Ministry: 9-15-12
After an email from a member of
Worship and Ministry
I
started shaking and crying when she reminded me of the image of a lovely
flower in a vase cut off from the root- from ministry to Meeting For Worship
for Healing last month. It concerned our holding people, places and things in
the light without recognition of our presence as physical bodies of the
light.
I
didn't know what I had said.
I
have no idea why it makes me cry. When I
spoke with my massage therapist yesterday[1],
we talked about how a metaphor for life is watching a flower wither in a vase. I
was reminded that it is natural to delight in its beauty but fear its death[2]. Oh, to be the flower in full bloom! We want to take it and possess it and give it
a glass of water, a poor substitute for its plant, its legs, its arms and its
connection to its mother. Only the seeds
are meant to fly away or to drop. We
must know that it will fade regardless. Look
at us, as humans; with all of our compassion we throw cut flowers onto the body
of the dead. Flowers to celebrate our
transition into the confirmation of life by considering our eventual death. What do we have but the Way[3]
to confirm that this life is precious?
Part of this is living in the light of our passing and of our birth and
of our growth and bloom and eventual death.
This may be recognition of our existence.
We
live with a certainty that more seeds will come. What returns to life is in the seeds. The DNA is ever changing, ever random, ever
knowing when to reproduce. It is awe
inspiring to see the evolution of earth's seeds to survive the drought, the
flood, and ideal weather is our deepest knowing and the essence of hope[4]. It is what returns even after death. The flower dies in order to cast the
seeds. It dies for good purpose, lives
for good purpose.
Why
is the flower beautiful to us? Is it
beautiful because it is like us, and it peaks in wonder, fresh, electric,
putting all of its life force into this one part of itself? Because it carries the
fruit? We, as humans, eat of the highest
energy in the plant. All of our senses
are attuned to know when the height of energy and vitality are reached. It is at the sweetest moment for the fruit or the flower when we want to pick it
and consume it.
Universally,
as humans, I feel we know something of the sweetest
moment. We know and crave it like we
crave the foods we need when we are pregnant, ill or perfectly centered. This sweetest
moment is like when we live in the peak of romantic love, whole, complete,
physically attuned and in full blossom of our goodness and we don't want this
feeling to die. Our entire body
expresses this height of energetic existence[5]. When we feel/sense/express/the divine, we are
in this state of awareness of craving that which is most alive; what is most
life confirming. When all of our senses
are expressing the truth and there are no barriers to our awareness of these
truths[6].
I
am reminded of humanity's faith that life will always return. And how detrimental this vision can be when
we reap the harvest of nature without reverence to the whole. It seems that we cannot destroy that which is
contained in seeds of life. The energy
of our deepest knowing will always be present[7]
and waiting to return to full bloom. I
wonder if, for Friends, if full bloom or the lushness of the Garden of Eden can
symbolize our Heaven on Earth, The Kingdom of God[8]? We will always be looking for confirmation of
life in this awareness of that which
cannot be named. There is something that
which is beyond words but yet we know[9]
Yes! This knowing is there, but perhaps we are afraid of its power because
it is WE! It is like how a group, a
civilization set apart from other civilizations, calls itself
"people" in their own language.
The word for the self isn't needed until we must define the other to ourselves and become other to someone who does not recognize
our oneness.
 |
| Seeds of Hope, 2013, Acrylic, Pastel, Ink, Charcoal on paper By Glee Lumb |
So,
our constant awareness of the flower and a need to see it in bud, in full
bloom, and death as it withers in a glass, vase or even in the dirt is a
confirmation of life. We cut it in order
to consume it in its fullness, to control its audacity to continue on[10].
Are
we, as humans, symbolically cutting ourselves off to our roots by ignoring our bodies
and our bodily existence? Is the water
of the Earth our blood, the wind our spirit, the sun love, the earth our
flesh? Life, all living things, is
symbolic of change. We are ever
changing, ever living, and life can be so hard to extinguish that we must destroy
it to confirm our hope that it will return.
Some of life is easy to destroy.
