Hillside will offer a Sunday Zoom talk by Dr. Susan Nettleton on March 20, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time, 10 a.m. Pacific time. Dr. Nettleton will be speaking on "Your Armor of Light".
If you would like to be on our email list to receive an e-invitation to Sunday talks with the Zoom, please message your email address, or email us at hillsideew@aol.com or contact us through our website, hillsidesource.com.
This Sunday, I am considering how we hold our vision of our future. While much of contemporary spirituality and even psychology spotlights the need to place our attention on the present moment, realistically the future remains a primary concern for people. It is not something that is so easily transcended. It is true that when immersed in the immediate, the work at hand, the shared happiness of a sunlit day, or creative or spiritual absorption, the future for a while no longer exists. Stopping in the moment gives us the space for life to alter our trajectory. Still, the human mind has developed with the capacity to envision and project what comes next. We certainly do not have total control over all future events, but that does not mean our actions, thoughts and emotions have no impact.
A positive vision of your future is more helpful than an apocalyptic, cataclysmic one. The same is true for our collective vision in this time of new war, new threats, and the building pressure of climate changes and global illness. A positive vision does not mean turning a blind eye to human suffering or grave transgressions. But it maintains a perspective that is focused on solutions, stretching beyond fear, rage, and despair. To me, that means giving way to the larger spiritual field, the unknown but timeless reality that creates, sustains, and transforms all life. But even for those without a solid spiritual base, a positive, courageous vision--even when kick started by fear and outrage--is more helpful than an apocalyptic vision. Without a positive vision of possibilities, the Covid-19 vaccines would never have been developed and as yet unrecognized solutions still lay waiting in our minds and hearts, individually and collectively.
When the troubles across the globe seem to much, simply too much to contemplate, it helps to remember that the individual is the whole, and the whole is the individual. Because of this, the whole feeds the parts and the parts feed the whole. When we cannot expand to be the whole, we simply stay with ourselves. Holding a positive vision for our personal future really requires peace with ourselves. Forgiveness. Acceptance. Love. This is not about entitlement or being self absorbed, but about an inner vision of the goodness that Life brings forth as you, as your life. Today, take time to offer yourself the gift of affirmation that extends through the day, the year, through time and circumstance, through connection, health, strength, discovery and peace. Your future, which enfolds all, is blessed. (Susan Nettleton)
"May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us…”
― Saint Terese of Liseaux
This week, as Covid cases plummeted in the U.S., suddenly the world's attention turned to the shock of war with the Russian attack on Ukraine. The fighting opened many old wounds and renewed fears of global warfare in a time where humanity is still very much grappling with a world wide Pandemic, while also facing the roots of climate change and our ecological future. The lightening speed of digital communication has already produced volumes of interpretations and analysis of the Russian/Ukraine war and worldwide reaction. But to me, we cannot separate this war from the other crises facing our planet. Rather, I look to see and understand events both from the point of view of the individual (whether that be an individual country, government, leader, or citizen) as well as the whole-- a living, thriving planet, moving through a time of transformational change. This is in turn but an aspect of a limitless cosmic creative process. It is through times like these that we can further develop and practice shifting perspectives, moving through human emotions, reasoning and morality, to a more encompassing spiritual vision and then back again to the human field, with it's suffering, it's reach for power, ambition, and freedom. If that sounds abstract, simply said, today is a day to fall back on the spiritual dimension of life in prayer and affirmation of peace. Taking time to pray for peace, brings us back to spiritual ground. It brings us back to a unifying principle of life, because even as we hate, even as we fear, even as we reach for excitement and drama, there is always a part of us that longs to feel at peace.
Prayer for peace is not that difficult. Let it be simple, straightforward, heartfelt. Let it be all enfolding and all inclusive. If you cannot pray or accept peace for those who fill you with anger or outrage, then simply offer them up to God, Vast Intelligence and Good, that knows the way to Peace. You don't have to try to make yourself feel what you do not feel, nor do you need to know or dictate what is needed for Peace. Peace is not separate from Justice; Peace is the underlying unity of Life, expressed in the will to Good. Prayer is a letting go, whether it is asking or simply accepting Peace for all.
