Contemplative life does not have to be seen as a special vocation reserved for some special souls only; it is open to all, and all are invited to enjoy it. You do not have to be in special circumstances to practice it, because it consists not so much in what you do as in the attitude and the perspective in which your ordinary actions are performed. It is a life of wonder. The contemplative is one who look around at the world and marvels at reality. We are living as contemplatives when we are thoroughly alive ourselves and when we are alert and sensitive to the reality of other beings and disposed to appreciate them.
~ from "The Contemplative Life" in "The Roll" by Beatrice Bruteau -- June 1995
Dear Friends ~ Heart wrenchingly, a dear friend just learned that his remaining lifetime has been reduced, in short order, from years to months and now perhaps mere weeks. What kind of courage will it take for him to face into dying in such a rapidly accelerated pace? This last journey will bear the echoes of all the days that have come before —pressed down and distilled into slender threads of love to hold onto and be held by. And how do we, the living, learn to wake up each morning with gratitude for the gift of another sunrise, another breath? For every one of us will also die; yet unless we are given the precise knowledge of its imminence we may miss the lesson. We have the choice to awaken to the blessings all around us or to take precious moments for granted and fill our days with soulless busyness. Knowing we shall all die one day should perhaps teach us how to live more generously, attentively, appreciatively.
This is the last year.
There will be no other,
but heartless nature
seemingly relents.
Never has a winter sun
spilled so much light,
never have so many flowers
dared such early bloom.
The air is brilliant, sharp.
Never have I taken
such long, long breaths.
There is a moment when you realize that you are going to have to die in reality, not just pretend to die. Not just read about dying, not just recite Rumi late at night, but really, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, go into the darkness of the Love of God and really surrender, a moment when you realize that to do that, you will need Divine courage.
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end...
But I believe that the desire to please you does
in fact please you...
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the
right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem
to be lost in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Having the faith to take life one piece at a time- to live it in the knowledge that there is something of God in this for me now, here, at this moment- is of the essence of happiness. It is not that God is a black box full of tests and trials and treats. It is that life is a step on the way to a God who goes the way with us. However far, however perilous.
If you have your attention on what is, see its fullness in
every moment, you will discover the dance of the divine
in every leaf, in every petal, in every blade of grass, in
every rainbow, in every rushing stream, in every breath
of every living being.
Each of us, as we journey through life, has the
opportunity to find and to give his or her unique gift.
Whether that gift is great or small in the eyes of the
world does not matter at all—not at all; it is through the finding and the giving that we
may come to know the joy that lies at the center of both the dark times and the light.
George Buttrick, an imaginative preacher, wrote poignantly, "We die with half our
music in us." How sad, not that we die, but that we leave so much unsung, not having
exhausted our melody.
People walk around sad because they don't know what to do with their future. You
have this minute right now. What are you doing with it? ...If you are filled with joy for
one minute, then you will know what to do with the next minute also. We are given
this minute, not tomorrow. Sadness is very much concerned with what I don't have,
and I really don't have tomorrow yet. The Truth is, I am always standing before
nothingness, because I am nonexistent yet for the next minute. I'm not here yet. Time
isn't there. The world isn't there. The world is here...right now!
