Friday, June 29, 2018
DISCOURAGED
Hi There !
So, I really hope
it is in fact
"high" there
where you are.
It is not so here where I am.
It is "low" here, very low.
I so want to write
for you of things like
cosmic energy,
near and dear companionship
in The Spirit,
everyday contemplative living,
and lots more.
Can't just now.
I'm down.
My heart ( "cor")
has been ("dist")
as in
"dis - cour -aged."
Relational failures -
big time and bad.
Pain!
No blame game.
I can only speak
for myself,
facing
my ineptitude,
my mis-reads,
my mis-steps.
Love is union,
and for me lately love
has failed into separation.
Union left town,
went south,
far and fast.
What hurts so much
is to be blocked,
by myself and by others,
denied an opening
to pour forth
God's love
freely and fully
so that it transports
to transcendence.
Rather, it's been
the incarnation
of love aborted
and union lost.
Heart blockage is
so dangerous and painful.
Look, honestly I don't mean this
as an invitation to a Pity Party.
We will get to cosmic energy,
near and dear companionship
in The Spirit,
everyday contemplative living,
and lots more, and that soon.
First, though, the imperative
for me, and for you
in your own time and way
of discouragement,
is to get Heart Healthy.
How do I/we do that?
How deal with the devil of
discouragement,
whatever the cause:
be that relational, vocational,
economic, your air conditioner
takes a vacation on a 95 degree day,
health issues upend everything?
How be, and what to do,
when something
frustrates our oneness,
our union with God, be that
God present in our relationship
with one of his children, be that
God present in our relationship
with some part of his good creation?
Whatever the cause and context,
it throws us for a loop.
In plain English,
how deal with discouragement?
The best response I know and
am employing right now is:
- admit it
- suffer the pain
- allow for mourning
- refuse furry
- as a particular love union
is denied, embrace all the other
particular love embraces
open, healthy, fresh, good
that welcome you -
family and friends, babies and puppy dogs,
tulips, Giotto's frescoes , a walk in the woods,
a meal shared, a child happy to have you
as a Big Brother/Sister, restoring a 1930 Model T,
mentoring a young person from the inner city,
and endlessly more if only
we keep looking through our tears
to see the Love Unions open to us
- realize that all Reality is not wrapped up in
just one particular love union denied
- in simple, plain, pure prayer
"Cast your care upon the Lord."
( Psalm 55:22 )
because
- "There is a Wideness to God's Love"
for sure.
- in fact, there are no limits,
no denial of union from
The Love Who Is God.
The Love Union of God is oceanic
and it is present in all sorts of
people, projects, possibilities,
places and objects.
- when discouraged, sink into the ocean
of God's Love so universally present.
- We go deep, or we drown where we are.
"Discouragement focuses on
'what is not,' and completely misses
the far greater reality of 'what is'."
( Craig D. Lounsbrough )
Hey, thanks for letting me be
honest and open with you
and go through this here.
Yes, it's so good
"to embrace all
the other particular love unions -
open, healthy, fresh, good...
that welcome you,"
and not get stuck in
'what is not' and miss
the far greater reality of
'what is '.
When the devil of discouragement
tries to steal and still to death our hearts
when love union is denied one way or another,
stay open, go deep, swim free in that ocean of
presence that is the Love Who Is God.
Please do consider the
MEDITATION MARKERS
that follow when either discouraged,
or supporting another who is.
They provide an abundance of
clarity, comfort, direction and wisdom.
We are blessed to be joined lately
by many new to our weekly sharing
Welcome.
"frankly speaking" is posted Fridays
online and is available at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked
for easy access.
It is also available
for automatic delivery by email
each Saturday.
Please see the signup up
for that at the top right of
of the online version
for that option.
Past posting are available from the
Blog Archive
located at the bottom of the right column
of the online version.
Holding one and all gratefully in
God's Dear Love,
A Refreshed and Renewed,
John Frank
********************************************************************************
Meditation Markers
- When written in Chinese the word "crisis"
is composed of two characters -
one represents danger
and the other opportunity.
John F. Kennedy
- If the wind will not serve,
take to the oars.
Latin Proverb
- What the caterpillar calls
the end of the world,
the master calls a butterfly.