Below I offer you prayer possibilities to choose and adapt personally, because your voice completes the whole. For affirmation prayer: "I uphold the power of peace in all people." "The world is at peace. Peace prevails." From Pope Francis' prayer for Ukraine: "Let us ask the Lord to grant that the country [and all countries] may grow in the spirit of brotherhood, and that all hurts, fears and divisions will be overcome... May the prayers and supplications that today rise up to heaven touch the minds and hearts of world leaders, so that dialogue may prevail and the common good be placed ahead of partisan interests. Please, no more war." Below is a link for multi-faith prayers for peace. What you affirm for the world, you affirm for yourself on a personal, individual level. You are the world. (Susan Nettleton)
This Sunday, I invite you to a day of restoration. We know in the Bible creation story, God rested on the 7th day and from this arose the traditional idea that Sunday, when considered the 7th day of the week, is deemed a "day of rest". Although our 24/7 culture no longer supports that practice, I am taking that idea yet a bit further, from rest to restoration. Rest of course is one of the ways that we do restore our energy. Modern medical research has given us the understanding of what is called "restorative sleep" (essentially requiring that the body cycles fully through all 5 stages of sleep in approximately a 24 hour cycle of chemical and hormonal shifts)--this is the natural reparative and maintenance work of the body and brain. Shakespeare defined it this way: " ...Sleep that knits-up the raveled sleeve care. The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast." (Macbeth) The quote itself is a balm and a reminder that sleep, despite the continuous pressure of modern life, is a restorative process.
Society gives us many different models for restoration--medical and dental procedures, cosmetics, nutrition products, and not just restoration for humans, but for things like photos, paintings, houses. At the forefront of the larger picture, we have the pressure to restore life and culture to it's pre-Pandemic state. Finally, we face the urgent issue of restoring ecological balance for the planet.
From a spiritual perspective this Sunday, consider the opening lines of the 23rd Psalm ( ESV): "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul." Here is yet another type of restoration, not one that is an attempt to hold on to conditions, images or stages of our past and resist the march of time, but rather an affirmation of that which is outside the realm of time. Restoration of our soul can mean healing and nourishment of our spiritual core that comes as we turn toward our Source. The soul is restored in prayer, in meditation, even in the act of reaching for It. Soul restoration points to Awakening, rather than continuing to 'sleep' in the delusions and illusions of our separate identity in a frightening, frustrating, frantic world. As you contemplate a day of restoration from any or all of these levels, consider this verse on the words of 20th century Indian saga Ramana Maharshi. (Susan Nettleton)
#884 A woman with a necklace round Her neck imagines it is lost, And after long search elsewhere touches Her own neck and there finds it; even So, the Self is here within. Probe for it there and find it.
[Source: https://archive.arunachala.org/docs//garland-ogs/verses]
As once again the country begins to lift Covid restrictions, I have been reflecting on limitation. This seems in contrast to my recent Zoom talk on The Space of Potential, but limitation is really an aspect of our potential as human beings and the unlimited, boundless creativity of God. This is not always easy to grasp at first. Fundamentally, it means making our peace with the parameters of the world we live in, the bodies and minds we function as, and the limitations of relationship. "Laws" of limitation define limits in legal matters, in language structure, in mathematics and banking, in ethics and behavior in many contexts--limit-setting is part of the structure of culture. Spiritually, different streams of religious thought impose various limitations on their followers in the form of rules, interpretations and belief structures. But the human impulse enfolded in both culture and spirituality is to transcend limitation or grow beyond it.
The abstract idea of unlimited potentiality actually is a free space that pulls humans into the creative field. In that pulling, new concepts, ideas, visions are possible, and those begin to define specific forms or events that, at first, are possibilities and then, when nurtured though thought, belief, repetitive activity and acceptance, become actual. We describe this as a process of consciousness. This is a basic principle of New Thought as well as other metaphysical spiritual teachings.
And yet, paradoxically, to function well in daily human life, in this world, we make our peace with limitation. While we have developed technology to fly planes and even rockets to get from one place to another, it's not necessary to defy the laws of gravity. We live with it's limitations and it's gifts. Gravity keeps us grounded and on that ground we live and grow. To successfully use any tool or technology, we need to understand its limitations. To stay well during a Pandemic, we bear the limits that make for caution. To live in a peaceful society, we bear the limitations of others. We all as unique individuals deal with personal limitations as well. They form the boundaries that define us as individual expressions of the vast creative activity of Life, of God. Defining our limits then, becomes part of the task of being an individual.
