While it was still dark

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 

John 20:1

Some people like their Easter services at sunrise, and the bright morning is a favorite image of the Easter story. I like the fact that John's version of this story reminds us that it was still dark when the Magdalene went to the tomb, but the stone had already been removed.

 Life is full of moments when it appears dark to us, but the stone has already been moved.  Something important has already happened, but we are not yet aware.

Never assume the stone is still there or will always be there. Life will not be contained.

Life finds a way. And it often has already found it.

Easter Message: Live!

Sundance as spiritual guide

Celebrate!

 

 

Who said that?

Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.

~ Rabbi Julius Gordon

 

One of the brothers in the monastery used to say, half-jokingly, "My God is all-merciful, but not necessarily all-knowing." After his death, I remarked that now he would discover that God is all- merciful because God is all-knowing.

When I was novice director in the monastery, I used to tell the novices that love is not blind, but that love sees more. Now I find out someone else says that, too. I have not been able to find out anything about the good rabbi yet, but I'll keep looking. I found a number of other variations on the theme, one of which you see in the illustration.

One slight tweak of the rabbi's statement: I don't think God chooses to see less, because God sees all. But God sees so much more that the things we think are incredibly hateful are consumed in the fire of divine mercy. In some way, God loves our blemishes and transforms them into beauty marks. God does that, not us. But we can try to learn to do it when we look at others and perceive what we think are blemishes and scars.

 

For all I know, I heard this quote somewhere and forgot where it came from. That happens a lot ...

Congratulations and best wishes

Peter surprised us yesterday by announcing he got married. Jennifer, his new bride, has a five-year-old daughter. I think ever since I have known him, Peter has wanted a wife and family more than anything else. Many things may not have been clear, but that was. Now they are part of his life.

Congratulations and best wishes to the newlyweds, and may they live together in peace and love for all their years to come.

Win-win

Recognizing someone else's human dignity cannot cost you your own.

What's in your spring?

Spring begins today. In DC, it is the beginning of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I have been there a number of times over the years, and it is beautiful. I hope all of my friends there, and all the visitors, enjoy the sights and that the weather cooperates for a while.

In the Dells, it was 9 degrees (-12.8 C) this morning and our high will be about 18 (-7.8 C). Needless to say, no cherry blossoms out here. The white on our trees is snow.

This time last year we had had temperatures in the 70s ...

To hate and hurt

May those whose hell it is to hate and hurt be turned into lovers bringing flowers.

 ~ Shantideva, 8th century Buddhist teacher

 

I ran across this prayer/wish/hope a couple of days ago. I have been pondering it a bit, trying to incorporate it into my own meditations.

 

One thing I noticed is that at first, I understood those who found themselves in this hell -- which means in this life, of course -- did so because they hated and hurt others.

 

Them I began to see that they hated and they themselves hurt, were suffering, were in pain and that this contributed in some way to their hate and the way they acted out in ways hurtful to others.

 

This made it easier for me to ask healing for them, ask that they be freed from the mental and physical hurts that they suffered.

 

And I realized that when I am moved to hate and to hurt someone, it is often because I feel hurt myself for some reason.

 

I don't know the original language of this, but I wonder if it might also be translated or interpreted as:

"May those whose hell it is to hate and hurt turn to love and flourish."

or "... turn to love and bloom."

Little by slowly

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

What's Happening in Wisconsin?

I regularly check a website called What's Happening in Wisconsin to see if there are things going on within a reasonable distance that we might want to check out. Today I ran across this item. Read it carefully:

PACT's Comedy Dinner Theatre- Drinking Habits

Thursday, March 14, 2013 through Sunday, March 24, 2013. 5:30pm. Two nuns have been secretly making wind to keep the convent's doors open and two reporters go undercover, but their presence, combined with the addition of a new nun, spurs paranoia through the convent that spies have been sent from Rome to shut them down. All is revealed with some zany twists, but all the calamity will keep the audience laughing right up to the end. Tickets are $24 and are available at Portage Furniture Store in downtown Portage (608-742-4106). Northwoods, INC, 2 miles South of Portage on HWY 51, Portage, Columbia County. Subjects: Theater, Comedy [E-92246]

I suppose two nuns "making wind" might keep the convent doors open, but I think the good sisters were secretly making wine.

