Saturday, August 26, 2017

DOORWAY

Hi There!

"So, where the heck is my underwear, and how about the Q-Tips?

Don't tell me they are boxed, sealed, stacked and ready to go!!"

It's like that right now.

I'm moving out of state in just four days.

It's rough not to know where things are,

and most of all where I am just now.

It's dislocation awaiting relocation.

It's like standing in a doorway.

You are no longer where you were,

and you're not yet where you're going to be.

This business of "Betwixt and Between,"

this Doorway  space can be about self-sense,

it can be relational, social, professional,

familial, financial, marital, psychic, a health issue.

Whatever the manifestation,

we often find ourselves in a "no longer, not yet" mode:

                       - no longer having kids at home,

                         not yet adjusted to just the two of us

                       - no longer climbing the corporate ladder,

                         not yet ready to step down

                       - no longer a child,

                         not yet an adult

                       - no longer hooking up,

                         not yet into a real relationship

                       - no longer playing tennis,

                         not yet ready for a walker

                       - no longer married,

                         not yet close to a significant other

                       - no longer trim,

                         not yet a bit comfortable with middle age,

                         middle body spread

                       - no longer my old self,

                         not yet whatever the heck

                         my new self will be.



 We regularly find ourselves spiritually in Doorway space:

                        - no longer praying the way we did for years,

                          not yet at home in a different experience of prayer

                        - no longer cock sure about who/how God is,

                          not yet comfortable with a less defined

                          and more spacious awareness of,

                         an "at-ease-ness" with The All.

                       - no longer obsessing to find God,

                         not yet relaxing as "found"-ed in God

                       - no longer sold on institutional religion,

                         not yet "at home" in a foundational, 

                         freer form of religious community

                       - no longer reading "devotional literature,"

                         yet not acquainted with a broader spiritual genre

                       - no longer clear and convinced on moral issues,

                         not yet ready for a new field of integrity

                       - no longer trying to please ( control ) God,

                         not yet ready to go to bed with God.



About now most of us get pretty itchy for an

All American, Get-a Grip, Pro-Active, What to Do About It, Game Plan.

Well, the saints and mystics all pretty much tell us the same thing about being in a

                                           
                                                   DOORWAY.

                                             Don't just accepted it,

                                                     Embrace it,

                                                     Better yet,

                                                Let it Embrace you

                                                          and

                                                    Envelope you.


                           See that when you are neither here nor there,

                                                        in fact

                                                    YOU ARE.

           Being in a  Doorway space puts in bold relief that we are not the sum of our

                understandings, activities, efforts, achievements, consciousness.

                                  We start, continue and always will

                                                        BE.

                                                    WE ARE

                   A two day old baby and a fifty year old mystic both

                                                       ARE.

                                              They are held in

                                                     BEING

                                                         by

                                          EVER AND ENDLESS

                                                       LOVE.

                     No matter what the surface of their lives are like, they

                                                       ARE.

                                          So, when you are in a

                                                 DOORWAY ,

                                                     RELAX.

                                       YOU ARE HOME SAFE

                                        If you allow yourself to

                                    ACCEPT AND THRILL TO

                                                   BEING

                           however it presents on the surface of life,

                        however in between things are on that surface.

                We evolve in our awareness of ourselves, and all else.

                                      It's a flow unto Fullness.

       The fundamental self is just that - an eternal constant, a mystery within

                                            THE MYSTERY.

          Its conditions, its manifestations, its way of being conscious of itself,

                   and how all that is put into practice, is lived out,

                                        are regularly in flux.

                           There is an essential difference between

                                                WHO

                                              WE ARE
                                               
                                                  and

                                          HOW WE ARE.

                     The blessing here is to go deep and celebrate that

                                             " I AM "

                                         and that within

                                     " I AM WHO AM"

                                         ( Exodus 3:14 )




A humble example of all this.

A precious diamond is that when in the earth,

when mined,

polished and set,

extracted,

and placed in a new setting.

It always is what it is.

Its manifestation and location

are set for a while,

and yet there is the inbetweeness

that eventuates in a new setting

for the constant diamond.



We people experience our Self Sense

on two levels at the same time;

                                                - foundational, constant

                                                - surface, evolving, often in Doorway space.

On the surface of things,

we go from set and settled

to a Doorway,

to set and settled

until the next transition

through another Doorway.

It is a living through of

The Paschal Mystery.

We die to how it was.

We rise to a new how it is.

The in between time,

is like Jesus in the tomb,

and Jonah in the belly of the whale.



Well, I'll eventually find my underwear and the Q-Tips,

but it will be in a new place,

a new setting.

What stays,

and is staying,

is that

"I am,"

in this

Doorway space

between here and there.



All the best as you "are"

and are evolving in your understanding of that

and your living out that understanding

in changing times, places and ways.



Please pray for me

and those who have to put up with me

when I stress out about underwear and Q-Tips

in my current

Doorway space.



See you next week,

not in the same way,

but the same you and the same me.

Love to all!

   John Frank