To go beyond our limits is to draw on that larger reality where we also live, move and have our being, in the Oneness of God. That Oneness includes all that is and well as all that holds potential for Good. (Susan Nettleton)
For a poetic reflection on the human condition of dependency, consider Maya Angelou's poem "Alone" (1975) . Follow the link: https://poets.org/poem/alone
With the frigid, icy weather that blew across the country this week, I found myself thinking of Cold Mountain, one of the classic volumes of Zen poetry. It was written by the T'ang Dynasty poet called Han-shan (believed to be 9th century). He is a legendary figure, with various tales of surrounding him, a recluse who wrote his poetry on rocks in the remote mountain area he roamed. There are several English translations of his work. Today I am quoting from Burton Watson's, published by Columbia University Press,1970. His poems give glimpses of his youth, his time as a father and family man, working as a bureaucrat for the government, and struggling with personalities, social classes and religious hypocrisy.
"I'm not so poor at reports and decisions--Why can't I get ahead in the government? The rating officials are determined to make life hard. All they do is try to expose my faults. Everything, I guess, is a matter of Fate; Still, I'll try the exam again this year.
A blind boy aiming at the eye of a sparrow, Might just accidentally manage a hit."
As he ages, he leans more and more to leaving the world behind and eventually does so, finding his mountain retreat: "Thirty years ago I was born into the world. A thousand, ten thousand miles I’ve roamed, By rivers where the green grass lies thick, Beyond the border where the red sands fly. I brewed potions in a vain search for life everlasting, I read books, I sang songs of history, And today I’ve come home to Cold Mountain, To pillow my head on the stream and wash my ears."
But he now he faces the challenge of loneliness and sometimes painful reflection on his past. "How cold it is on the mountain! Not this year but always. Crowded peaks forever choked with show, Dark forests breathing endless mist: No grass sprouts til the early days of June; Before the first of autumn, leaves are falling. And here a wanderer, drowned in delusion, Looks and looks but cannot see the sky."
But the seasons change and he continues in his inner pursuits. We now find him with new depth, and growing illumination and peace. "Today I sat before the cliff, Sat a long time till mists had cleared. A single thread, the clear stream runs cold; A thousand yards the green peaks lift their heads. Moon rise--the lamp of night drifts upward; What cares could trouble my mind?" And at last, "...All that remains is the core of truth." ..."Like a doctor prescribing a medicine for each disease, I use what remedy is at hand to save the world. Only when the mind is free of care, Can the light of understanding shine in every corner."
This is a reminder this Sunday, that our lives follow the lives of all that have come before, hardship and times of wonder, struggles with the natural order and insights into nature's unceasing gifts, separation and belonging, and great leaps forward even when we collectively regress. Winter passes, spring is born. Whatever the weather, this day is here to lead you to your "core of truth". (Susan Nettleton)
This morning as I sat staring at the computer, reflecting on a Sunday morning message, sorting out my thoughts, the dead silence was broken by a sharp call, a dialog among crows cut through my blank page. Then I heard their flapping wings as they launched out the yard, above this house, into the crisp blue sky. Now I was alert, filled with metaphors of sudden awakening. I had to smile. There is a kind of simplicity that waits underneath all the complexity of life and the muddledness of human thought and the vastness of nature in all it's forms. That's why there are so many spiritual stories of the commonplace sound (or sight, touch, taste, scent...) that cuts through everydayness and the search for more than what we are given here, where we are, now.
Crows are a rather mixed bag of tricks in the realm of the collective and cultural psyche. So to give them a prophetic role can actually put you back into shadows and superstition. They can be annoying creatures to gardeners and farmers, hence the birth of scarecrows. Naturalists and biologists tell us they are highly intelligent. I happen to be in an urban area where they like to hangout. So I am friendly. I let them lead me to this perfect poem and the unexpected.
Forest Life, by Joseph Kushnir (website: allpoetry)
Through the pine forest, direction comes by crows whispering wayward secrets.