Richard Bach
- If one dream should fall and
break into a thousand pieces,
never be afraid to pick
one of those pieces up
and begin anew.
Flavia
- Fall seven times.
Stand up eight.
Japanese Proverb
- Weeping may endure
for a night,
but joy cometh
in the morning.
Psalm 30:5
- It's just that in the Deep South,
women learn at an early age
that when the world
is falling apart around you,
it's time to take down the drapes
and make a new dress.
Karen Marie Moning
- I survived because the fire in me
burned brighter than
the fire around me.
Author Unknown
- We must endure pain
and burn it as fuel
for our journey.
Kenji Miyazawa
- God is my Shepherd!
I don't need a thing.
You have bedded me down
in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools
to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in
the right direction.
Even when the way
goes through Death Valley,
I am not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd's crook
makes me feel secure.
You serve me a six course dinner
right in front of my enemies
You revive my dropping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I'm back home in the house of God
for the rest of my life.
Psalm 23
( The Message )
********************************************
Posts
Friday, June 22, 2018
LIGHT ART
Hi There !
So, Sunday there I was in church.
Nothing particularly special
about that?
But there was.
I had a revelation -
right there in church -
a for real revelation.
To be honest about it,
I drifted a bit
during the sermon.
No, I wasn't preaching!!
Drift I did, though.
That's when it happened.
The stained glass windows,
those narrow,
kaleidoscopic
floor to ceiling panels,
got a hold of me,
drew me in.
Windows of wonder.
All sorts and sizes
of colored bits
happy to be together
and showing so.
The sun
over spreading them,
lover-like,
a gentle intensity
artfully caressing,
arousing
a radiant response,
penetrating to
fusion and perfusion,
birthing brilliant
LIGHT ART.
A tone poem in color -
silent sight speaking
mystery and majesty.
Awe.
I almost missed the collection.
Musing and meditating
on Sunday's
LIGHT ART
and its revelation,
I delight to be the
unique bit of color
that I am,
to be in company
with such a plenitude
of varied others,
each of us singular in
coloration, tone and hue,
all of us yielding to
LIGHT LOVE,
to
God
intensifying us to
shared brilliance.
Think I'll call
the Pope,
Xi-Jinping,
Emmanuel Macron,
Franklin Graham,
The Saudi Crown Prince,
Donald Trump,
and my barber, Harry,
and tell them all about
LIGHT ART.
Sure hope they'll pick up on it.
It's a Revelation that can make
all the difference in the world.
That goes for us, too.
So, how about we all take some
time, quiet, reflection, and prayer
this coming week for our own
LIGHT ART.
Prompts and helps follow in our
Meditation Markers.
We are blessed with new participation
here at
"frankly speaking"
from Algeria.
Welcome !
"God bless us, every one!"
Holding each and all
In God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
MEDITATION MARKERS
Please draw from the plenitude
of insights
"sights into"
little "peeks"
into
the mystery and majesty
of
God
Light
Creativity
Selfhood
Art
that follow.
See what they say,
hopefully sing,
to your soul.
Let's muse and meditate,
ponder and pray
our way through
the next week,
daily drawing
from what is offered here.
*****
The ancient Greeks counseled
"To thine own self be true."
Am I?
Have I embraced my
True Self?
Do I delight to be
the unique me that
I am,
this body,
this spirit,
this personality,
this temperament,
these talents,
this dear, precious
"bit of color"
created for
the brilliance
of
LIGHT ART
???
*****
How about
"Just be yourself
and forget all the stuff
you read in 'GQ' magazine"
(Chris Pratt)
or Vogue, or online,or...
???
*****
Do I try to tailor
my clothes, manner,
activities, body, spirit,
life values and style
- my very self -
in some sort of
"make over"
to please, to play up,
to position
???
*****
The mystic scholar,
John Duns Scotus
shared that each
individual being is a
unique,
deliberate
creation
of
God
delighting in us.
Can I join
God's delight in me?
Yes, there are
flaws and faults in me.
Some I inherited from
my earth community
in its slippage
at times
into chaos.
Some from my own slippage
into unrealness.
Yet, they are not my essence,
they are not the
beautiful,
unique
colored bit
of potential
that
LOVE LIGHT
wants to shine through
unto brilliance.
*****
Allowing for the shading of
time and occurrence,
what is God's favorite way
of shinning through me?
