Seasons of the Soul

The Crock Pot of Life

Today is the 4th of July, and we’re making baked beans for a party we’ll be attending later. The beans have been cooking slowly for 2 days in the crock pot, and the comment was made, “It’s always so odd when you start out, you think the beans and water and other ingredients will never amount to anything different because it takes so long for them to blend together and become fully cooked.” Yet they do. And it does take time, reminding me about us.

Like those beans, we’re all in the crock pot of life. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like anything is happening. We feel as though we are just simmering along. And yet, as we look back through the years—we can see how the flavor and character of our nature has developed. Each ingredient of life has added and contributed to our fullness. We’ve sometimes had the heat turned too high and may have gotten burned, but at just the right time those ingredients that no longer contribute to what we are becoming are removed and something else is added to bring us to another stage of flavor and readiness.   

Age is a helpful tool when used properly, for we can go back and reconstruct the recipe that brought us to who and what we have become. Then, through the vantage point of years and experience, we can co-create ourselves with the benefit of knowledge based on what has gone before. We know what was too hot, and what was a waste of energy. We recognize those ingredients that contribute to our wellbeing, and those that do not.

Yes...life is like the crock pot. And when we allow ourselves to be worked by a master chef, we are all assured that at the end when the cooking is done, we will be a unique and flavorful masterpiece—the result of all that we have gone through to ripen into what we were designed to become.
From Seasons of the Soul 2005

Food for Thought

"In filling myself, I had emptied myself. In grasping things, I had lost everything. In devouring pleasures and joys, I had found distress and anguish and fear…
Such was the death of the hero, the great man I had wanted to be. And it was my defeat that was to be the occasion of my rescue."

~ Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

There are two types of people—those who come into a room and say, “Well, here I am!”
And those who come in and say, “Ah, there you are.”
~Frederick L. Collins

Rain

She had been shopping with her Mom in Walmart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout.

      We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Walmart. We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried summer day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall, so I got lost in
the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the  world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child come pouring  in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

     Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in ...."Mom, let's run through the rain," she said.  "What?" Mom asked.  "Let's run through the rain!" She repeated.   "No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied. This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run  through the rain."  "We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.  "No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl
said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.  "This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get  wet?”  The little girl looked surprised. "Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"

   The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few  minutes Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will  bloom into faith.

   "Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said. Then off they ran.

      We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes, I  was one of them.  I got wet. I needed washing.

      Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday.

     To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
~Author Unknown

The Gift Within Language

In the latest Mother Jones magazine, there is an article about a forgotten language used by a Native Americans tribe in California called the Maidu. What was very interesting within the article relates to the importance of language, culture, and creation.

We get upset about people from other cultures coming to the U.S. speaking their language in preference to English, but for native peoples, the arguments for language preservation are deeper and more personal. Language, more than any other single human creation, is the living artifact of a culture. Constructed over successive generations, it embodies the cumulative memory of a people’s beliefs and knowledge, their stories, their names for things, the conventions that they use to tell each other about the world.

One young man from the Maidu tribe has used his knowledge of Maidu plant names to unlock the secrets of traditional ecology. The Maidu name for “pine tree” translates as “wind-lessening tree,” indicating that the pine was used to shelter oak trees, thus protecting the precious acorn harvest.
If we would take time to investigate the gifts within different languages we would learn valuable things about our lives. How would we know that a pine tree lessens wind in English? We wouldn’t. But this important link to protecting the food harvest is spoken of through words that represent the understanding and knowledge of people with much longer histories than our own.
 
In Maidu tradition language was one of the first gifts the Earthmaker gave to beings he created. In other ancient cultures, the gift of language was considered equally sacred.  Language is a link to heritage – a link that reaches back to the creation of the world.
From Seasons of the Soul 2004

Personal Self and True Self

Two birds, one of them mortal, the other immortal, live in the same tree.  The first one pecks at the fruit, sweet or bitter; the second looks on without eating.

Thus the personal self pecks at the fruit of this world, bewildered by suffering, always hungry for more. But when he meets the True Self, the resplendent God, the source of creation, all his cravings are stilled.

Perceiving Self in all creatures, he forgets himself in the service of all; good and evil both vanish. Delighting in Self, playing like a child with Self, he does whatever is called for, whatever the result.

~From The Upanishads,Translated by Stephen Mitchell

Noah's Ark in Holland

A replica of Noah's Ark has been created in Holland by a Dutchman who had a dream of his country being overwhelmed by a flood. He later determined that his vision was to build an ark to bring the story of Noah to life for the people of his country. With his own money and time, he worked on the project for several years. It is now mostly completed and open for viewing. To see the enormity of the ark, which is actually not even the full size of the original, go to the website to read the story and see pictures of the building. It would be good if someone who visits would do a video of it so that we could all enjoy this marvel regardless of whether we can go there in person or not.

http://www.pbase.com/paulthedane/noahs_ark

Summer Herbal Tips

I buy basil at farmers markets or from Trader Joe’s with the longest stems I can find. I fill a glass with water and put the bunch of basil in it, then put it on my kitchen window sill where it gives a fragrance of basil and is handy for putting in special dishes or salads.  Sometimes the basil even starts growing, and I’ve kept it for as long as two months before it wilts.  You can also clip other favorite herbs and try the basil in water method or let them dry by hanging them.

Lavender sprigs can be found at farmers markets now and are wonderful air fresheners. If they start to shed you can rub the blossoms off the stalks and put them in a bowl or fill silk pouches or small plastic baggies punched with holes to put in drawers. If you have lavender bushes, be sure to cut the flowers when the buds come out. Trimming  increases  next season’s flower yield.

Summer and Politics

This article is from 2004, but has as much validity today as it did then. Editor

It’s summer and politics are in full swing. I’ve noted a few things that cause reflection.

Recently our governor in California got in trouble for making a statement considered insensitive and in poor taste. He actually was mimicking a Saturday Night Live sketch that had him saying what he later copied. However, the media didn’t report that part.

Our media thrives on sensationalism, and when they can’t find it, they invent it. A couple weeks ago I was watching a program on television where Sen. John McCain was asked about his Democrat friend, John Kerry. McCain said he had nothing bad to say about him—that he was a good man—and that the only thing they differed on was the way in which they believed the country should move forward. He chastised the interviewers for trying to stir up controversy and suggested they would do much better asking for discussions about issues that mattered to the American people..  As soon as he said this,  the interviewers looked disappointed and quickly dismissed him.

We need to be aware of how much we encourage small minded reporting by tuning in to or buying a sensational headline. If we demand more from media, it has to respond. If we demonstrate that truth, substance, and authenticity are more important to us than sound bites or character assassination, we will get it.

In looking at how media jumps on any statement that is questionable I think back to a Harry Truman or Barry Goldwater who spoke their minds. Where would they be in today’s political world? Probably nowhere. And that’s the problem—as long as we encourage appearance over truthfulness, we’ll only attract candidates who seem politically correct, offering us very shallow and mediocre choices.
From Seasons of the Soul 2004

You Are Enough

Yesterday you were enough.                         
Today you are enough.                               
Tomorrow you will be enough.                  
The truth is—you are enough!

The Lizard

When it was very hot                                  
The lizard used to crawl up the rock beside me.
He would not move for long stretches of time.   
I would stare at the huge mountains before us,
Then feel very small.
I would place my hand on the lizard
And he would move a little,
then go still again.
And I, too, would go still again.                  
Such little things we were, the two of us,         
Enfolded in all that incandescent grandeur.
~Alix Taylor