge.

Hog at State Fair, St. Paul Pioneer Press

In remembrance of Leah Thomas

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Leah Thomas was an attorney at the Legal Rights Center. Born and raised in southside Chicago, Leah’s older brother had been a member of the Black Panthers. She was raised with the cry for social justice in her bones, full of faith, smiles, laughter, and steadiness, a sturdy legal advocate and “mother” to the juvenile clients she defended in Hennepin County District Court.

She fainted one morning getting her coffee at Panera Bread. Days later she was gone. The funeral was held at her African-American church in Minneapolis. As Executive Director of the Legal Rights Center and Leah’s colleague and friend, I offered the following Tribute to Leah at the funeral.

Like light

Like joy

Like sun breaking through a storm

Her laughter

Brightens the room

Breaks the ice

Fills it with peace.

…

Mama walks lightly

Amid the trials and the cares

Quick as a black panther

Steady as a turtle

She coos with the tenderness

of the turtle-dove

walks with the strength of a lion.

…

With steady hand

With sturdy faith

And clarity of mind

She laughs

And soars her craft

Through clouds and storms

To lead us on and through.

…

Like light,

Like joy,

Like sun breaking through a storm,

She laughs,

She brightens the room,

She wipes our tears

She fills us with her peace.

– Gordon C. Stewart, Legal Rights Center, Inc., Feb. 1, 2005.

A grief expressed

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How does one give expression to the depth of horror that follows the death of a son or daughter, as in the case of David’s lament for Absalom? (See sermon “Holy Tears: David, Absalom…and Us” posted here yesterday.)  Percy Bysshe Shelley expresses it in poetry.

O World! O Life! O Time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more -Oh, never more!

…

Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight:
Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more -Oh, never more!

But music, the language of the soul, best expresses the cry from the depths, the prayer from the abyss for help for the helpless. In such moments of loss – and in the spiritual discipline of Good Friday reflection – I listen to “Libera Me” from Gabriel Faure’s Requiem. So soulful. So honest. Real. Vulnerable. Pleading. A primal but lovely cry, given voice from the depths by a great composer.

In Loco Parentis

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Only seniors could have cars

at Wheaton College in the ’60s.

Even though I had a job

in the next town, I had to hitch

a ride with an older classmate.

…

So we bought a ’47

hearse.  The four of us found 50

bucks, and also found a guy,

a senior, who would swear the car

was his:  the lies took us to heaven./

…

One of our rebellious Moms

made red velvet side-curtains for

the windows in the back.  Our dates

would laugh at the chrome rollers in

the floor.  No one wanted to drive..

1947 Pontiac hearse

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 21, 2012

Feast or Fast

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Is the Spiritual Discipline of Fasting Un-American?

“The Supper of the Lamb,” Robert Farrar Capon’s

great theological cookbook, dissed dieting,

insisting it was better far to feast, then fast.

…

But we are surrounded by ads, take-outs,

fast-FOOD!  Can we really just be drinking

plain water for a day?  Can a fast last?

…

We can remember to say Grace

(recall when a prayer was thinking

food was a gift?)  Be thankful FAST!

…

Then souls will grow, waist-lines

shrink.  It bears repeating:

we must first feast, then fast.

…

Americans

meditating,

while moving fast…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL August 21, 2012

Steve’s poem transported me back in time to the boyhood where Grace preceded every meal. All heads were bowed. All ears were open and mouths shut before we feasted on my mother’s cooking. Many of the words my parents offered are gone, but the gift they gave us was deeper than words: the quiet, humble, reverent tone with which the prayers were uttered… on our behalf…and on behalf of those who had no food. Nothing at the feast was fast or taken for granted. “Give us this day our daily bread….”

Heinrich Schutz’ lament for Absalom

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Thanks to Dennis Aubrey of Via Lucis for sharing Heinrich Schutz’s rendering of David’s lament, “My son, Absalom!” in response to “Holy Tears: David, Absalom…and Us” posted here on Views from the Edge this morning.

Earbud Wires

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Verse — Earbud Wires

eaqr bud devices for the hearing impaired

pocketed pursed

tangled

intertwined

a mind of their own

…

like kite string on the ground

like an extension cord snake-pit

…

too short to reel

too short to wind around

elbow & thumb

…

too long to spool

too light to use

as a belt

…

double

redouble

tie in a knot

…

marriage can solve

entanglements

– another piece of genius by a fellow hearing impaired classmate, Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, Illinois. Thanks to Steve’s partner in life, Nadja, for the photograph of the ear buds.

 

A Visit to the Nursing Home: Staying Sane

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Click During campaign season, maintaining serenity is a good trick to read last Friday’s guest commentary published by MPR. The commentary will also air on All Things Considered, “the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country”.

“Holy Tears: David, Absalom…and Us”

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A sermon inspired by the personal story of a king who was losing it and his son, Absalom, leading to the larger question of how we define abundance in our time. If you can get by the first minute and have the time – it’s dreadfully long 🙂 it might be of interest. Please let me know your responses to the last part of the sermon re-defining the idea of abundance.