Wednesday, August 18, 2021

CHANGE

 

Dear All of Us,

Who was the 

ancient sage 

that opined: 

  "Never change your socks

   and you'll never get invited 

   to dinner parties"

   (Please don't bother 

    trying to fact check 

    that one!)


Well, more than 

our social life

requires change.

All life requires change.

Just ask a new born baby 

   - womb to world

   - diapers

   - sleeping patterns

   - rapid growth

   - effect on parents

and those are just for starters.

(Source: Ollie the Younger)


As a matter of how it is,

Existence is so dynamic that

all is in constant change.

Put another way, 

     God Is All That Is

          Totality

          Is-ness

          Existence

       Infinite Energy

  The Creative Dynamic 

           Of Being.

There's just too much energy 

     to sit out the dance.


Creation is way more than a

           Big Bang

    It's an unfathomable,

  ever expanding burst of

           Energy

         Existence

  The Love that is God.

Creation is a wonderful party

in constant change

and expansion.

No chance to get stop-stuck 

or bored for those all in on it.

It takes more forms and ways 

than we so far know how to notice.

It ranges from:

 - sub-atomic particles, 

   and probably an infinity of

   sub-sub-sub atomic particles

   and pulsations of energy

   all the way out to probably 

   an infinity of

   gases and galaxies

   ever changing,

   with some of those 

   vibration of energy

   slowing to matter

   (Teilhard De Chardin)

   and that in

   all states of density,

   with some changing from 

   moment to moment,

   with others changing over

   multiples of millennia.

 - societal and personal changes

   as consciousness 

   changes and evolves

   (see self and society 

   from long ago to now)

- the very cells of our bodies 

   cascading in change

 - our spiritual experience

   changing from ritual and piety 

   to mystical merger.


Some say God is more 

a verb than a noun.

Our life in God sure is.

Our sense of God,

of life, creation, 

meaning, and of self,

are like a symphony 

ever changing 

in tone, tempo,

pitch, rhythm,

harmonies,

contrasts,

movements.

Change is its get go.


Put variously, 

our life in God 

has more than 

four seasons.

It can paradoxically 

be a puzzling mix,

a fearsome frigidity and

a basking warmth

all at once.

It has intensities

of awareness 

and intimacy.

There is a change flow to it -

variation forward.

     There's

     -tribulation and ecstasy,

     -clarity and unknowing,

      yet a cloud of unknowing

      that is just fine, thank you,

      because its profound intimacy

      out strips all and any

      rational take, 

      with innumerable 

      motions and moments 

      in-between and beyond.


After a lot of all that change,

     many mature to 

      change ready

     and just let God 

     lead the dance.


In my life there have been 

many seasons 

of spiritual change.

There's been seasons of 

ecstasy and joy.

It's like living 

in a land of bliss.

In my life there have been

seasons of aridity 

and barrenness.

It's like living 

in an endless desert

of nothingness nowhere.


In our spiritual lives 

nothing is still and set.

Faith is a grace gift 

that keeps us 

in the saddle 

no matter the motion 

of the moment and 

the changes consequent.


Those changes 

are not necessarily from 

lower to higher,

from hard to easy,

from minimal to maximal.

There is much mix.

Some are understood.

Some are a big blank. 

Those changes are like

steps in a dance.

Some of them are 

routine and familiar.

Some are surprises

that require us 

to change fast, 

to be spiritually 

fleet of foot

with the unfamiliar.

And the dance 

of change

spirals onward.


Our spiritual life 

can get 

all mixed up,

become chaotic,

if we deem it ours 

to determine 

the pace and substance

of it and of its changes.

In reality it's ours to accept 

and ours to grow 

in the dynamic of 

   Existence 

as it presents 

in its ever and 

progressive changes.


To resist change, 

to want to stay put 

     as is in 

"Give Me That 

Old Time Religion",

frustrates growth,

denies God's evolution

in us and all creating,

stagnates soul.

Such resistance 

is itself a change,

a change for the worse.

To embrace change 

as it comes in God's 

ongoing expansion of all 

is a change not only

for the better, but for

       Beatitude.

In God our changes mean

   the party never ends,

   just gets ever better.


See you a few changes from now,

             John Frank

               ******


           PONDERINGS


     - "The only constant 

         in life is change."

             Heraclitus


      - "When you are 

         finished changing,

         you are finished."

         Benjamin Franklin


      - "Heraclitus, I believe,

         says that all things pass 

         and nothing stays, 

         and comparing things 

         to the flow of a river, 

         he says, you could not 

         step twice into 

         the same river."

                  Plato

                ******


A HUG YOU TIGHT AND JOYOUS

              WELCOME

         "frankly speaking"

      spirituality for the street


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                  ******


                A HI FIVE 

to our visitors this week from Cyprus.


  "The Times They Are A-changing"

 and all creation is in that time zone.


           Have a great week.

 Looking forward to our next connect.

                 ******