Ruminations from the Rector - September 2009
As we enter the 9th month of the 9th year of the new millennium, I am struck by the amount of ‘stuff’ we all are having to wade through just to find some solace and strength in our day-to-day lives. September is traditionally the season of harvest in an agricultural community. But since we have all graduated from being in agricultural communities, I wonder what it is that we are harvesting for ourselves and our community. Is the harvest simply more activity that manifests form but doesn’t have much substance? Might the harvest be a greater sense of belonging or a well-spent summer or a job well done or a project finally finished, so a period of rest can be taken until the next one shows up? Maybe the harvest is going through the closets, garages and basements of our lives to rummage through the ‘ stuff’ we’ve been carrying with us so long and finally dispensing of it, letting it go.
As I allow Life to bring new life to me, I find that my stored baggage gets in the way and must be released. The everyday running around and the compulsion to be everything for everyone tires me to such a degree that I can’t get the ‘real’ work of ‘being present’ done for myself or for others. I get in my own way and blame others for it.
I have to take naps just to stay afloat. The papers pile up on my desk, phone calls don’t get made, important information falls through the cracks, and the new Life that Spirit is presenting gets rejected because I’m in my own way with all my ‘stuff.’
Christ finally gets a small word edgeways into my life and says: “Come unto me all of you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” How is it that my yoke, your yoke seems to be so difficult? Why does my burden, your burden seem so heavy? How can he say what he’s saying, and what does he mean when he says, “come unto me”? Maybe he’s speaking about laying down all the ‘stuff’ that keeps me and you burdened and heavy. Maybe he’s talking about all the emotional baggage, the business of our everyday anxiety of shoulds, musts, oughts and have tos. Maybe he’s asking or telling or inviting us to retreat a bit from all the activity, to rest a bit more from the fray of the day, to relax into our tasks and remember that we are not mechanical creatures but creative interconnected Beings. Can you live in the awareness that you have been, are and will be part of the formless spiritual realm, as well as the material realm of form that has extraordinary substance? Are you willing to harvest that substance thereby bringing Life to life in your day-to-day living?
I agree with Diane Ackerman’s statement: I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the depth and breadth of it as well. How about you? Breath it in. Live it out!
Reconnecting the Dots,
Fr. Rick Meyers+