What ray of the Divine Intensity
radiates right through me?
*****
There are so many other
bits of color
in the composition of life,
each unique in
coloration, tone and hue -
in orientation to
understandings, gender,
spirituality, politics, life styles.
Am I free enough
to be delighted
by the plenitude
and blend right in.
???
*****
Using a different metaphor,
the Sufi Mystic, Hafiz shares:
"I am the hole on the flute
that God's breath flows through."
*****
A variation on our theme
comes from the Sufi Mystic,
Rumi
"Everyone has been made
for some particular work,
and the desire for that work
has been put in in every heart."
*****
"That which God said
to the rose
and caused it to laugh
in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart and
made it a hundred times
more beautiful."
Rumi
*****
"Forget not that the earth delights
to feel your bare feet and
the wind longs to play with your hair."
Gibran
*****
"Art enables us to find ourselves
and lose ourselves at the same time."
Thomas Merton
*****
"Creativity takes courage."
Matisse
*****
"Every child is born an artist.
The problem is how
to remain an artist
once we grow up."
Picasso
*****
"Creativity is contagious.
Pass it on."
Einstein
*****
"Be yourself: everyone else
is already taken."
Oscar Wilde
*****
"Your time is limited.
Don't waste it
living someone else's life."
Steve Jobs
*****
"Find out who you are
and do it on purpose."
Dolly Parton
*****
"Always be a first-rate version of yourself
and not a second-rate version
of someone else."
Judy Garland
*****
"Own who you are."
Anonymous
*****
"We are ourselves creations.
We are meant to continue creativity
by being creative ourselves.
This is the God-force
extending itself through us."
Julia Cameron
*****
"So God created humankind in his image..."
Genesis 1; 27
- Have I noticed?
- God has designs on me, his!!
- How about that??
*****
"The soul has been given its own ears
to hear things the mind does not understand."
Rumi
*****
"What matters is how quickly you do
what your soul directs."
Rumi
*****
"If a man is to be alive,
he must be all alive,
body, soul, mind, heart, spirit."
Thomas Merton
*****
"God will use you to accomplish great things
on the condition that you believe much more
in his love than in your weakness."
Mother Theresa
*****
" Our own life has to be our message."
Thich Nhat Hahn
*****
"With passion pray.
With passion make love.
With passion eat and drink
and dance and play.
Why look like a dead fish
in the ocean of God?"
Rumi
*****
"You and your purpose in life
are the same thing.
Your purpose is to be you."
George Alexion
*****
From the Quakers:
"BE THE LIFE THAT WANTS TO LIVE IN YOU."
***********************************************************************************
Welcome to those new to
"frankly speaking."
- It is posted online each Friday
and can be accessed at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
- It is delivered weekly and automatically
by email each Saturday.
Sign Up is at the top right
of the online version.
- Past Postings are available from
Blog Archive. It is at the bottom right
of the online version.
Thank You !
Friday, June 15, 2018
COUNT
This time last week
it seemed this posting
would be delayed a day.
Happily, here we go
right on time!
Hi There !
So, come on.
Let's count 'em up,
because they sure do
COUNT.
Let's count up all those
"nobodies"
of this world who have made
all the difference in the world
to us in our spiritual lives.
Honestly, right here, right now,
let's
COUNT
our for real "patron" saints,
the whole ones, the holy ones,
who have been our spiritual patrons,
our spiritual benefactors,
those who have endowed us so richly
by their lived example and sharing.
As a prompt, please permit me to share
a few examples from my own long
COUNT
of my patron saints and benefactors.
NOTES ON NOTABLE "NOBODIES"
WHO REALLY
COUNT
My Mother
-She didn't talk it, she walked it.
- She was the real deal,
really and truly
rooted, centered in
"The Love Who Is God."
- So centered, she was energized
to raise eight children and
one husband.
- Steadiness, generosity, hard, hard work.
- The good of all others always first and foremost.
- Encouragement, high ideals
blended with workable practicality.
- A warm, nurturing way.
- Found beauty everywhere.
- Knew how to laugh.
- Knew how to cry.
- A right at home mystic.
Brother Marius
- The care taker and handyman
at the seminary.
- So singularly, totally in full focus on God.
- A mystic on a lawn mower.
