I am happy to share some wonderful news… we have seven new members who have completed the requirements for membership. They are Christene Berg, Sherry Biegel, Julie Cervone, Carol Holt, Betti Lu Lewis, Ryan Polly, Sandy Watson. We will have a celebration of them once we reconvene to meeting in person.
The Leadership Team continues to monitor the reopening situation and will keep you apprised of any decisions we make. Currently we are watching what the schools are going to do and staying abreast of Maine CDC recommendations.
It has been another tough week in our country, and I feel we are being called higher in our own understanding of privilege, racism and allyship and as a result we are offering a course to look at these issues and educate ourselves. The information on the course taught by Rev. Dr. Ryan Polly is on our web calendar.
As we continue through the talk series from the book What is in the Way IS the Way by Mary O’Malley we examined the Healing Power of Curiosity. I am going to share a bit from the book that I didn’t share in the talk. It is in the section title “Nothing To Be Ashamed Of.” O’Malley writes, “Remember, at one time there were no thoughts in your head. When you showed up out of mystery as an infant, you had no ideas about Life – none at all. You experienced Life by feeling it, and the unconscious giants that were your parents were full of every feeling a person can have: anger, sadness, fear, love, confusion, judgment, kindness, jealousy, shame. Just as you learned language by listening to it, you learned the language of unconsciousness by feeling it.” Pg 98
Let this sink in for a minute.
“When you were young, you were wide open to Life, and you could feel what was happening inside of the people around you. For example, if your parents were arguing down in the basement and you were up in the attic, you could still feel what they were experiencing, even though you couldn’t hear them. You couldn’t usually make sense of it, but you experienced it. What you were absorbing from the adults around you became the building blocks of your view of yourself and of Life, and this view was fully formed by the time you were six.” Pg 98
A few paragraphs on she says, “To get a sense of what I am talking about here, imagine that when you were born, you showed up in a huge warehouse that was filled with piles of Lego pieces sorted by shape, size, and color. Each pile represented an aspect of the human mind, like self-judgment, sadness, happiness, loneliness, rage, kindness, anxiety, exuberance, doubt, hope, or skepticism. Your job was to build a Lego spaceship (the storyteller in your head), and the only requirement was that you had to take at least one Lego from each pile. The result was that inside you (like inside everyone else) are all the variations of anger, fear, grief, and shame that make up our storytellers. Each person puts their Lego ship together differently, so you may have more sadness than anger, more grief than fear, or more kindness than meanness. But everything a human being is capable of is inside of you.” Pg 100
Once again let this sink in…
“Curiosity is your sacred talisman, for when you are curious about what you are experiencing, you are relating to it rather than from it. The more you do this, the less you will fall under the spells.” Pg 102
As you can tell this chapter really spoke to me and because of what we are experiencing as a country it helps to understand some of what is going on within ourselves and others…
I conclude this with a poem from John O’Donohue out his book, Anam Cara:
A Blessing of Solitude
May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul.
May you realize that you are never alone,
that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you
intimately with the rhythm of the universe.
May you have respect for your own individuality and difference.
May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique,
that you have a special destiny here,
that behind the façade of your life there is something
beautiful, good, and eternal happening.
May you learn to see yourself with the same delight, pride, and
expectation with which God sees you in every moment.
Join me next week as we explore “Directly Exploring Life.”
You are a blessing in my life,
Rev. Patricia Bessey
If you are having a birthday in June, I have a gift for you. It is meeting with me and completing an Annual Spiritual Checkup. We can do this by using Zoom, Skype or telephone. Let me know when your birthday is and that you would like to schedule a time to receive your gift. You can contact me here.
For your safety, continue to social distance and wear face masks. The church building remains closed for gatherings of all services and group meetings. All business with the church office needs to be via telephone or email.
LET’S STAY CONNECTED!