This morning of crows opened the door to the memory of another poem that sings with the birds of the glory of life, the spiritual wonder of nature, the seasons, and our perception of time, Derrick Walcott's "The Season of Phantasmal Peace". (link below) This day is full of Wonder, of Beauty, of Guidance and yes, Love. Pay attention to God's call. Life is bringing you a gift. (Susan Nettleton)
Hillside Church's next Sunday Zoom talk will be January 30, 2022. Dr. Susan Nettleton will be speaking on "The Space of Potential" at 11:00 A.M. (Mountain Time) (10:00 A.M. Pacific time) If you would like to be on our email list and receive the Zoom link for the talk, please email us at hillsideew@aol.com or contact us through our website: hillsidesource.com and we will email you the link. You may also send your email address through Facebook messenger. Hope you can attend!
"I was passionate,
filled with longing,
I searched
far and wide.
But the day
that the Truthful One
found me,
I was at home."
Lal Ded,
“[I was passionate]” translated by Jane Hirshfield, from Women in Praise of the Sacred (New York: Harper Collins, 1994).
I recently came across this short poem poem by 14th century saint and mystic poet of Kashmir, Lal Ded (also known as Lalla and Lallesawri). Her poem hits me with new force during this Omicron phase of the Pandemic. Lal Ded was 'given in marriage' to a harsh family when she was 12 years old and had only a basic education in the scriptures. As she matured she became an ardent worshiper of the Hindu God, Shiva. By age 26, she had broken free of tradition, renounced her marriage and became a wandering mystic and poet. But as her words point out, she found what she was seeking not in her wanderings, but "at home". The poem is a quiet reminder of the futility of trying to force spiritual revelation, especially (paradoxically) when driven by passionate longing. The problem is that the "longing" leads us further and further away from what is already here, right here, right now.
How do we, in 2022, approach That "right here, right now'? Depending on where you live and the intensity of the Pandemic surge, once again we are cautioned to not travel, to avoid crowds--particularly indoors, and be vigilant about virus exposure. Safety seems fused to limitation and caution, while places, people and even memory seem to cry out for movement, discovery, freedom and growth. Spiritually though, we are called again and again back to what is right in front of us wherever, whatever is here, now. Out of this push/pull experience, two distinct paths of mystical revelation historically arose. One is an inward-turning path of contemplation and awareness of the transcendent aspects of each day through meditation and prayer--essentially disengagement from the outer world. The other is a practice of opening wide to the world of the senses and the wonder of the external world as the daily manifestation of God. Either or both are within reach today, at home. And Lal Ded offers yet another realization--when the 'Truthful One" finds you, you are indeed, home.
For a poetic taste of the path of the senses, follow the link to the opening verses of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself".
https://recyclemefree.org/.../song-of-myself-walt-whitman...
I am thinking of the tradition of New Years resolutions, as one way our culture offers for reinforcing fresh starts and new beginnings. Our resolve to initiate change and improvement in our lives gives us a reference point and serves as a catalyst for 'newness of life'.
But any new construction needs a solid foundation. And adding new structures on old foundations may conserve resources in the short run but fail us in the long term. It's a good idea to inspect the foundation first and determine it's strength and stability, whether or not it is appropriate to the design of the new blueprint. That is my metaphor for the forgiveness process this Sunday. Adding a list of new resolutions, new goals, new directions in this new year may require more depth to a forgiveness process--even an attitude overhaul-- to move pass the accumulated burden, the mental, emotional, and physical strain of these 2 years of Pandemic.
There are many ways to look at forgiveness; today I am looking at it as a spiritual process that uproots worn out emotions, disappointment and resentment, fear as well as anger and blame. Forgiving the events of the Pandemic (and the Pandemic itself) may seem like an impossible feat. Yet, if we let go of the demand to simply go back to our pre-pandemic life as our 'foundation', we may uncover the spiritual bedrock that has supported us all along. (Susan Nettleton)
For a new perspective on forgiveness from Hafiz, tr. Daniel Ladinsky
https://gladdestthing.com/poems/a-strange-feather
For D.H. Lawrence's perspective of getting to the foundation:
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../DeeperThanLo/index.html
New Years morning was different this year. It didn't feel new; it still felt like 2021 as once again New Year's Eve revelry across the globe gave way to video celebrations. I had to accept that this New Year had a sluggish aura, a slow start as the Pandemic unexpectedly surges. When I walked outside though, the relief of a clear blue sky and warming sunshine (after gray days of unrelenting rain) brought another perspective: in the world of nature each day is another beginning, while human culture has a separate need for tracking time, setting apart it's own reference points of beginnings and ends, time and date. Then I suddenly realized I had forgotten my mask and had to backtrack to get it, a concrete reminder the Pandemic didn't end with 2021 nor the sunrise.
