Tag: UULent

Day 16 Lenten Meditation: Wisdom




Note: I apologize for missing two days of meditation: I was at a cabin retreating from life for a little while. It didn’t have reliable internet so I didn’t post. I did, however, meditate a lot.

Today’s meditation is about wisdom. Wisdom is not just knowledge, it’s knowledge put into play in the context of the wider world behind it. Knowledge is knowing the facts; wisdom is knowing how to use the facts. Wisdom is the knowledge that comes from experience and learning from experience, and is flexible enough to take everything into account.

Some people say wisdom comes from age, but there are many old fools out there that prove the lie. Some of those fools, unfortunately, are in the government and think themselves very wise. However, knowledge is knowing how to build a nuclear bomb; wisdom is never building it in the first place. 

Wisdom doesn’t always follow the status quo; it forges new paths to promote the well-being of human beings all over the world as well as the earth and nature itself. Wisdom requires us to use our knowledge in new ways, evolving with the needs of creation.

Wisdom is what will save us; knowledge is not enough.


Day 13 Lenten Meditation: Dance



If I don’t dance, nobody gets hurt.

It’s true. I’m preternaturally clumsy. I once broke my foot dancing. In Renaissance garb, so I looked twice as impressive in the emergency room. I could just as easily broken my partner’s foot as we took a full gallop down two lines of dancers. Renaissance dancing wasn’t very demanding, even, and I broke my foot.

I’m sure the person who wrote these meditations meant this in a spiritual sense, but this is not my metaphor. To me, “dance” means “spend three months in a cast”. 

I’m kidding, sort of. I’m also the person who wrote the lyrics to the following song:

To dance naked in this pool of light
is all the moment requires of me — 
eyes closed, as if I were alone
but I know you are there almost
almost close enough to touch,
almost close enough to feel
My hand reaches out to touch your face
and touches air — I am not close enough
I am not close enough

In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other’s eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other’s eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
I am not close enough
I am not close enough

Last night I woke up from a terrible dream
I was standing lonely in the wilderness
with no one close enough to hear
but I knew you were there almost
almost close enough to touch,
almost close enough to feel
My hand reaches out to touch your face
and touches air — You were not close enough
You were not close enough

In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other’s eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other’s eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
I am not close enough
I am not close enough

I shed my clothes to dance in light
alone, spinning wildly into sky
my hand reaches out to touch your face
and touches air, and touches life
almost close enough to touch
almost close enough to feel
my hand reaches out to touch your face
I touch your hand and we are close enough
and we are close enough

In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other’s eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
In dreams I dare to touch your face
we dare to look into each other’s eyes
Dreams become connection, become real
And we are close enough

Day 12 Lenten Meditation: Inclusion

It is easy to avoid those who make you uncomfortable. Those of a different culture, those who act differently, those who speak differently. It’s easy, but it’s not fair. Or kind. Or right.

It’s easy to ostracize those who are different. Those with disabilities, those of a different color, those who are too smart or not smart enough. It’s easy, but it’s not fair. Or kind. Or right.

Inclusion is difficult. In a classroom, it means having children with disabilities, especially those that get in the way of learning, in the same classroom as other children, working with aides who help them work around their disabilities. In the workplace, it means teaching the majority how to treat the minority with the same courtesy one treats their acquaintances. In everyday life, it means cultural competence and the ability to see the world through the other’s eyes. All of these require effort, discomfort, and honesty to oneself.

Inclusion is necessary. Humans evolved because of their ability to adapt. They evolved from genetic difference that led to more adaptation. We evolved socially with differences among people. We only adapt when there is difference — different attitudes, different experiences. We must include others for the sake of our own future.

And because it’s fair, kind, and right.

Day 11 Lenten Meditation: Play

Play is necessary to life.

Play is a way to engage ourselves with the world in unexpected ways, ways that invite laughter and more play.

There’s a common trope that says we lose our ability to play when we get older, but I see a lot of evidence to the contrary. Cosplay, practical jokes, puns, Internet memes — all of these are evidence that play still exists. 

For those who have lost play, I suggest one simple exercise: Find a swing set, and climb into the seat. And then swing, heedless of who might see. Feel the laughter break forth from you, and that’s the result of play. 