Other life is harder to destroy. This
too confirms our hope. We are suffering
from knowing some will survive and some won't.
It only confirms that in order to continue hope, we must allow life and
what makes life all one to do what it does naturally[11]. It is all part of a whole. The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts. This is the witness of silent
worship together that I feel as a Friend.
It feels as if we are equal in wonderment of the whole. We somehow know that what goes on to flourish
will also eventually die, but leave something behind that is in the seed of
existence that is the hope. The shell
protects it until conditions are right for it to risk coming forth with the
life contained within it[12].
That
which never flourishes contributes that energy back into the whole and returns
again and again, like water. It can
never go away, never be wasted, only transform.
It is constantly changing. So,
let it go! Let it go to the
wholeness. The spirits and awareness of
others around us will open when they are ready.
The flower is telling us not to cling so tightly to that which does not
flourish that we don't see the fullness of the whole that is the biggest vision
of life[13]. Know that eventually it will be a part of
that which peaks and flourishes. We, and
all of life, are a part of that which can never be destroyed.
So,
we baptize our transformation with tears, the water of life, physical proof of
surrender to feelings of truth. The
tears of awareness pour freely when we are acutely aware of the truth. Our bodies speak to this with gut wrenching tears,
elation, laughter, and screaming, even quiet exhaustion when all of this comes
forth. It is so confirming of life that
it must come forth! It is so confirming
of life that it must come forth and then we can pass into the peaceful, quiet
stillness of night, the place of rest and the time of dreams. We wake refreshed from sleep to grow, bloom,
fade, and rest again each day. Our
physical existence is what we have to symbolize the flower. The cut flower is a child, adolescent, full
bloom, and old age all at the same time.
Perhaps
we are forever craving the confirmation that the flower, in slow increments, in
stillness, in its suffocation, is a shallow expression of life in full bloom. Perhaps it is really an ever-present reminder
that we are constantly transformed. I
quote The Gathering of Spirits[14], a song by Carrie Newcomer:
Let it go, my love.
My truest.
Let it sail on silver wings.
Life's a twinkling, that's for certain,
but it's such a fine thing.
There's a gathering of spirits.
There's a festival of Friends.
And we'll take up where we left off when we all
meet again.
As
I was rocked in the arms of grace, I surrendered to the words on this page
knowing it comes from us all and that is for all of us.
-Glee
Lumb
Member
of Multnomah Meeting of Friends, Portland Oregon
[1]
[It came up while talking about the roses she
had decided to cut and bring in from her rose bushes. She describes the bud that had not bloomed
and one that was in full bloom and what a shame they were all on the same stem. She decided it was too beautiful not to
share. She said it was the most
wonderful smelling rose. ] [We talked about seeing flowers slowly die as
confirmation of life. We talked about
how people in America don't like to see that process happen. It came also from a talk with Ed Alletto in
Program Committee meeting with Friends two days ago concerning death and
letting go.]
[4]
(Story from Jeff and a Man at Friends Music
Fest about organic farms growing big green fields of corn while GMO corn wilts
and fades in the fields around it for miles and miles)
[5]
[Story of Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan falling
in love and recording Ann's biorhythms to send into space on a voyage to
communicate to other life in the universe]
[7]
[WALL-E the movie with the single surviving
robot on Earth who finds life and knows it's preciousness]
[8]
A hierarchical term used to describe the Way,
when it works in unison humanity has true peace, compassion, and equality, from
the Bible.
[10]
(The Promise, child's book about at
dandelion and a small creature who loves it and must let it transform into the
field of flowers it will produce the next year if the bunny helps the flower
and blows its seeds into the wind)
[11]
From the Permaculture Movement
[12] [The Seed Of Hope...Quaker/Woolman? Quote from an ad for Marge Abbott's book
Broken and Tender in Western Friend]
[13]
A reaction to parable of the sewer from bible
study at MMM with Joe, Marge, John, and Maryann, and others.
[14]
Song by Carrie Newcomer and Alison Krauss [A
song given to add to my music for morning inspiration by Noah Merrill in March
of 2011]
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