Thank You Very Sweet

I say the Lord’s Prayer almost daily and lately have found resonance with this idea of asking for daily bread. “Give us this day our daily bread,” we say. Jesus’ prayer asks for today’s bread, not yesterday’s or tomorrow’s.

Can I live like this? – I ask. Accepting and digesting only that which is available today. Not overly concerned about past or future but here, now, trusting that today’s bread is enough.

Can we?

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Last night I was listening to an interview between Oprah and Wayne Dyer.  It had to do with Dyer’s studies of the Tao Te Ching.  In the interview he said a few times that the Tao teaches that we are to do nothing, rather we are to allow ourselves to be done.   He also said that Tao means “the way.”

I thought this was interesting because I’d been thinking about Jeremiah’s visit to the Potter’s House all week.  I thought that would end up being the theme of my Spirit Flow class in Wayne last night but instead I felt compelled to talk about prayer.  But this morning I talked about the Potter’s House in my Saturday 9AM Clifton class: God told Jeremiah to go down to the potters house.  Jeremiah found the potter there working with his clay, it took one shape, then fell apart and then the potter reshaped the mess into something else.  God said to Jeremiah ‘just as the potter does, can I not do this with you?’

And yesterday on a call with mom she referenced Malachi 3:3 which has to do with being refined by fire.

And this morning I rediscovered a quote attributed to Michelangelo  “there is a statue in every block of stone.”  As if to suggest that we are masterpieces waiting to happen, the excess just needs to be chipped away.  we need to be formed, and reformed and refined.

So back to this idea of being done. What if we did less doing and more allowing?  What if all we really need to do is be present and allow our lives to take shape in the ways that they were designed to?

“Be still and know that I AM God.”

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Last night in Cheryl Barclay’s Bob Marley Yoga class she opened with his simple quote ‘Light up the Darkness.’ It made me think of this dark closet that I have  in my apartment.  I interact with this closet on a daily basis and yet I’ve never turned on the light in there.  I have a general sense of what’s in there and have learned how to navigate it in the dark.

But I did this thing the other week, I screwed in a light bulb in my closet and turned on the light!  It was really a moment. I found all sorts of things, both useful and unnecessary.  Many things were thrown away and others repositioned and reorganized.  It was a little breakthrough for me.

This morning I told this story in my yoga class and encouraged us all to turn on the lights in our metaphorical closets and really deal with our stuff.

Imagine that!

Yesterday a friend asked ‘What’s your life full of these days that makes you feel alive?’  I responded by saying that my life is full of ‘doing more things that scare me.’  Things like turning on the light, exposing.. dealing with.. clearing out..  letting go… correcting.. repositioning… reorganizing..   It’s scary but its making me feel alive too.  And its a more authentic way to live; better than feeling around in the dark, I think.

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I’ve been listening to Marrianne Williamson’s talks lately on YouTube. She’s said that we have a “Crisis in Adulthood” in our country – a lot of kids walking about in adult bodies. It’s interesting to think about and I have been all week.

This shows up in our relationships- we can be selfish, having a ‘what can you do for me?’ sort of attitude. Or blame others when things go wrong rather than look introspectively and ask ‘how did I contribute to this?’  Or maybe we have tantrums or punish when we don’t get our way?

In Paul’s letter to Corinth, he says “when I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child but when I became a man I gave up childish things.”

Perhaps It’s time to give up childish things? Instead of taking, give. Instead of blaming, take responsibility and self-correct. Instead of pouting and punishing, accept.

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