Month: September 2020

Once again, drawn to Mary Oliver. I was thinking about faith this morning, so Googled “faith Mary Oliver.” In doing so I found a poem of hers, published in 2015, titled “Leaves and Blossoms Along the Way.” It struck me as instructions for whoever gets to compose an elegy for her. Perhaps even an elegy for herself?

What will your elegy say?  How do you want to be remembered?  More importantly, how will you live your life today that will inform whoever it is that gets to write your elegy?

Today’s meditation was centered around a mindful reading of this poem. Beneath the video and audio you’ll find the poem itself.

If you’re John Muir you want trees to

live among. If you’re Emily, a garden

will do.

Try to find the right place for yourself.

If you can’t find it, at least dream of it.

                                 •

When one is alone and lonely, the body

gladly lingers in the wind or the rain,

or splashes into the cold river, or

pushes through the ice-crusted snow.

Anything that touches.

                                 •

God, or the gods, are invisible, quite

understandable. But holiness is visible,

entirely.

                                 •

Some words will never leave God’s mouth,

no matter how hard you listen.

                                 •

In all the works of Beethoven, you will

not find a single lie.

                                 •

All important ideas must include the trees,

the mountains, and the rivers.

                                 •

To understand many things you must reach out

of your own condition.

                                 •

For how many years did I wander slowly

through the forest. What wonder and 

glory I would have missed had I ever been

in a hurry!

                               •

Beauty can both shout and whisper, and still

it explains nothing

                                 •

The point is, you’re you, and that’s for keeps.

With mindfulness practice we learn to live in the zones between comfort, where tension is found.  But in coming to terms with tension we can negotiate a newfound peace, and we find a very creative and even safe place to be emotionally and spiritually.  In order to find this place it is important to embrace the dialectic; to not hesitate.

In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed necessary tension and its potential to be a catalyst for growth. This document’s relevance today is as meaningful as it was in 1963, when Dr. King composed this letter while incarcerated for the “crime” of engaging in a peaceful protest of white supremacy and racial injustice. America continues to be plagued with white supremacy and racial injustice; we need to embrace the tension created by civil disobedience and protest in order to find the creative growth to form a truly civil society.

As nourishment for our hearts and souls on this journey we have Mary Oliver’s poem “Don’t Hesitate.” Her conclusion that “joy is not made to be a crumb” is one that I believe Dr. King would have embraced as well!

Martin Luther King, from “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth (italics added). Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

Mary Oliver, “Don’t Hesitate”

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,

don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty

of lives and whole towns destroyed or about

to be. We are not wise, and not very often

kind. And much can never be redeemed.

Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this

is its way of fighting back, that sometimes

something happens better than all the riches

or power in the world. It could be anything,

but very likely you notice it in the instant

when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the

case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid

of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

The video and audio found below are guided meditations (with some introductory remarks) appropriate to the themes addressed above.

Audio recording of this guided meditation:

During the pandemic I’ve been concerned about my tendency to value doing over being, which makes sense in the context of my work as a counselor and teacher. There are needs of others to attend; focusing on my own needs for stillness and solitude can feel selfish.

But there is great value in contemplation. Finding stillness within; spending time observing rather than intervening; knowing that sometimes the best thing you can do is what you don’t; each of these may open into a perception with greater clarity. With clarity comes a calmer way of seeing and understanding the world as it is at present.

This meditation is intended to help with the experience of stillness, and includes recitation of two poems by Mary Oliver. You’ll find them just beneath the video and audio.

Today by Mary Oliver

Today I’m lying low and I’m

not saying a word

I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little,

the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.

And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather.

I hardly move though really I’m traveling

a terrific distance.

Stillness.  One of the doors

into the temple.

The Notebook by Mary Oliver

Six a.m.—

the small, pond turtle lifts its head into the air like a green toe.

It looks around.

What it sees is the whole world swirling back from darkness:

a red sun rising over the water, over the pines,

and the wind lifting, and the water-striders heading out,

and the white lilies opening their happy bodies.

The turtle doesn’t have a word for any of it—

The silky water or the enormous blue morning, or the curious affair of his own body.

On the shore I’m so busy scribbling and crossing out

I almost miss seeing him paddle away through the wet, black forest.

More and more the moments come to me: how much can the right word do?

Now a few of the lilies are a faint flamingo inside their white hearts

and there is still time to let the last roses of the sunrise float down into my uplifted eyes.

Surviving stressful times means attention to self-care of the body, mind and soul.  Exercise, healthy eating, social connecting, prayer and meditation are all helpful.  But don’t overlook the importance of casual connections, and see what impact you make on those who need your casual connection.

On Thursday, August 3 2020 Jane Brody, in her weekly “Personal Health” column, described the impact of social connections on well-being, especially on stress management during the pandemic. As you would expect, maintaining social connection with those closest to us is very important, but maintaining social connection with so-called “weaker ties” (i.e. acquaintances) also predicts a lot about well-being. Here is an excerpt from her column:

“Katherine L. Fiori, chairwoman of undergraduate psychology at Adelphi University who studies social networks of older adults, has found that activities that foster “weaker ties” than are formed with family and close friends foster greater life satisfaction and better emotional and physical health.

“The greater the number of weaker ties, the stronger the association with positive feelings and fewer depressed feelings,” Dr. Fiori said in an interview. “It’s clearly not the case that close ties are all that older adults need.”

And not just older adults, all adults. Dr. Fingerman said research has shown that, in general, “people do better when they have a more diverse group of people in their lives.” But as Dr. Fiori observed, “Unfortunately, Covid has severely curtailed our ability to maintain weaker ties. It can take a lot more effort to do this online.”

Dr. Fingerman’s research has also shown that people who are more socially integrated are also more active physically. “Being sedentary kills you,” she said. “You have to get up and move to be with the people you run into when exercising.” Consequential strangers also help your brain, she said, because “conversations are more stimulating than with people you know well.””

From “The Benefits of Talking to Strangers,” Jane Brody, NYTimes, August 3, 2020

You can find this article in full at this link:

At our August 4, 2020 “Take a Break From Stress” online meditation meeting, I recorded this video (audio-only can be found directly below the video) that is based on this theme:

Audio:

Best wishes for a peaceful day,

Jim