Father Anthony Vivona
- A quiet, not much noticed priest.
- Had the courage to be
who and how he really was.
- Introduced me to
the contemplative, mystical life by
his passionate love affair with God.
FYI
The weekly greeting here at
"frankly speaking"
of
"Hi There !"
comes from Father Vivona.
That's how he always greeted me.
Rita "Ma" Willett
- Rough, tough widow.
- Raised thirteen children
in extreme poverty and
with a determination
of steely faith.
- She wasn't pretty or poetic,
but she sure was beautiful.
Father James McMillan
- The greatest thinker and scholar
I ever met.
- Taught in an obscure setting.
- Introduced me to the intellectual life,
one with soul,
one open to unendingness.
"Craenie"
- Strong, vigorous farm woman.
- Robust of spirit.
- Generous to a fullness.
- Could laugh at a bug walking backward,
and most of all at herself.
- Free and freeing soul.
- Contagious zest for life,
life received, life given.
OK, time out.
Let's list the
"nobodies"
of this world
who have made
all the difference
in the world to you
as you have come alive spiritually.
LIST OF
NOTABLE "NOBODIES"
WHO REALLY
COUNT
Let's think and pray, then name the top six,
and reconvene in ten
-___________________________________
-___________________________________
-___________________________________
-___________________________________
-___________________________________
-___________________________________
Ten Later
Pretty counter intuitive, right?
And there's the paradox.
Those named
so different and delightfully so
than the
"Big Names,
the
"Somebodies"
of commerce, politics,
entertainment, the academe.
Try this on.
When we come to die,
who will
COUNT
for us?
Bill Gates or our own Father Vivona?
Well, before we get there,
we have a lot of living to do
right here, right now.
So, over the next week let's focus
on those dear ones who are
our spiritual patrons saints
and
benefactors.
Let's let them be present to us anew.
It will renew and refresh us.
It will redirect and reconstitute our spirits
out here on the street of every day living.
Like most of them, we don't
COUNT
in the public eye.
Thank God !
One less illusion and distraction.
Happily, though, we are invited
to what really does
COUNT
in the long ( forever ) run -
free, full, open, joyous,
rambunctious, expansive
ALIVENESS
received and given,
and that without end.
Numbers just can't go that high,
but we can.
We are meant to really
COUNT.
As my dear friend, Bill Engisch say,
"Love to all."
John Frank
**********
For those new to our sharing:
-"frankly speaking" is posted every Friday
online at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can easily be bookmarked for ready access.
- "frankly speaking" is also available
by automatic email delivery
every Saturday.
Please see the top right of the
online version for sign up.
- Past posting are available at Blog Archive.
It is located at the bottom right
of the online version.
WELCOME!!!
**********************************
Friday, June 8, 2018
CHALLENGE
PLEASE NOTE
The Friday,
June 15th.
issue of
"frankly speaking"
will be posted online
Saturday Evening
June 16th.
It will be available by email
Sunday Evening
June 17th.
Thank You!
*****
Hi There !
So, when was the last time
you heard a really good sermon
about being prophetic,
about giving unflinching
CHALLENGE
to a significant wrong?
For that matter,
when was the last time
you caught yourself
just itching for
such a sermon anyway?
For most of us
it's at least a -12
on a scale of 1-10.
.
Truth to tell,
and that's what prophets do,
who the heck wants it,
the bald, bold, unwashed,
(as in not watered down),
truth
?
We're rather adept at
dancing around sheer truth.
In (not so) good part,
we prefer to play/pretend truth
down to a shadow of itself.
For all our protestations
to the contrary,
we're not all that fond of truth.
Just check out what we get and take
from advertisers and politicians,
and how we handle a personal critique
pointing out an uncomfortable truth
about ourselves.
When I get caught out like that,
say about my sermon
being way too long,
I usually play "nice, nice"
on the outside about the
CHALLENGE
but you shouldn't hear
what I say inside!!
It sure isn't "nice, nice."
I/We shouldn't really get
all hot and bothered
about those kinds of
a low intensity
CHALLENGES.
Turned around the other way,
though,
we sure as heaven should get
hot and bothered enough to
CHALLENGE
when there is evil loose among us.
A good example of a bad
that needs a vigorous
CHALLENGE
right now
is the horrific practice
in our country of
separating immigrant children
from their parents.
