Memorial Day Musings - 2016

This weekend our kids marched in a county parade. Our home town band was entree number 90 of about 100 entrees, so we had a long wait. Other high school bands were waiting, too, although not quite so long. What was fun was watching the youth decide to enter act through music. They shared fight songs, drummed common rhythms while others danced, or invited other schools to participate in crazy dances. It was great to see music bring people together. Isn't this kind of interaction what we want for our youth? For ourselves? For our countries? 

Richard Rohr this past week wrote about male initiation rites. He comments that most cultures have traditionally seen the lone, unattached, uninitiated male as dangerous. Initiation, among the many things that it does, is give the participants a larger perspective on life as the those going through the process are robbed of their place and role in the cosmos. 

Perhaps this is one reason I struggle with blind patriotism. In realising more and more that I have been initiated into something larger than town, county, state, country boundaries. I've been initiated into the Kingdom/Kindom of God which transcends these boundaries. 

Wishing you a blessed Memorial Day. 

Joel

Reflections on Spiritual Ecology - Week 2

I've started reading Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Heart (Llewllyn Vaughn-Lee editor). If the essays continue to spark my thinking as this first one has, I'll be spending some time reflecting upon this work. By the way, I've checked this copy out of our local library and would encourage the same for you.
This is the second week reflecting upon the first essay.


Chief Oren Lyon continues his essay by talking about the spiritual laws of nature and the absolute nature of those laws. For instance, he speaks of the warning signs (i.e. stronger winds) and how hard work is important and how hard work builds character. But he also speaks of the importance of Thanksgiving - the mere process of being thankful, not just at once celebration of the year, but for each and everything. To quote:

We have to do that. We have to be thankful. That's what we said. Two things were told us: To be thankful, so those are our ceremonies, ceremonies of thanksgiving. We built nations around it, and you can do that, too. And the other thing they said was enjoy life. That's a rule, a law - enjoy life - you're supposed to. I know you can only do as much as you can do, and they when you do that, you're supposed to get outside and enjoy life. Don't take yourself so seriously. Do the best you can but get at it. That's the way you and I have community.*

We are to work hard (with thanksgiving) and we are to enjoy life (with thanksgiving). This very much reminds me of the Sabbath Tradition - to take time off from our labor. I think both of these point not only to community (notice we are to enjoy ourselves together) but also remind us to be humble. We do the best that we can, then we let it go for a while, we don't take ourselves so seriously, we trust God.
But what are we here for if it is also not to enjoy ourselves, to enjoy each other, to enjoy the natural world?
Dare we take the time to play?
Dare we give thanksgiving for play?
Can we see play as a type of prayer?

In light with last week, doesn't play help us to continue being well?

So what are you waiting for? Go get out on the water! ;)

Blessed be,
Joel

__________________
* Lyon, Chief Oren. "Listening to Natural Law." Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn, ed. The Golden Sufi Center, 2013. p.10.

Reflections on Spiritual Ecology - Week 1

I've started reading Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Heart (Llewllyn Vaughn-Lee editor) this week. If the essays continue to spark my thinking as this first one has, I'll be spending some time reflecting upon this work. By the way, I've checked this copy out of our local library and would encourage the same for you.



I find Lectio Davina a strange spiritual practice, in that it can catch me by surprise - and yet that is the whole point! Take the following for example:

NEYAWENHA SKANNOH. It means "Thank you for being well." 

That caught me right off the start - but I'll continue to quote before reflecting upon it.

The greeting in itself is something of an idea of how Indian people think and how their communities operate.
     What happens to you and what happens to the earth happens to us as well, so we have common interests. We have to somehow try to convince people who are in power to change the direction that they've been taking. We need to take a more responsible direction and to begin dealing with the realities of the future to insure that there is a future for the children, for the nation. That's what we're about. it is to our advantage as well as yours to be doing that.
     In the concern and in the fights that we face as a common people, as human beings, as a species, we have to get together and we have to do things like we are doing now - meeting, sharing, learning. It all comes down to the will, what is in your heart.*

"Thank you for being well." What a greeting! how often do we thank each other for that? How often do we thank one another for showing up as their True Self - for putting their Egos and Super-Egos on the back burner so that we can meet True Self to True Self and work for the common good? How often to do we greet each other "Thank you for being well" that I might learn from you, and you from me?

I remember and interesting conversation with a friend regarding how the English speakers send out their children verses how the French speakers send out their children: "Be Good" verses "Be Wise." Each culture through their own language shapes how they (and their children and children's children) see the world. We cherish Good Behavior (what ever that is). We cherish Wisdom (what ever that happens to be). We cherish Health (how ever that appears).

What do we cherish?

Neyawenha skannoh,
Blessed Be
Joel

__________________
* Lyon, Chief Oren. "Listening to Natural Law." Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn, ed. The Golden Sufi Center, 2013. p.7.

A Few Web Links for You

I thought I'd heave a few links your direction just for the fun of it.

In no particular order:
Louie Sauzedde has a whole bunch of tips on his YouTube page: Tips from a Shipwright. These are really amazing tips and tricks. I've watched a few of them (and read others in WoodenBoat). Even though I don't have a wooden boat I'm trying to re-build, I find it fascinating to watch him and learn all sorts of new ways of doing things.

(Ross) Gannon and (Nat) Benjamin Marine Railway on Vineyard Haven are well known wooden ship builders and restorers. In December 2014 Nat Benjamin and a crew sailed his schooner down to Haiti to visit and bring supplies to an orphanage. Benjamin wrote a booklet about the experience that he offers for free. Off Center Harbor brought this to my attention, and I've found the link on the Gannon and Benjamin website. You can read the booklet (Passage to Haiti) here in Adobe Reader. He is also collecting money for the orphanage if you'd like to donate.

Ben and Alva: This is a neat little video (again thanks to Off Center Harbor for drawing this to all our attention) in which Ben Harris talks about the traditional boats in Falmouth Quay, Cornwall and his own boat Alva. (By the way, some of you may remember that Tim and Pauline Carr's Curlew was a modified Falmouth Quay Punt. Curlew was given to the British Maritime Small Boat Collection a few years ago. You can read about Lin and Larry Pardey's sailing with the Carrs in the Pardey's May 2013 Newsletter.)



Enjoy and Blessed Be,

Joel