Thursday 2 August 2007

Here's suggestion #4 of 5 on how to realize our capacity to discover the holy in contemplation - by Walter Burghardt.



...don't try to possess the object of your delight, whether divine or human, imprisoned marble or free-flowing rivulent. Here is a paragraph from Walter Kerr that has influenced my living far beyond my ability to describe:

To regain some delight in ourselves and in our world, we are forced to abandon, or rather to revere, an adage. A bird in the hand is not worth two inn the bush unless one is an ornithologist, the curator of the Museum of Natural History, or one of those Italian vendors who supply restaurants with larks. A bird in the hand is no longer a bird at all; it is a specimen; it may be dinner. Birds are birds when they are in the bush or on the wing; their worth as birds can be known only at a discreet and generous distance.



As I finished up this piece the first image that came into my head was that of parents who so want to manage the lives of their children and to shape them as the parent would like, that the often lose a bit of the wonder and beauty of their own children...because they cannot look at them from afar without trying to have a say as to how the child will experience life. This happens to all of us and in many parts of our lives. That urge to possess can be so strong, we are not able to appreciate the people and things in our lives that are really quite interesting and worthy - just as they are. Part of the experience of contemplation and prayer is to let things go and take them in only as they are and not how we would have them or shape them or own them. This goes back to Martin Buber writing about relationships as either "I-thou" or "I-it." Only the first of these two is really a relationship in which each side is gifted by the other simply by letting the other be...and then learning what other means. When we attempt to possess those with whom we were attempting to build a relationship, they simply become objects we use and move and keep and...often...abuse. The experience of delight is much more rewarding when we can simply sit back and observe and see something in its fullest measure - that is - without trying to make it us!



Connection: If given the opportunity today, attempt to mark the times in which you were able to let yourself experience the sheer delight of some part of your day...a person...an object...an exchange.



When you delight in your people, O God, you let us go and be who we will be. This doesn't always mean we are the people you would want us to be. And yet, you let us go. In the midst of our becoming, we long for the opportunity to see what it is in us - that brings you great delight. We pray that the next glance in the mirror or as we simply sit and look out at the world, we will remember how delighted you are at are mere presence. Trusting your delight, we may begin to delight in ourselves and those around us. Amen.