Yet, how many of us
and our political leaders
are hot and bothered enough
to be giving a vigorous
CHALLENGE
to such a blatant
and
devastating
sin
?
That sin should make us forget
being bothered over the likes of
"Nice try, but your sermon
went about fifty miles too far,"
or
" Haven't seen you in months
and where ever did you pick up
all the new fullness?"
Way more, though,
it should make us
so hot and bothered that
we make a lot of noise,
take a stand,
until the truth about the evil of
separating children
from their parents
is faced and corrected.
It is a hideous, violent practice.
According to
The Department of Health
and Human Services,
10,773 migrant children
are in government custody this week,
torn away from their parents.
This travesty comes from
an administration that talks
"family values,"
and
"right to life."
Make that "double talk."
How about the right to family life?
How about upholding
"the God given natural order of things" -
mom, dad and kids together
as a family unit?
The administration claims that
"it's the law."
Sometimes
"the law"
is wrong and immoral
and must face
CHALLENGE.
Jesus was murdered under
"the law."
White people founded this nation
with enslaving black people
built into its foundation and
"the law."
The killing of women
attempting to marry outside
their caste or religion is
"the law"
in sectors of our world right
to this sad day.
"The Law"
is not necessarily,
nor essentially moral.
Consider laws protecting
slavery and segregation
in our country's past.
When law is not moral,
it needs a strong, clear,
non-compromising and
prophetic
CHALLENGE.
In terms of our current and
pernicious immigration practice
of severing children
from their parents,
I'll bet one of those
record breaking,
high profile,
much touted
executive orders
from the White House
could make a saving difference,
could uphold family values and
the right to life as a family,
make adjustments to the practice
of stealing children away
from their parents until
"the law"
is righted.
To expel immigrants is one issue.
To violate the natural order
in the process is a devilish other.
CHALLENGE
Being prophetic, standing up,
and often standing way out
on a limb to do that,
to speak for truth and justice,
is not only a bother, it can be costly.
As a newly ordained,
I was asked to be right up front,
a white man in a black clerical suit,
in a civil rights march
in segregated southern Maryland.
That was in 1968.
Martin Luther King
and Bobby Kennedy
had recently been shot to death.
Civil rights workers
were beaten and even killed.
It was an angry, violent time.
We got a death threat just before
we left church that morning for the march.
I was a clear, easy target.
I feared I might be shot by evening.
Leading that march was a
CHALLENGE
I didn't want to give,
but I had to give.
Years later I was working
in the Chancery.
The bishop and I
were in daily contact.
We were quite friendly.
He was also my superior.
He buckled under pressure
and countermanded my decision
to hire a properly laicized,
highly recommended priest
with a doctorate in theology.
That man had a family to support.
The bishop denied him
the chance to do that in his field.
I had no choice but to
CHALLENGE
the bishop.
It strained a friendship
and threatened
my clerical climb
( shame on me!).
A caution.
In a run up to the crucifixion of Jesus
the soldiers involved,
the one's torturing
and preparing to execute him
did so under
"the law,"
They taunted him:
"Prophesy to us.
Who is it that struck you?"
(Matthew 26: 68)
Jesus kept silent.
Sometimes saying nothing,
not playing into a contrivance,
withholding a recommendation,
and other forms of silence
are the appropriate
CHALLENGE.
There are other times,
though,
when to be real,
we "real"-ly must be
prophetic
and
CHALLENGE
loud and clear
by
"...speaking the truth in love."
(Ephesians 4:15)
It gets up front, personal
and practical for
spouses, partners, children,
parents, business associates,
pastors and congregants,
police and military, politicians,
advertisers, merchants,
coaches and teachers,
citizens and neighbors.
All of us do well
to heed the wisdom and
CHALLENGE
of Jesus
that
"The truth will make you free."
( John 8:32 )
That does not mean we are free
to mount our own, personal Inquisition
every time something is wacky or annoying
It does mean we need
to accept a prophetic word or action of
CHALLENGE
addressed to us
and
to give such when truly necessary
to others.
Either and both can be difficult.
Either and both are fundamental
to our spiritual life and health out here
on the street of everyday living.
By the way, I recently visited
a wonderful United Methodist Church
and heard
"... a really good sermon
about being prophetic,
about giving unflinching
CHALLENGE
to a wrong."
