The Learned Man and His Shadow Hans Christian Anderson tells the story of “learned man” who moved from a cold country to a hot one, where he became listless, shrunken from the heat. It seemed his shadow also contracted, becoming smaller than it was in that stark, cold land where they’d come from. In the evening, though, as the sun went down, and the air cooled, and the lanterns were lit, the shadow spread onto the walls, coming to life again. On these evenings, from a home across the courtyard, the learned man could hear music. He never saw anyone there. Flowers grew, radiant and riotous, so he knew someone…
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The Humble Heart
Rewards for the Humble It’s a common theme in folklore, the youngest brother or sister who makes good after the older ones fail, or the reviled stepsister who earns riches through her compassion, industriousness, and obedience, while her lazy and disrespectful sibling earns beatings or tarring or death. In “Mother Holle,” a Brother’s Grimm tale, the ill-treated girl is sent by her stepmother to fetch a spindle she dropped down the well, so she jumps in. She lands, though, not in the water, but on a grassy knoll. Seeing a meadow of flowers, she walks toward it. On the way, she passes by a baker’s oven. The bread inside calls…
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The Place of Prayer in Happiness
The Power of Prayer Why do we pray? As a chaplain, I’ve observed that people pray for many reasons. Some seem to think prayer will protect them, or get them right with God, or solve their problems. Others pray as if out of habit. Then there are those for whom prayer seems to be sacred, a moment of true connection with something bigger, larger, grander than our own essence. Still others appear to experience grace and affection when they pray. Most of us pray for all these reasons at one time or another. For most of my life, I didn’t pray. I never thought of it, really, not even when…
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Thoughts, Actions, and the Four Agreements
A Day for Everything Every day, someone in the United States is celebrating something. There’s Avocado Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Bowling Day, Static Electricity Day, Puzzle Day, Sisters Day, Play Your Ukulele Day, Bunsen Burner Day, and more than a thousand others. [1] Most of these days are silly, which is fine as far as it goes, but every once in a while someone comes up with something intriguing. Take Everything You Think Is Wrong Day, which falls on March 15, or Everything You Do Is Right Day, on the 16th. What in the world are they about? After some consideration, I realized that both of them could…
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Love and the Work of the World
The World’s Work Between 1909 and 1910, W.E. B. Du Bois wrote prayers for the students of Atlanta University, a historically black school. They were collected and published in the book, Prayers for Dark People. In one of them, Du Bois points to the importance of rain and storm so that plants can produce fruit. He speaks of “hurt and suffering” in the human life that allows us to “bring the world’s work to its highest perfection.” [1] What is this work he’s talking about, and what does he mean by the “highest perfection”? Could it be, as he adds later, that the “the great web which hangs holy to…
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Healing and Unconditional Love
Love without Conditions This column about unconditional love may be difficult to read, especially now when Valentine’s Day turns our minds to romance, flowers, and chocolate. The love expressed in greeting cards tends to be schmaltzy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Diamonds and sweet treats can compliment the faithfulness, determination, and strength that forge a love that can stand up to hardship and mockery. As we read in First Corinthians: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.…
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Facing Our Shadows
A Seed Needs Darkness Though it is still January, the daffodils are sprouting. Buds are opening on the viburnum, the kale is thrusting forth new growth. It’s been weeks since the bird bath froze. What sort of winter is this? Obviously, we’re caught in the throes of a greenhouse effect, but no matter how warm the days, the pre-dawn darkness remains. I wake before sunrise to exercise the dog, relishing the silver glow of moonlight, the few stars that peek out from behind clouds, the hulking shadows of trees black against the steel sky. A stillness hangs over the morning. Darkness invites reflection, and reflection invites growth. For some people,…
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Fairness and the Need to Repair the World
It’s All the Same In my work as a chaplain, I often meet with patients who are suffering. Many are trying to come to terms with a sudden, debilitating illness. Young parents dying of cancer wonder how they will bear to leave their families. Homeless patients, still convalescing, end up back on the streets, scrabbling for assistance that can’t be found. Over and over, people tell me that it isn’t fair. They’re right, of course. Everyone knows life isn’t fair. So we invent stories to ease our pain. There’s a reason this happened, we might tell ourselves. We need to learn something, or God has something better in store for…
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Uncertainty and Doing What Is at Hand
Uncertainty Surrounds Us Uncertainty is the water we swim in. We know there will be shallows, eddies, rocks, white water, but we float down the river convinced those hazards are meant for someone else. Those whose bones have broken on boulders in the past may take extra care, wrapping themselves in padding or constructing boxes in which to hide, for we often learn something from our past. Nonetheless, we easily forgot and ignore our vulnerability. We humans have many ways to protect ourselves. We can push people away by being nasty or irrational, by isolating, by acting crazy. Numbness and addiction keep us from feeling the pain of our past…
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Is There a Sentient God?
When the World Is Burning As I write this, forest fires in California, Oregon, and Washington are destroying vegetation and property, displacing families, and killing animals and people. Although this is just one more hit in an ongoing attack by a warming world, just one more season of worsts, these fires have sent hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. In areas that aren’t burning, smoke hangs like a thick and acrid fog, making our eyes sting, leaving grit in our mouths. Many people are suffering. When the world is burning, we flee, or we fight. In the face of immediate danger, we’re unlikely to wonder if the god…