A Lament-Litany...and Invitation

How do we work together to pull back? to slow down? to be-with the pains arising all around us, within so many of us? Richard Rohr (Franciscan Christian author) wrote a plea-almost-litany that moved me--Google/Search for it, you'll find it. I've also found myself returned to The Seven Whispers, a spiritual practice (and book) by Christina Baldwin. This post arises from my experience of reading/digesting their words. From my own conscious feminine, white body-experience, then...a lament-litany and an invitation to join your heart to mine in a practice:

• The Sacred in EACH of us cannot abide in a place of fear, which only lives and breathes in the past and the future. Maintain peace of mind--Stay in this Present Moment.
• The Sacred in ALL of us cannot abide in a place of ill will or hatred. Disdain is the polite cousin of hatred; refuse to devalue anyone (yes, even 'them'). It only weakens your soul.
• Healing cannot find its place inside a nonstop volley of claim and counterclaim, online punditry and analysis. Become an expert on your OWN pains alone, NOT the pains and sufferings of others. Learn to listen to all voices, especially those you resist. When weary, ask for what you need, offer only what you can.
• Love will not speak over the shrill voices and unconscious/conscious deceit(s) that are everywhere within and beyond. Love does not require understanding; it requires courage, vulnerability and Heart. Show love to those whom you cannot understand. Love will grow inside you.
• The New (that IS coming) cannot be born except that the old wounds break open, the pains be held for all to hold, and "what-was that so many fear to see" falls apart, dies, to be reborn anew, transformed. Take a breath. Allow yourself to FEEL and know your strength to BEAR this suffering. Ask for what you need, offer only what you can.
• The Sacred who is large enough for us all cannot be borne except in a womb of Love.
• Offer the Universe in Us that womb (no matter your gender).
• Stand as a sentry at the door of your senses for these coming months, listening deeply and honoring the body-realities of so many unlike yourself and realities within your own body.
• Refuse the “the blood-dimmed tide” making its way into your soul. If you allow it for too long, it will become who you are.
• BE in the body you have, learn to cherish it, learn of its current and ancestral traumas...

If you will allow, join your own time and energy in practice with all others both like and unlike you, for the next months: IMPOSE A MORATORIUM ON HOW MUCH NEWS YOU ARE SUBJECT TO—LESS THAN AN HOUR A DAY of television, social media, internet news, magazine and newspaper commentary, and/or political discussions.

These are focusing y/our attentions regularly "against", these are tearing you and us apart in ways we cannot even name yet.

These pull us into the dualistic world of opinion and counter-opinion where a seductive facade of certainty robs you/us of your Heart to see anew, to Love.

These do not invite Divine Truth, which is always found in a bigger field where right/wrong speak only in a whisper to those quiet enough to hear...who are holding both, all, in Love anyway

Instead, USE THIS TIME FOR SOME FORM OF PUBLIC SERVICE in your community(ies), VOLUNTEERISM, STEEPING WITH THE MYSTICS from wisdom traditions, GETTING YOUR FEET ON THE EARTH AND YOUR BODY OUT IN NATURE, PRAYING as that means something to you—or, PREFERABLY ALL OF THE ABOVE.

You have much to gain now and nothing to lose. Nothing at all. In the present moment, fear has no hold. Maintain Peace of Mind. Ask for What You Need and Offer What You Can.

We have much to gain now if we learn to bear our own pain(s), which will educate us about the excruciating pains all around us. Surrender to Surprise. Move at the Pace of Guidance.

We have precious lives before us to protect, more important than money or economic security... Love the Folks in Front of You, Practice Certainty of Purpose.

The world—with more of us in this Grounded Heart as a stable center—has nothing to lose in the end. Return to the World.

We in the world have everything to gain when YOU arrive here, in your Heart.