Salt and Light

I am always delighted when a preacher makes a connection in his homily that I have never seen for myself.
One of my brother monks did that at Mass yesterday. The Gospel was "salt and light" (Matthew 5:13-16). The homilist said, "Salt and light: Taste and see."
What a wonderful Eucharistic reference. Thanks, brother!

If you don't have the time, make the time.

As this blog develops, I notice that I am posting my students write to me. A word of explanation: I teach a course called Creativity for Artists, Writers and Musicians to a group of seniors preparing for graduation. As part of their assignments they are required to write me a "letter" every week during the semester telling about how they are using material from the course in their daily lives. More about that some other time.
This week, a student wrote "I am not the only one on this campus who feels that they do not have a moment to think."

My response: It's not only people on campus who feel that way. Our lives tend to be too busy, too frenetic, too noisy, too impulsive, affording us little time or "space" to be reflective. We are programmed to be shallow,vapid and grasping, collecting one experience after another without ever having the opportunity to process them on any but the most superficial level.  I remember a TV ad broadcasted over 25 years ago that claimed a certain kind of yogurt would "feed your soul." I found it so demeaning, to suggest that my soul is something that could be "fed" by the right kind of sour milk! And that was 25 years ago. It just keeps getting worse. You cannot expect things to change once you graduate and enter the "real world."
   The truth is that you cannot depend on schools or other institutions, workplaces or other environments other than retreat houses and monasteries to nurture your most important needs. You need to make choices that will give you the time you need to stay balanced and reflective in a way that both nurtures your life and that provides you with balance, thoughtfulness and gratitude on a daily basis. Even taking the time to read this is more than a lot of people can handle. You've read this to the end. Congratulations! You have already taken a big step in the right direction."

A quiet drive

A student writes,

I usually drive with my music obnoxiously loud, but the other day I decided to find out what it’s like without the music blaring. I found myself driving completely quiet, completely enjoying my time in the car on the highway. I was thinking about nothing in particular, just the excitement of seeing my family and my dog, but mostly I just watched other cars drive by me and town exits go by. I found myself being completely content with myself just being with myself, no radio distractions and no people around.

From my daily readings I: participation and aliveness

This comes from a book of daily meditations called 356 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao:

Whatever comes to you, you must engage it somehow. You receive it, you may alter the circumstances and let it go, you may interject something of your own into it, or you may knowingly let it pass. Whatever you do, there is no need to be apathetic toward life. Instead, full participation in all things is the surest way to happiness, vitality and success . . .

When we're depressed we systematically shut down those things which bring us aliveness. It becomes a vicious cycle. This is a good quote to have handy when you're going through a low period.

From my daily readings II: anger

I'm reading the homilies on John's Gospel by St. John Chrysostom, and I came across this passage about anger and what it does to a person:

Nothing is more shameful than a countenance ablaze with anger, nothing more disfigured. . . . for just as a noisome odor is given off when mud is stirred up, so when the soul is disturbed by anger great impropriety and unpleasantness will result.

. . .  if you parry reviling with reviling,you have kindled the blaze still more.  (A modern variation on this is, "It's the second statement that starts the argument."

. . . he who indulges in anger . . . already begins to pay the penalty for his action, by introducing into his inmost thoughts a certain unceasing rest and persistent distress all through the night and all through the day.

So, questions of the day: Do you find this to be true in your life? And if so, what are you going to do about it?

What we miss when we're yapping, part 2

no favoritism here!

I can't believe it! I'm in the campus coffee shop. I just went to the counter to get a couple of sweetener packets. As I was doing that, I was yapping with a student.

I went back to my seat and realized that I had grabbed TEN packets. Ooops!

Becoming more aware

I asked my students to go and do something completely alone and report back about what they noticed. Here is what one person wrote:

Going out into the wilderness with no worries in the world was one of the most enjoyable, relaxing, amazing experiences I have had in my entire life. I found myself imagining and thinking about things that I would not have otherwise. If I was with someone else, I would have been too engaged in conversation to notice some of the aspects of nature that I did.

How much do we miss because we're constantly yapping. What if you stopped talking on your cell phone while walking from one place to another? I bet your world will be come much bigger than what you're yapping about.