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RE: renewable caring

For those who show up...however they can for love

…caregiving of yourself and your others …and the world

to be better gardeners of our ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE….

LISTENING: the privilege of witnessing

1/24/2021

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The United States has a new president…and a country to heal.

How do we do that?

As a hospice chaplain, I have a few superpowers…the first and foremost one is listening. This post and its sound meditation is the second of three…in a series on listening.

David Whyte lent us a quote or two (again) about friendship’s “privilege of witnessing another’s whole self over time” NOT JUST THE NICE PARTS…but also (and especially) in crisis…” when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most average existence….”

I call these the our tender human trenches…which this country is in. I’d say we need to be friends now more than ever…

• to our principles &
• to our constitution &
• to each other.

How do we listen with our hearts open?

So How do we do this? How do we listen with our hearts open?

I am heart centered. It is my practice to listen to the ‘the still small voice’ of Divine Guidance in my own heart…but I read too.
"Finding the information given to me from the cranky, and well-intentioned is not easy. The linkage that makes me renewable is being able to course correct. This is fertile soil…”  - EM Hager Feed Me Feedback No. 30
I believe in the “Feed Me Feedback” of the world …that is, in the muck and from which the lotus blossoms. I believe in feedback of others…but it is my own mind and heart that decides what to use and what to give back to the muck...

MEDITATION CHORUS REFRAIN

Friendship is the great hidden transmuter of all relationship.

Not seeking to change anyone…but listening we listen to the tree through its fruits. …we don’t have to eat those fruits.

Second in series on Listening
We REMAIN IN SIGHT of our friends (…and family) the ultimate touch stone of friendship (and listening) is not improvement, but the privilege of witness.

Keep your heart Open; stay connected.

Personal Experience of God & the Muck

I trust Spirit to speak.  I know it by its voice of wisdom and love…and it is above all kind…not coddling…not easy… but good.I speak a lot about this direct experience WITH OUR OWN Higher Power here. It is oddly, something the spiritually progressive mystics have in common with the thoughtful but more traditionally religious evangelicals.

Prayer and Meditation is a conversation with the Divine.  Meditation is about getting still and LISTENING to Spirit...so we can witness our friends and even those who we do not yet (or perhaps might not ever) call a friend.

So it was particularly troubling when I read a CSM article last week about the militant evangelical conservatives who guided the “Stop the steal” JERICHO  Washington March in mid December and rioted at the capital on Jan 6th. The article says it is a new 'Christian Nationalism' which is reminiscent of the South after the Civil war.

Apparently, they think they are listening to God too...

Here’s the quote from one of its leaders that is most troubling to me:
 
“When God gives you a vision, you don’t need to know anything else.” 
             - Eric Metaxas, A prominent conservative writer and Jericho March’s Emcee.
 
It’s an interesting and well-balanced article…as is usual from Christian Science Monitor. December 11, 2020

How can I know that the voice to which I am listening is Divine guidance or one of fear?  i.e. the inner 'devil'

That is the question for this meditation...
How can I know for certain that the voice inside which I am listening to is Divine Guidance or one of fear … (the small personality, my ego or the inner devil whispering)

Gratefully, Jesus has some clarifying thoughts here:
 
You shall know the tree by its fruits… LUKE 6:44-45

LUKE 6:43 … figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart.
So that’s clear. If you want grapes, plant a vineyard.  If you want love, sow it.  Common Grace? Goodness? You have the seeds readily available…

I listen to the tree through its fruits…
I don’t have to eat those fruits…

But how do stay in witness to that which we disagree? to that which disturbs us ? ….How do we listen and get past the us vs. them mentality?
Not seeking to change anyone…but listening

David Whyte says to simply be a friend…

‘Friendship is the great hidden transmuter
of all relationships.

...Remain in sight of my friends

...The ultimate touchstone of friendship (and listening) is not improvement but the privilege of witness”


How to stay open & witness that to which I disagree?

Keep your heart Open; stay connected.
No matter how great the distance that exists between me and the people I care about,
if I LISTEN to the connections of love and friendship, I can stay in sight of them.

I do that by staying close to the voice of kindness…and let it guide me.


KINDNESS: the fruit that we all want to eat.


ATTRIBUTIONS:
1. CSM Dec 16, 2020; Humanity behind the Headlines: New York; Will election be a new ‘lost cause for evangelical conservatives?
2. David Whyte, Consolations- Friendship
3. Feed Me Feedback – CH 30- Hager, EM. A Hospice Chaplain's Fieldguide to Caregiving: Finding Resilience on the Frontlines of Love (p. 151).
4. Love fr Richard Rohr Newsletter - Inner and Outer Freedom: Freedom to Love. 6.16.2020
5. Background video LOTUS from Pexels

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    EM Hager
    Author, Bereavement & Spiritual care, Sound meditation guide.

    "Look deeply into nature and you will understand everything human"
               – Albert Einstein

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