This week I give you California Poet and teacher, Kim Rosen reading her own poem "Grand Finale" where she speculates about what will become of her as time goes on. I'm curious what you think will happen at the end of your life? Thank you to Kim for giving me permission to include this link here.
Click HERE to watch the video. Click the link and then click again on the "code" that says "frame..."
LEAN INTO CONFUSION
I am taking a class on “Ensoulment” where we explore all sorts of ways to open our heart, our soul, our intentions. I was surprised when the teacher opened the last session with the idea that we might consider leaning INTO confusion! What? I had always assumed that the ideal was to lean into clarity, to clear the mind, to become more focused. That seems to me in general to be what spiritual pursuits are all about. But her challenge has made me wonder… What if my task is to be the weak within the strong? To withstand not-knowing. To stand in confusion and not immediately try to make sense of things. Because when we too quickly “make sense of things” we sometimes miss the strange and beautiful possibilities outside of our usual limited thinking. Be the wave landing on the shore – not knowing where it’s going, the river meandering through the landscape, the wind with no purpose except to blow. It’s worth experimenting with when you next feel frustrated, to see if what the frustration wants is merely for you to stop and notice it, be with it, befriend it rather than trying to banish it into the cage of clarity. Sort of like keeping a soft focus, a questioning tone, a loose posture. Maybe instead of sitting up straight and flying right, we need to slouch and meander?
So I’ve lately been resuming a practice of making a “coffee cup mandala” on some mornings. You trace around the edge of your coffee cup and then just let your pen wander around and see what shows up! Here’s one I did recently after this class on leaning into confusion. I don’t know what it is “about”, but I do know that it felt freeing just to play, to let my pen wander, to simply have fun. I recommend it!
Updated: Apr 8
I was talking recently with someone about devotion. What are you devoted to? How do you practice your devotion? What daily devotional do you read or practice? As UUs, we have lots of values that we (like all others) are devoted to; justice, compassion, freedom, equality, etc. But how exactly do you practice your devotion to these values? Many religions have prayers or chants or malas or rosaries to say or sing regularly to devote themselves to a being or an ideal. I began thinking how I could make a daily devotion to something I care about. I can rattle off a dozen things I feel devoted to – but how do I embody that devotion?
I decided to choose just one ideal that I want to focus myself on for each week. Someone had given me a very small watercolor journal. So, I began by just painting color on the first page and on the facing page to write a “devotion” for myself for that week. It’s a practice that’s evolving, but so far has felt rewarding. I write the devotion, paint or draw or collage something small related to it and then look at that each day in the morning to remind myself and to firmly plant my intention. My plan is to create a new one each week. So stay tuned – and please let us all here know your thoughts about a daily devotional practice.
