Hope in the Future What is hope? Could it be trust in a new generation, the joy we feel when we watch young animals at play, babies being born? In our yard, a family of scrub jays has nested in the holly tree. As I write, the father submerges himself in the bird bath while the mother feeds their baby seeds and insects from the garden. Watching them, I smile, thinking of beauty and life that will continue after I am gone. Or could hope be the belief in an existence after death? At the hospital, I sit with a woman who is sick and weary from cancer. She begs…
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Aging with Peace and Equanimity
Raven Seeks His Version of the Truth Leo Tolstoy tells the following version of a common Eastern European and Yiddish folktale. A father raven is flying his chicks, one at a time, from their island to the mainland. While crossing the bay with his eldest in his talons, he asks, “Who will carry me when I am too old to fly?” The young raven answers, “I will.” Not believing him, the father drops him into the water. When the father asks the second chick, she also says she will carry the father. Disbelieving her, as well, he opens his claws and lets her fall. The youngest chick answers his father’s…
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Joy in the Midst of Sorrow that Arises Out of Love
Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. Psalm 47:1 (NRSV) Joy and the Weight of the World Today, I don’t feel joyful. It seems the weight of the world is smothering me. Not only does the news distress me, but so does my reading material. This time, it’s Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, a book about his career as a defense attorney for disenfranchised and economically-disadvantaged death row prisoners. He tells the stories of young men whose trials were a sham, with invented evidence and juries purposely selected to be unfriendly toward them. Throughout our country, a fearful and angry white population has…
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The Search for Enlightenment
Asking Questions Who wants to be enlightened? When I first thought about this topic, I assumed everyone wanted to be. After all, what else is life for? Then I realized that most people could probably care less about it. After all, most of us don’t even know what enlightenment means. I’m not sure I know. So if people don’t want enlightenment, whatever that is, what do they want? I guess that depends on the person and, perhaps, the moment. So is there no common, human desire? Maybe we all want happiness. Okay. What do I mean by happiness? Happiness and Impermanence I think happiness and enlightenment are related. The Buddhist…
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Transcendentalists, Boomers, and Our Current World Crisis
Growing Up as a Boomer When I was a young Boomer, my mother took me to a Unitarian fellowship where I learned about the Big Bang and evolution, studied the cultures of ancient peoples, heard myths from around the world, and played touch football. At camp, I was taught to meditate and smoke cigarettes. My GI parents provided well, encouraged my education, and gave me a lot of freedom. Like most of my generation, I embraced internal reflection, individual spiritual awakening, and social activism based on a moral code that emphasized our responsibility to and for one another. Like my cohorts, I am one of what historians William Strauss and…
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Living Our Values
Ideology Versus Compassion To live our values, we must first figure out what values we want to live by. Religions can guide us in that as long as we are careful not to adhere rigidly to any system of beliefs. In The Song of the Bird, author and priest Anothony de Mello reminds us that it is dangerous to to make a rule-bound religion out of spiritual truths. In the story, “Bayazid Breaks the Rule,” de Mello tells about a time, during the month of Ramadan, when Bayazid was traveling and teaching. He reaches a town in Iran where his worshipers rushed to greet him. They made a big stir. Weary…
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Birth, Death, and Rebirth
Birth and Reincarnation While looking through my books for a story about birth and rebirth, I came across one from Laos that I’ve used before to talk about love and justice. [1] This time, as I read the tale’s sequence of birth, death, and reincarnation, I was reminded of what it’s like to struggle with addictions, illness, and bad habits. Two spirits, Orphan Boy and Yer, are deeply in love. Before they are incarnated, they agree to spend their lives together. However, as they wait to jump into the pool that will take them from the spirit world to Earth, Orphan Boy becomes so eager and excited, he runs ahead and…
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Uncertainty, Fear, and the Dark Night of the Soul
Fear of the Future I sat in bed, leaning against the headboard, looking out the window at the full-moon glow that spread across the deck. Though the image was serene, I couldn’t feel the peace. The day’s news had depleted me, and I felt heavy with a sense of loss and helplessness. I thought about the pipeline that will be built no matter what we say or do, fouling water, defiling graves, and wounding a Native American community, yet again. I worried about the crackdown on immigration that has Hispanics and refugees afraid to leave their homes, that if enacted, will break up families, shatter lives, weaken our economy, and…
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Guilt and Repentance
In the Beginning There Was Shame According to the Hebrew Scriptures, shame entered the world when Eve and Adam ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When you don’t know right from wrong, you can live in blissful ignorance. Once you do, any manner of behavior can leave you feeling embarrassed. Indeed, the very nature of your being can embarrass you, as the original couple discovered once they’d tasted the fruit. They realized they were naked and scurried to find leaves so they could cover themselves. Shame and guilt can be difficult to tell apart. On a simple level, guilt is the belief that we’ve done…
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The Resilient Hero
Being Resilient “The Seven Ravens,” a German story written down by the Brother’s Grimm, can teach us something about resilience. Like many folk tales, “The Seven Ravens” is about a resilient hero who bounces back from disappointments and braves hardships to reach a goal. What do I mean by resilient? Resilience is the ability to persevere, to create a meaningful future in spite of a traumatic and challenging history, to rise up from the ashes. Resilient people don’t try to numb their pain with drugs or video games or sex. Resilient people feel a connection with something larger than themselves, whether it’s a god or a community of people. Instead…