Then work your way up to fingerpainting, or talking to yourself in silly voices. Engage yourself in the messy, the ludicrous, and feel that laughter again. Get rid of the self-consciousness and just play. 

Day 10 Lenten Meditation: Imagination



Imagination is perhaps my greatest gift.

Imagination saved my life in a bleak childhood, when I spaced out in school imagining the dialogue of two princes plotting to kill each other, created story lines where I alternatively saved and was saved by classmates, and envisioned elaborate backgrounds to the music I listened to on my AM radio. 

The times when I have had nothing else — times of illness in a behavioral health ward, lonely times in my depressive episodes, times of failure — I have had the ability to create images in my head, create words in my heart. To see what was not immediately there.

Imagination is perhaps the world’s greatest gift. We live in a world of strife, so we imagine peace. We live in a world of climate change, so we imagine solutions. Then we change the world.


Day 9 Lenten Meditation: Community



According to researchers (Grouzet et al, 2005), community is a universal goal across cultures. It appears not just a goal, but a need. Matthew Lieberman, in his book Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (2013) cites thousands of research articles to make the case that we were born craving community. 

How do we get community? Some get it through church, others through clubs and volunteer work. Some get it at their favorite coffeehouse or bar. Many of us get it online, but there we have to struggle with antagonism as well, destroying our sense of community. 

Against community, we have no way to define ourselves. We have nobody to turn to when we are suffering, nobody to take care of us when we are sick, no one to celebrate with when we triumph. Even introverts need community — perhaps one person at a time.

Where is your community?



Grouzet, F., Kasser, T., Ahuvia, A., Fernandez-Dols, J., Kim, Y., Lau, S.,Ryan, R., Saunders, S., Schmuck, P., Sheldon, K. (2005). The structure of goal contents across 15 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 89. 800-16. 10.1037/0022-3514.89.5.800. 

Lieberman, M. (2013). Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. Crown Publishing.

Day 8 Lenten Meditation: Silence


How do we know ourselves if not for silence? We only know our outward selves — our careers, our social networks, our consumer-driven wants and needs. With silence we lose our external selves for a moment, and find our internal one. And then we pass beyond self to the big Unity, the center of silence.

There are many ways to find silence. Unplugging from the phone, meditating, silent worship, walking alone in a peaceful place. Anything that quiets not only the external but the internal chatter, our constant defining of the world.

As a Quaker, I am accustomed to silent worship. We believe that in the silence, The Divine speaks to us. Silence isn’t only reserved for worship, but in everyday life. We believe that we must live simple lives so that there’s undistracted space for us to listen to our small, still voice. That’s another type of silence.

A little bit of silence is my prescription to you.

Day 7 Lenten Meditation: Dust



We have a natural antipathy to dust, perhaps because it’s something we can’t control. Dust is ubiquitous. Dust exceeds our ability to clean as it sparkles in the sun drifting through windows. 

Dust symbolizes the useless and unclean. In the Bible, the Apostles were instructed to knock the dust of inhospitable towns from their sandals on the way out. (This is especially noteworthy as feet were seen as unclean in that culture.) Dusting is a regular part of housecleaning, and neglecting to do it will raise the scorn of neighbors.

Dust inspires poetry about death and mortality. “Unto dust you shall return …” declares the Roman Catholic mass on Ash Wednesday. 

We do not like to think about dust. We will never love dust, and that is fine. We will fight dust, like we fight filth, like we fight against death.

But in the end, it will win. 


Day 5 Lenten Meditation: Sanctuary

We all need a place to feel safe. 

Whether safety means the need to get away from a hard day at work, a sense of loss from trauma, or an immediate threat to one’s well-being, sanctuary is necessary.

Some find sanctuary in a closed door, a meditation session, or a safe community. Some find sanctuary in writing, or art, or other engrossing activity. Some find sanctuary in family or friends, or in religion.

Inside each of us, no matter how old we are, is our memory of childhood, which was safe or not safe, That part of fears the unknown as something dangerous. That young self yearns for sanctuary. 


We can’t stay in sanctuary forever, because if we do, we are fugitives from live. Nobody needs to be safe forever. But it’s good that sanctuary is there when we feel threatened.