At least, I hope they were.

And the illustration on the side here shows that you can find just about anything on the internet ...

Ah, yes!

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'

 ~ Don Marquis

To all the women in our lives ...

Not only could we not get along without you, we wouldn't be here without you. Here's to the day that all women everywhere will be able to live with dignity, freedom, respect and the resources they need for themselves and those they care for -- which is all the rest of us.

Cat-ppetites

When I sit down for my morning meditation, Sundance comes to investigate.

I can almost hear her feline mind going: "Why is the room quiet? Why is he sitting there doing nothing?"

She comes over and meows. She waits. She paces around and rubs up against my legs. She meows more loudly. She paws at my pants leg. She climbs up on the bookcase next to me. She whines pathetically. She jumps down. She sits right between my feet and purrs. She meows questioningly. She waits quietly for a minute, then tries again. She cries and jumps up on the corner of the bed where she can stare at me. She finally turns around, goes to the other side of the bed up by my pillow, turns around a couple of times and settles down, wraps her tail around her, closes her eyes and goes to sleep. I can meditate undisturbed.

I have heard that appetites, even disordered or excessive ones, will only bother you for five minutes or so. If I can resist the impulse to satisfy the hunger or thirst or greed for just five minutes, not stroke it, not scratch the itch, not examine it or analyze it for five minutes, it will eventually act like Sundance and go away.

Just like Sundance, however, it will be there every morning!

In Twelve Step programs they say, "While I am in here at a meeting, my disease is out in the hall, doing pushups."

When all else fails, read the box?

Tom has an eye doctor appointment tomorrow. (They shoot him in the eye. Yes, IN the eye.) So he is not in the mood to do much of anything the rest of the day. I will be driving him up to Mauston and back. Fortunately the snow storm we got was at the small end of the forecast, and travel should not be a problem.

I plan to cook something for dinner tomorrow to make things a bit simpler for him, and I was considering rice or spaghetti as the starch. In looking at the whole grain spaghetti box, I discovered that if I cook the whole box, this should make four portions according to the cooking directions. In the Nutrition Information box, however, I am told that the box contains 7 servings.

Obviously a portion is not the same as a serving.

Hmmm.

Now I am not sure how to interpret the information on the rice!

May you be happy ...

Yesterday I got involved in a conversation at the library, and I made a firm statement blaming someone [a social and political figure, hereafter designated X] for a certain situation. The person I was talking to looked puzzled, and questioned me about what I meant. I explained that I had read a couple of articles, blah blah blah. She quietly pointed out that I was wrong, that I had misunderstood the articles. And she ended by saying, "I wish I could blame X for that, but in this case, it has nothing to do with anything X has or has not done."

She is someone I respect and someone I trust. She is also someone who is usually on the same side I am on in regard to such issues. I realized she was absolutely right, that I had jumped to a rash conclusion and needed to get myself right.

I thanked her, but I silently wrestled with my embarrassment for a while. Finally I decided to try this.

Many times a day, I say a short prayer/mantra/meditation/call-it-what-you-will: "May all beings be happy. May all beings be one. May all beings be free." It is a way of calling down a benediction upon all creation and a reminder to myself to try to behave in a way that contributes to happiness, unity and freedom for everyone and everything. I decided that I would recite my prayer, adding to each line, "especially X." So many times over the course of the day, I said, "May all beings be happy, especially X. May all beings be one, especially X. May all beings be free, especially X."

At first this was a challenge. For one thing, I did not want X to be happy! And I wanted X to feel united with everyone in a particular way to suit my own preferences. I wanted X to be free to do what I wanted X to do. I had to struggle to just say the prayer without limitations: May all beings be happy, especially X. May all beings be one, especially X. May all beings be free, especially X.

I said it while driving home. I said it when I sat down, I said it when I tried to take a nap, I said it when I was riding the exercycle, I said it when I lay down to sleep.

By the middle of the afternoon, I discovered that at every "especially X", I was smiling slightly. By the end of the day, I was smiling more. Something had changed. Me. I don't know if X was any happier yesterday or felt any more at one with the universe or any freer. But I was happier, I was more at one -- especially with X! -- and more free.

Prayer, they say, changes us, not God. Sometimes it changes me, not X. Which is a good thing for both of us.

