Thank You Very Sweet

My 2017 lenten journey has really opened me up to the beatitudes! It was unexpected. I was on a conference call the other night when a speaker suggested to the group that we read “The Sermon on The Mount” by Emmet Fox.

“I have that book” I thought. I’d been using it to prop up my glass kitchen table-top. I pulled it out from under the table that night.

Fox’s argument is that no matter where you stand with Jesus, it’s worthwhile to consider what he taught. He is, after all, someone that we still talk about more than 2000 years after he lived on earth. So no matter what you believe, it’s worthwhile to go back to Jesus’ words; consider what he taught.

Jesus’ famous speech, The Sermon on the Mount, begins with the beatitudes. Blessed are the Poor in Spirit (wrote about that on Friday)..

Blessed are they that mourn – this is where I am today.

The list continues.

But to they that mourn. To us.. Nobody wants to experience pain but it happens. My yoga teacher – Alison – reminded us of this, just this morning in class.

There she stood, beautiful with her pregnant belly – expecting – telling us a story about visiting her dad, his declining health and his dementia.

Wow- these paradox’s!! – life and death so vivid and real in our everyday experience , reminding us that we are alive.

This is the stuff of life!

Let it all happen.

Alison quoted Rumi “The wound is the place where the LIGHT enters.”

When we allow ourselves to break, or when we just break, space is created for the LIGHT to enter.

Just as Jesus taught- Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted; and by comfort, what is meant is that the breaking creates the openness for us to experience the presence of God.

I have more to say about this.  If you read this story from the beginning, Thank You Very Sweet , you will know my story.  I was so passionate, fighting tooth and nail to save a fledgling community program.  So attached to what I thought was right at the time, that I didn’t see that my partner was dying in front of me.  When he died, Kesner, something in me finally broke; and space was created for LIGHT to enter.  My world opened and I became, I have become, someone different.