I walked to the prayer garden that rests on the edge of a heavily trafficked boulevard and is an sustained by a mega church campus. In spite of the urban setting, it is indeed a place of peace, prayer and Presence. The garden with it's rocks of inscribed scripture, miniature creek and pathways, and towering crosses is designed to invoke the power of tradition, anchored in the spiritual significance of the life and teachings of Jesus. For me, it is a reminder that this day and everyday contains the past, as well as the passing of time and events, along with the unfolding of
ever-renewing life as what was our future, is revealed as today. Where I sat on a bench watching the water flow, there were bees on my left less than 2 ft away, gathering pollen from a bottlebrush shrub and beautiful small finches landing on my right, equally close and unperturbed by my presence, resting on branches at eye height. Harmony here, now.
One thought seemed especially important to write today. As is Nature's way, the virus continues to evolve, but so do we. Daily, we gather more and more information in the outer world, especially in the microbial world, to push our tools beyond the mutating virus. But we also have an inner world and an inner human capacity to direct the ways in which we ourselves shift in relationship to our experiences. Our ideas, our choices, our responses are as much a part of our evolution as our biological entanglement with the viral world. While science sorts out genetics, as individuals we can sort out our inner life and frame our intent toward health, harmony, resilience and Good in this New Year. (Susan Nettleton)
For a beautiful affirmation on the new year from Unity's Daily Word, click the link below
http://www.xn--www-hla9801brya.dailyword.com/.../new-year...
This week in conversation, a phrase floated through my head, "Grace cuts through all interpretation."
This week before New Years Day will be filled with interpretation. The years of the Pandemic have weighted heavily with interpretation. Perhaps this the way of things when human being meet with events that shift the axis of culture and life spills open into a debate of meaning, like the imponderable question, 'what does the Pandemic mean?'
The human mind naturally divides events and things into categories and subcategories in order to gain some control and understanding. So there is a natural movement to divide time and the cycles of the seasons into years, and as a new year is born, to interpret and give meaning and judgement to the issues of the year that is passing. Interpretation is a kind of judgement that assigns meaning. It is an aspect of human intellect that helps us problem solve and learn as we equip ourselves for the future. There is a usefulness in exercising our interpretive faculty; we assess risks, sort through values in order to make decisions, evaluate leaders and sources of information.--all of these skills require interpretive processes.
Yet, when we talk of letting go of the old year, spiritually, we begin by letting go of our personal interpretation. When we forgive the wounds of the old year, we discover they too are interpretations. Our minds have put together all the movements and activity of 2021, the times of emptiness and times of crises, fear and frustration, hope followed by disappointment, solitude and separation, and these have created a field of interpretation, that now is to be forgiven and released to make way for the new. Letting go our our viewpoint is not easy. This process sparked that thought that still circles through me, "Grace cuts through all interpretation".
Grace is unearned Good. Grace is the gift that expresses as healing, as love, as creative possibilities and artful solutions; grace is the sudden awareness of the beauty all around us, and the wonder of the world and the lives that intertwine with ours. It is a truth that hovers beyond our interpretations of life. The unearned, and often unseen, Good. (Susan Nettleton)
"Behold, I make all things new." (Rev 21:5)
"Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it" Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Where I sit today, is a gorgeous morning. The air is clean, mildly cool, with cloudless blue sky. There is a grapefruit tree and a tangerine tree, right outside the door, both laden with fruit. The image transports me to a early childhood memory of my grandmother's house in Laredo, Texas where I first saw grapefruits hanging on a tree. My siblings and I would have grapefruit wars, throwing them at each other. Because we were so young, we had no capacity for aiming them so it was all fun and wonder. It was my first awakening to a realization that the fruit we bought at our neighborhood grocery in Houston, actually grew from trees. That is the great Wonder of childhood, where life is fresh with discovery.
The fall season brings the culmination of nature's peak productivity. As we mature, the seasons initiate the awareness of time passing, the cyclical processes of life, and the often harshness of winter. That magical sense of life recedes in a sea of knowledge and experience, tossed up only now and then when a door of awareness briefly opens. What triggers those openings is really a mystery. Most likely, the actual trigger point is unique to each individual psyche, although we have our theories and teachings that give some direction to those moments when we recapture a sense of wonder.