May you be happy!
May you be one!
May you be free!

And especially, you, X.

What time is it?

Tom Seaver: "What time is it?"

Yogi Berra: "You mean now?"

Yes.

Yes, it is now.

Remember Eric Hoffer?

When I was in college, a number of friends and I stumbled across Eric Hoffer's books in the bookstore where we worked. We read them voraciously and then his thought faded into the mass of other things we were reading and hearing. Today I ran across an interesting line of his, although I had to look up the reference to see that he had written it.

“Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.”

 

Hoffer wrote and published up until the end. I have only read his earlier works, True Believer, Ordeal of Change and The Temper of Our Time. He died in 1983, shortly after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. 

 

I find it interesting that Reagan should have honored Hoffer in this way. It just goes to show that two people can read the same book and hear something quite different.

But I suppose one only has to look at the history of most religions to see that.

Wisdom

I love searching for wisdom, which like the Spirit and the wind, blows where she will. I go through phases of reading Hasidic stories or Zen koans or Native American legends. Lately I have been paying particular attention to Zen.

I ran across a story about a Zen monk who became delusional. In his old age, he came to believe that he had fallen in love with the moon, and he wanted to possess the moon more than anything else. One night when he was out for a walk, he glanced into a puddle of clear water and saw the moon there. He went home to get a bottle, returned to the puddle and filled the bottle with all the water he could scoop up.

But when he got home and poured the water into another container, the moon was not there.

Not to be pedantic and obvious, but that sounds a bit like most of my shopping trips ...

It ain't over 'til the fat snowstorm sings!

Issued by The National Weather Service
Milwaukee/Sullivan, WI

Mon, Mar 4, 2013, 4:19 AMCST

... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM CST TUESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM CST TUESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

* TIMING... LIGHT SNOW WILL DEVELOP THIS EVENING BUT BECOME HEAVIER LATE TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. SNOWFALL RATES OF ONE INCH PER HOUR OR HIGHER ARE EXPECTED AT TIMES. SNOW WILL TAPER OFF TUESDAY EVENING.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS... 6 TO 10 INCHES BY TUESDAY EVENING.

* WINDS... NORTH TO NORTHEAST 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH WILL CAUSE AREAS OF BLOWING SNOW TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

* IMPACTS... PLAN ON HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS... ESPECIALLY DURING THE TUESDAY MORNING AND AFTERNOON COMMUTES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

&&

More Information

... HEAVY SNOW EXPECTED ON TUESDAY...

.MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOWFALL WILL SPREAD INTO SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND INTO SOUTHEAST WI AROUND THE TUESDAY MORNING RUSH HOUR. THE MODERATE SNOW WILL PERSIST THROUGH THE DAY ON TUESDAY AND TAPER OFF TUESDAY EVENING. IN ADDITION... BRISK NORTHEAST WINDS WILL DEVELOP BY TUESDAY AFTERNOON... CAUSING BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW INTO TUESDAY NIGHT.

Happy St. David's Day to all the Welsh out there!

Today is St. David's Day, a national holiday in Wales celebrating the patron saint. No, it is not the David of the Psalms and Bathsheba. Saint David (Welsh: Dewi Sant) was born towards the end of the 5th century. He was a scion of the royal house of Ceredigion, and founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro), at the spot where St David's Cathedral stands today. David's fame as a teacher and ascetic spread throughout the Celtic world. His foundation at Glyn Rhosin became an important Christian shrine, and the most important center in Wales. The date of Dewi Sant's death is recorded as 1 March, but the year is uncertain – possibly 588.

Although Dodds (and Dods and Dowds and ...) from all over Great Britain and Ireland came to what is now the United States, the name Dodd itself is apparently of Welsh origin. In Gaelic it means pet, but other meanings include short, stocky and peevish. I would contest that, but it might seem peevish and petty for someone short and (sometimes) stocky!

You don't have to be a meteorologist

I got up a couple of hours ago, and it has been snowing lightly but steadily ever since.



Both the weather apps on my computer -- one from Bing and the other from The Weather Channel -- assure me that it is partly cloudy with either no chance of snow today or only a very slight chance "later."

All you have to do is look out your window.

There is a lesson here for lots of folks, seems to me ...