It in part was the prompt for this blog.
The pastor gave a principled, balanced,
scriptural reminder that we need
to take a stand for the truth -
Jesus is
" the way,
THE TRUTH,
and the life."
( John 14:16 ) -
even if that stand for the truth
costs us money, friends, position.
That sermon was refreshing and itself a
CHALLENGE,
one we too rarely hear in church,
but one essential to our spiritual lives.
By writing all this I run the risk
of loosing friends and followers of this blog.
Well, that is a risk this
not so brave me just has to take.
Every once in a while,
we all need to
CHALLENGE
and to be
CHALLENGED.
It's not an every day, all the time matter.
Nor is it a matter of being
prickly and judgemental.
It's a matter of taking a stand
so others can stand.
Teresa of Avila fleshes out
taking a stand for others,
standing in in the Truth of Jesus.
"Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world."
Spirituality for the street
in one way or many means
"We are all just walking each other home."
Ram Dass
Thanks for considering all this today.
"The truth will make you free."
That's the promise and the
CHALLENGE.
Holding each and all
In God's Dear Love,
John Frank
************************************************************************************
Each Friday
(except next Friday )
"frankly speaking"
is posted online at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
Each Saturday
(except next Saturday)
"frankly speaking"
is available by email.
For automatic, weekly delivery
please see the email sigh up
at the top right of the online version.
Past postings are available at
Blog Archive,
which is located at
the bottom right of the online version.
********************************************************************************
Friday, June 1, 2018
DIFFERENTLY TOGETHER
Hi There !
So, Kyle came over for dinner
the other night.
Guaranteed, you'd really like him.
He's seventeen, big and strong.
That goes for his soul, mind,
and ever ready smile as well.
As Kyle moved into
his second generous portion of
"Hammered Chicken,"
(a family favorite)
flavored orzo, avocado
and lettuce salad,
home made bread, asparagus,
(and while keeping
an eager eye on
the chocolate cake waiting
over on the server),
we got to talking about school.
Kyle shared how grateful he is
that he has been home schooled.
Among other things,
it has allowed him
to hold to Creationism,
and not be forced to accept
other understandings.
Now, it so happens that
I understand and speak
about creation
quite differently than Kyle.
I chose not to speak
those differences at the table.
That wasn't to play it safe,
nor be polite.
It was to widen our sharing
rather than shut it down.
Neither Kyle nor I were around
at the get go of creation.
We both believe that God
is the creative power.
Just how God did it,
or in my view is still doing it,
is way bigger than
any human explanation,
or doctrinal encasement.
Like everyone else,
Kyle and I draw from
the multiple and varied
takes of
astrophysicists,
geologist, religious texts,
philosophers, theologians,
biologists and
my barber, Harry.
None were primary
to the occurrence.
So, rather than play God,
arguing human articulations,
Kyle and I had a good time
talking about the gifts
and wonders of God's creation,
( including that
delicious chocolate cake ).
Glad we did that.
That approach
faces differences
and looks to fields
of sharing and support.
Right now our societal setting
is stuck in aggressive defense/offense
of difference, and that to the peril of
sharing and support,
if not our continuance.
It's down right dangerous and lethal.
Things have not only "gone ballistic,"
they threaten to go nuclear,
metaphorically and actually.
It's pervasive:
politics, religion, morals,
economics, governance, and racial,
ethnic to international relations.
It's a cultural war.
( See Ross Douthat's Op Ed piece,
NYT, May26,2018
for one view of this war).
In this belligerent, toxic atmosphere
we try to live out our spiritual lives.
And this belligerent, toxic atmosphere
is right where we can
freshen and free up things
for our choking, warring
constricted society.
It comes down to what
Kyle and I experienced:
face differences
and look to fields
of sharing and support.
"Live and let live "is good,
but it is not good enough.
We need to
"Live and help live."
Let's frame it this way.
We all share existence.
How we interpret,
explain and live it varies.
Those variables are not
of the essence of existence.
Dealing with, allowing for
difference is imperative.
It's "Live and let live,"
perhaps better put as
"Live and let live to keep living."
If, however, we stay
on the surface of things,
our differences will destroy us.