This Sunday, I am reminding you that one of the reasons holiday practices endure is that they offer the space and a bit of magic for our hearts to spark that freshness of life that is young and innocent. Without that spark, especially in times of crisis, whether personal or collective, we cannot move beyond fear, sadness, or a world weary attitude to remember the Truth that life is ever renewing itself in an endless stream of creativity. In the ongoing uncertainty of the Pandemic, our own receptivity to all the ways nature and the human spirit work to sparkle in December, can replenish our Wonder. (Susan Nettleton)
"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” Emily Dickinson
For Thomas Trahern's (1636–1674) poem of childhood innocence and the hint of it's return, follow the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../wonder-56d22507c0b42
This week I came across a copy of Rev. Hugh Prather's ( 1938-2010) best selling book from the 1970's , "Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person." Prather and his wife Gayle were co-founders of the "Dispensable Church" in Santa Fe, NM and later moved to Arizona. The book is an honest examination and probing of himself, particularly in relationships, and circles around and around his self preoccupation, along with his drive to come to some truth in his connection with others.
Prather wrote: "I learn most about myself by observing myself in relation to others. When I examine myself by myself, I am actually examining the results of a previous encounter." Further probing brings new insight: "Perceptions are not of things but of relationships. Nothing, including me, exists by itself--this is an illusion of words. I am a relationship, ever-changing".
As we now enter the Christmas season, we enter it with both Delta and a quickly spreading Omicron--variants of Covid-19. Health authorities caution that it will take a few weeks to have the answers to the question of how this variant will impact American attempts at returning to normalcy and basically, how great a threat we face. We are advised to continue safe practices which includes of course vaccines. Meanwhile scientists, governments and health care officials across the globe are sifting through data and case reports. The sudden emergence of Omicron and the rapid response around the globe is another reminder of the interdependence of life.
You as a relationship is a startling concept that moves beyond just your personal life to the whole of being--beyond people to nature (including microbes and viruses as I have written many times) and beyond that to social structures, and beyond that to abstractions like time, space, location. Here, now, we are presented with yet another global event that can spur tremendous collective cooperation or further isolation and attack It also holds the potential for your own spiritually illuminating discovery: You are a relationship.
Prather leads us to his discovery, even though I am sure he had heard similar words by others, read powerful passages by others. After this inner insight, he could share how it finally came to him: "Love unites the part with the whole. Love unites me with the world and with myself. My life work could well be love. Love is the universe complete...Love shows me where all minds and essences unite." Perhaps today, perhaps this Christmas season of continued Pandemic, is leading you to your own unveiling. (Susan Nettleton)
As Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, Hanukkah 2021--the 8 day Jewish Festival of Light--begins. Both holidays and the ones that follow, are powerful traditions that have evolved and adapted to changing cultures, social orders, and outer conditions, still celebrated as supplies were disrupted (or just not there) and grave dangers hovered. The spirit of celebration and remembrance continues, always retaining the spiritual essence of it's origin--even in the face of secularization. Human beings are rooted by tradition. Yet we continue to adapt. As the poem linked below expresses, we make and unmake ourselves individually and collectively over and over again, as does all of Nature. The microbial world too is the changing unseen face of Nature. We are now facing yet another mutation of Covid-19--the Omicron variant.
This morning, I listened to an Omicron update by Dr. Fauci, announcing that it would likely be another 2 weeks for research to determine how effective the current vaccines are against Omicron, even as new and updated vaccines are already in the early stages of development. He advised a basic rule: as we wait, prepare for the worst--not expect the worst, not that it will be "the worst", but prepare. There are some indications that although highly transmissible, the Omicron variant may not be as dangerous as we fear. We are in a waiting window, where we simply must be clear-headed. Everyday for the next few weeks will bring new information and, unfortunately, exploitative misinformation. For me, this means staying flexible, grounded in faith that includes the inner spiritual directive, prayer, peace, and intelligent practice--spiritual practice and public health practice in 6 steps: (summed up by epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina)
Ventilate spaces. Use masks. Test if you have symptoms. Isolate if positive. Get vaccinated. Get boosted.
