Dear All of Us,
As little kids we knew just what to do and where to go.
When a terrifying dream would wake us up in the middle of the night
we'd do a quick "get go" right
DOWN THE HALL
to Mon and Dad's room and safety.
They'd have us hop in bed with them,
hold and hug us as we cried out our plight.
Embraced and snuggle steadied, we calmed.
Mom or Dad would carry us back to our bed.
Tenderly tucked in, we had our parent resting right next to us.
We were lulled into restful sleep -the gentle cadence of a story softly told,
our hair stroked, the recitation of the rosary, a soothing song - calmed to peace.
We were safe and secure in our parents' presence.
Their strength was ours.
Lately we big kids have suffered scary dark nights of soul and society.
We have been terrorized - nightmares of disease, confinement,
curtailment, civility and governance demonized, social disorder,
instability all round and Mom and Dad aren't just
DOWN THE HALL
Some of us are in denial.
Some of us just simply say and show it.
Camouflaged by denial or not,
we are weary, worried, scared, disoriented.
There is a longing for answers, for safety,
for a return to a past normal
that down deep we know we'll never have.
Even if things lighten up, we now and painfully realize that
we stand on a trap door of insecurity
and that it can fall out from under us any time.
That's the biggest "dis-ease" of our PanProblems.
Social order can corrode and crumble.
The lies we've been told by a sanitized history
are "outed", hard as heck to hear, see, admit.
We have to face our social construct exposed:
genocide, enslavement, racial abuse,
financial inequity, the hoodwink and hoax of capitalism,
the binge of materialism and consumption,
political corruption and the prospect of despotism,
a tower of ideological Babel tipping to conflict and chaos,
our planet plundered, microbes that can cripple at will,
media that egregiously misinforms.
For all those monster nightmares, though,
we big kids do know what to do and where to go.
It means a real "get go"
DOWN THE HALL
of living
to the Source and Center of all that is -
seeking sheer Reality, seeking rock solid Truth and Security.
It means stabilizing by a radical personal and social reorientation -
it's go deep spiritually or stay in the dark alone
and come unmoored and cascade to chaos.
Routine religiosity won't do - never really has.
It doesn't have enough tread on its tires
to grip the road of REAL and be a "go."
And so we do go, hop in, snuggle up.
We're welcome and wanted.
"Are you tired?
Worn out?
Burned out on religion?
Come to me.
Get away with me
and you'll recover your life.
I'll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me -
watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you.
Keep company with me
and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
Jesus
Matthew 11: 28- 30
The Message
That's what's
DOWN THE HALL
from our nightmares.
It reminds me of some farm families I've meet in Kentucky
and the Amish families I've seen in Pennsylvania.
There is a slow steady to the rhythm of life.
They bond closely, generationally.
They secure each other.
They model and mentor for the young.
The elders share lived wisdom.
The young spill with energy and enthusiasm.
They do it all this better and different than most, much of both.
They're radically rooted in The Real and they live it.
It's a fine analogy for what Jesus is ready to give us.
It means we need to "come" to him -
a definitive "get go" from the dark of our terror
to his welcome embrace.
It means getting away from the phony bologna
of arrogant surface rush, grab and stress.
We really will "Get A Life" - God's.
It makes a radical difference.
Like good down to earth and up to heaven farm parents,
Jesus paces us as we walk and work daily living with him,
watching how he does it revealed to us in
scripture, meditation and prayerful reflection.
We catch the Rhythm of Real.
We aren't loaded down with unreal values and practices.
In company with him, we learn to live freely and fully,
not burdened with the lies and pressures of Empire and ego,
no matter the fright that threatens.
We many not have it easy or trouble free.
We will have strength and stability in the Community of Real.
So we "come" to Jesus.
We come in the genuine closeness of unitive prayer.
We come in a spiritual community of difference.
We come in the slow savoring of the Gospel
and letting The Spirit speak it, apply it in our here and now,
however trying the times.
It's a conversion to a life that will hold up here and lift to heaven,
one not standing on a trap door of ultimate insecurity.
We are safe and secure in God's Presence.
God's strength is our strength.
Yes, we are weary and warn down.
Yes, we've had the trap door
of social and functional insecurity
sprung out from under us.
Yes, we have day and night frights and fears aplenty,
personal and collective.
Yes we can't control much of the conflict and chaos
that scares and terrorizes us.
AND YES, we are stabilized in the midst of instability.
Not easy nor comfortable,
but rock real.
We can be real in the throes of terrifying unrealness.
******
All of the above was composed beginning last Friday ( 01-01-21).
As I type this late Wednesday afternoon (01-06-21)
the capital here in Washington is under siege.
Our way of shared life, The Common Good, is being raped.
This is not how we are family, how we are in all this together.
There is evil loose in the land.
That trap door of insecurity has sprung open
yet again and more - horrifically so.
And yes we big kids know just what to do and where to go
to be steadied, center safe and secure at the real core.
I'm not sure how things are where you are and how you are.
I pray for you and us all world-wide.
to get past fear of difference.
Let's help each other be what in Reality we are,
and what sin denies - we are in all reality
ONE
Let's pray and ponder the promise and power,
not to escape, but to be enfolded, snuggled,
secured and strengthened in Oneness with God.
Troubled we are.
Alone we are not.
Sure and steady we are
in the safety and strength just
DOWN THE HALL.
In love and companionship,
John Frank
******
PRAY AND PONDER
We let The Spirit take us through
the print on the page
to the power and promise of scripture.
What do we hear at our deepest?
How can it be actual, practical, lived
in our dangerous, freaky, frightening here and now?
- " Abide in me, and I in you...
Just as the Father has loved me,
I have also loved you;
abide in my love."
Jesus
John 15: 4 and 9
- " I am the way, the truth and the life..."
Jesus
John 14: 6
- " Do not let your hearts be troubled;
believe in God, believe in me..."
Jesus
John 14:1
- "... I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me..."
Paul
Galatians 2:20
- " In him we live and move and have our being."
Paul
Acts 17:28
- " ...That they may be one; just as we are one;
I in them and you in me..."
Jesus
John 17: 22-23
******
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May we all blossom even if it's winter wherwe are planted.
******