If we go deep,
think and act from
the Center of
our shared existence,
we can deal with difference
and sprint together
to fields of unitive engagement.
That's spirituality
for the street in our right now -
all manner of differing people
gathered, facing their differences
and focused
beyond those differences -
shoulder to shoulder,
busy doing good things together
and thus truly "being" together.
" To direct the mind towards
the basic unity of all things
and to divert it from
the seizing of difference -
therein lies bliss."
Tejo-Bindu Upanishad
This comes about in all
manner and modes
of teaming up
to share and support:
- working together to get
a group of inner city kids
to summer camp
- forming a local writers'
and artists' colloquium
- campaigning together for
the political party
of your shared persuasion
- organizing a community garden
that grows enough extra
to feed local needy
- developing a support group
for single parents -
spotting each other
for child care,
providing social settings
and activities
for single parents
and their and kids
- mounting a week long,
inter-religious,
conservative/liberal
work team repairing homes
in Appalachia
( if you do, please
let me know
and I in turn will alert
Fox and CNN !! )
- enjoy regular Food Fests,
serving and savoring
each other's different ethnic
and regional foods
- putting together
a mentoring team
for at risk teens
- visiting each other's
religious services.
- fielding a sports league
with Jews, Moslems,
alt-left and righters,
Hindus, Christians,
agnostics, atheists,
and anybody passing by,
on every team and then
name the league
"Differently Together" -
(be sure to serve
veggie dogs and
beanburger along
with the hot dogs
and hambergers)
- hiking, going to concerts
and museums together
- hosting Insight Evenings
where people explain
their traditions
and rituals in an open,
informative,
non-persuasive way
- sharing an away, silent,
spiritual retreat
- frequently holding
each other's babies
Working together,
walking together,
brings together.
God is One,
and we are invited
to be counted in!!
Glad we are together here.
In God's Dear Love,
John Frank
If you have the time and interest,
please consider the
Addendum that follows.
*****
This week we had our first ever
participation from Ecuador.
Good to welcome you and
be welcomed by you.
- "frankly speaking is
posted every week on Friday and
is delivered by email on Saturdays.
- Online it is available at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
Sign up for automatic,
weekly email delivery
is at the top right of the online version.
Past postings are available from the
Blog Archive at the bottom right
of the online version.
Thanks to all who have shared
"frankly speaking" with family and friends.
******************************************************************************
ADDENDUM
Honesty and Humility
We really need to be
honest and humble,
not claiming absolute,
divine or scientific certainty
and completeness
for our limited, human attempts
to explain things way bigger
than we are so far.
Biblical and scientific matters
are a clear example of that today.
Humans are indeed inspired to reveal.
We catch on to a goodness
and express it our way.
Our way is limited.
Einstein regularly reminded us
that there is a vastness and mystery
way beyond where we are or can go.
We certainly can be on to
deep insight and critical truths,
but we cannot know
or express them fully.
Consider the biblical writers
of Genesis.
They conveyed a central truth -
God's creative love and action.
That more than qualifies
as a divine revelation,
a revelation "about,"
but not exhaustive
of God's creation.
It is described,
is toned, colored and limited
by what the writers
had available to them
in their time and culture.
Their metaphorical description of
God's Six DayWork Week,
and a good rest on the seventh day,
put it well for
the working people
of their time.
It is also a variation
on a number of Creation Myths
current in their region at the time.
Myth does not mean untrue.
It means a truth expressed
in a metaphorical story.
It's important not to confuse
the package for the content.
It works the same way for science.
Read centuries of scientific history.
A scientific theory or fact
is refined or replaced
by a clearer one,
and that repeatedly
by more and more over time.
Remember The Peking Man.
Scientist are dealing with
the mystery of energy.
They tell it the best they can
with the understandings.
the calculations
and articulations
available to them at the time.
With time, those expand and change.
Whether it's biblical or scientific writers,
philosophers, psychologist, theologians -
the whole troop of thinkers and teachers,
I 'd say we are getting pretty good
at understanding and describing a leaf,
a leaf on one branch
of one tree
in the forest of existence.
Honesty and Humility.
Different peoples understand, describe,
and live out the mystery of existence
in different ways.
We need to face those differences
and focus on sharing and supporting
as together we start to deal with
the second leaf
and endlessly more
in the forest of existence.
*****
.
.