For many, myself included, this Thanksgiving marked a great step forward, past the isolation of the Pandemic with a chance to gather with others in shared traditions. I felt deep gratitude for that opportunity and for all who have made the vaccines and boosters possible and available. I am sure the Hanukkah celebrations that are planned for the week ahead bring that same excitement and hope of Thanksgiving, even though new uncertainty surrounds us once again. As Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson wrote this morning (online CNN), "The message of this season is the potential of the smallest bit of light to push back the darkness." All the more reason to light our candles, physically and metaphorically. (Susan Nettleton)
For a lighthearted, incisive poem on the great mix of life and adaptation from contemporary Korean-American poet, Suji Kwok Kim, follow the link:
Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk on "The Imperfect"
We each have our struggles in our attempts at perfection and concern over other's judgement of our mistakes, but there is also this human tendency to personally judge others. Society sets up the legal and civil means for judgement and corrective action or punishment for trespass or harm to others or the social order. But our focus here is how we as individuals, trying to live spiritually, handle other's imperfections, not just our own. In the sermon on the mount Jesus sums up the issue with "judge not others lest you be judged" and the piercing line that basically says why judge a speck of some dirt in someone else's eye when you are walking around with a log in yours? Here is a profound and difficult truth, which is why I think religion in general with all it's tenants of shoulds and collective moral judgements and proclamation of spiritual consequences, caution people about our judging mentality: The human tendency to project our own flaws on to others and/or defend against our flaws, failure, and mistakes through hyper-vigilance of the mistakes of others.
Of course I have to mention forgiveness here, including self-forgiveness as we deal with the imperfect. In away all of this is about forgiveness, coming to terms with the imperfect. Sometimes, the real block to forgiving others is about not wanting to recognize the same imperfection in ourselves. Our judgement of others can actually be the window, the mirror, the uprooting and acknowledgment of our own flaws and mistakes. It can lead to self acceptance, self-forgiveness and asking and accepting it for those mistakes--on any level. Forgiveness work includes asking and accepting forgiveness as an inner process; it's not always appropriate or helpful to do that as a spoken request. Reflecting on our own mistakes makes forgiving others a lot easier. I am not saying a correlation is always there, but even if you do not find a point of identification in your judgement, you do learn to identify as an imperfect character in life's drama.
In 12 step programs, there is a saying, "Keep your side of the street clean." Life easily becomes messy and unmanageable when we begin to shift our focus to monitoring and managing others' lives before giving attention to our own, and in the complexity of modern life, it isn't always obvious where the boundaries lay. Reflecting on "my side of the street" is one way to recalibrate responsibility and clarify our choices. Our actions and non-actions impact others in the great scheme of life. Human beings are not perfect--none of us. But we are capable of positive choices, of learning, of adapting and forgiving. Self-forgiveness and self-acceptance of imperfection, open the door to Grace and transformative healing. (Susan Nettleton)
Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There Is a Crack in Everything, That’s How the Light Gets In
(by Leonard Cohen)
Susan Nettleton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Hope you can make it!
Topic: The Imperfect
Time: Nov 21, 2021 11:00 A.M. Mountain Time (10:00 A.M. Pacific Time)
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This week I have been contemplating two quotes from very different 20th century writers. Each quote--separate and apart from the complete philosophical orientation and context of the authors-- struck me as unusual approaches to expanding our lives in this new phase of the Pandemic. This "phase" is new because of the experience we have gathered in our almost 2 years under the Pandemic threat, the extraordinary success of vaccines and the early promise of new treatment for Covid 19. At the same time, we shoulder a collective awareness of viral mutations and seasonal surges as ongoing possibilities during the years to come. Moving beyond the trauma and fear of the last 2 years is not going to happen by denial or dismissal of the continued threat, nor by suppressing all that we felt and experienced in the process--both gain and loss. But neither can it be a continued one-pointed focus on contagion. The world grows more complex. Moving beyond these years of Pandemic requires expansion.
For those who nurture their spiritual life, that expansion is spiritual expansion and it is the expansion of consciousness. We participate in the healing, renewing activity of life at this time, in the place where we are, as active spirituality--willing to grow beyond what we have known and trusting an unfolding Good. Here are the quotes for a Sunday contemplation on expansion, this November, 2021:
"So many things fail to interest us, simply because they don't find in us enough surfaces on which to live, and what we have to do then is to increase the number of planes in our mind, so that a much larger number of themes can find a place in it at the same time." José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)
"What we think is less than what we know; What we know is less than what we love; What we love is so much less than what there is; and to this precise extent, we are much less than what we are." R.D. Laing (1927-1982)
Consider a broader expanse of love, love that feeds new planes (even dimensions) of involvement--widening, spacious themes that spark new ways of knowing, ways of responding, flowing from our minds and hearts. (Susan Nettleton)
"Himalayas of the Heart" by Larry Morris (1939-2015)
A salute to those
fearless daring explorers
of the Inner Journey
who risk all for awakening
those intrepid travelers
through Inner Space
who seek The Kingdom
of infinite untouched Peace.
This past week marked the 6th anniversary of the death of Dr. Larry Morris who led Hillside Church for 33 years. This seems a good occasion to offer two of his poems for today's Sunday post. Through ministry, he became a prolific spiritual writer and poet, his poetry arising from his own journey. The above salute applies not just to Larry and those he knew--the writers and teachers who shaped his way--but it also applies to you, if you too seek that Kingdom of infinite untouched Peace. This is the Peace you have yet to find--that which underlies your longing for peace in your life and in the world around you, underlies the longing that others for whom you care can also touch such Peace. The Himalaya mountain range contains some of the highest peaks on Earth, including the highest, Mt. Everest. Although there are those who physically set out to climb those peaks, many of whom have life changing experiences, here is a reminder that the spiritual journey is actually through Inner Space, toward an awareness of oneself and one's own heart. That journey demands courage as well as, sooner or later, the touch of Grace. Inner exploration leads back to yourself, to meeting yourself again and again, until you come to a frontier where the sense of self can no longer be sustained as you have viewed it your whole life; it must give way to something larger, something interwoven into the fabric of Life itself and blended with all that is. This is the birth of new life and yet paradoxically, it is the discovery of what has been true all along-- God's Secret. (Susan Nettleton)
"God's Secret" by Larry Morris
The love we thought
the universe could never give us
the surprise Birthday cake
with the candle that we can
never blow out
the wish that can
never be extinguished
the dream that never
evaporates into our common life.
for more poems by Larry Morris, scroll down the page to the Larry Morris poems section at:
Listen, my child, to the silence.
An undulating silence,
a silence
that turns valleys and echoes slippery,
bends foreheads
toward the ground.
(Federico García Lorca-1898-1936), Selected Verse, ed. Christopher Maurer, 2004)
Tonight's Halloween is yet another experiment in navigating the Pandemic while venturing outward, exploring new avenues for tradition as the world rapidly changes. Lately, I have been contemplating the ways in which cultures pass on core values to the next generation, teaching character traits and early concepts of right and wrong that we build on and adjust over a lifetime. Folktales (and Halloween offers many, both ancient and modern) are one way we share our collective history, reinforcing cultural values. Although now in the age of Covid, young children have learned to easily shift back and forth between picture books and computers and phones with animated You Tube storytelling, the classic tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs endure. And in all cultures, the power of oral tradition still links one generation to another as teachers, parents and grandparents tell "the stories".
These seem like trivial events when we are facing so much in the way of cultural polarization, the ongoing threat of Pandemic, and climate change. And yet folk tales, along with celebrations such as Halloween and Carnival and other secular and religious traditions, weave a fabric of stability and belonging to humans, even as life demands we change. While tonight is Halloween, tomorrow is All Saints Day in the Catholic tradition. These two days, back to back, underscore the human attempt to reconcile what often seems like opposing forces in humanity: good and evil, right and wrong, the world of the living and the dead, Saint and sinner, spiritual and profane, heaven and earth. Indeed, there are traditions that view Halloween, along with the Day of the Dead, as a time when these divides dissolve and polarities blend, sliding one into another, if only for a brief window of time. If you don't have a plan or tradition for Halloween, this is actually a good time to meditate. A new view of Oneness may await. (Susan Nettleton)
"When you are no longer caught up in the dichotomy of right and wrong or good and bad you can never do anything wrong. As long as you are caught up in this duality, the danger is that you will always do wrong." U.G. Krishnamurti (1918-2007)
The Hillside Source is an online resource project of Hillside Community Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.