Seized By Justice
Month: July 2020
Kindle The Waiting Spark
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Accumulated Angst
Edvard Munch, The Scream (1910), from the collection of the Munch Museum, Oslo. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Someone living on my floor walks very heavily on the way down the hall to the recycle room across from my apartment. The footsteps are jarring because there is nothing to fear outside my door, yet I am unnerved by them. I even feel irritated every time I hear them. They put me on edge, as though pending danger waits on the other side. I sit on my chair and wait for the other shoe to drop. The fear surprises me because I am no longer a fearful person. It seems so silly, but…
Unconsciously I am hearing increased gunshots ringing out in many cities all over America. And the footfall keeps dropping. I hear reports of almost 4 million cases of covid. And the footfall keeps dropping. I see federal agents beat a silent, still protestor. And the footfall keeps dropping.
I am on the alert now, unaware before that I flinched with every heavy step I heard outside my door. Flinching fear is a safeguard for which I am grateful. But I don’t want it to wield power over me, influencing my life in unexpected and unconscious ways; so I bring it here into the light.
Spiritual Practice For Releasing Fear
Breathing in, I rest in my courage.
Breathing out, I release fear.
Breathing in, I rest in my power.
Breathing out, I release fear.
Let us pray
May we be content with our own best selves.
May we manage our discontent peacefully.
Amen. May it be so.
“We Bless While We Bleed”
Rep. John Lewis (1940-2020)
Rest with Honor
Rest in Peace
America can only be saved by those
Who have the dexterity
To bless while they bleedRev. Dr. Otis Moss III
In Gratitude for Rep. John Lewis
Injustice
Dogged him
Like a slave hound
Tracking and attacking
Trailing trauma in its wake.
Nevertheless
He blessed while he bled.
He blessed while he bled.
He fought the hound
And astonishingly, he forgave.
He always forgave.
c. Rita H Kowats 7-18-2020
Enrich yourself with Rev. Moss’s sermon about blessing while bleeding:
The Cross and the Lynching Tree:
A Requiem for Ahmad Arbery
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l6985UG0Z3k
Photo Credit: biography.com
Justice Waits In The Space Between Words
This poem came from meditation at a time when conditions in our world weighed heavily on me. LOL! If only I had known the conditions we endure in this moment! It feels like the time to revisit the poem. We seek to tame the current of fear that rushes over imposing boulders springing up in our unconscious. So we flex our intellectual prowess in countless monologues across social media, in offices, living rooms and backyard gatherings. We seek to blame and fix. In our love for justice we can continue our self-assigned role as “The Great White Fixers,” or we can practice waiting, listening more intentionally for the words of the oppressed.
We must act for justice, AND there is this from James Baldwin:
The root of the black man’s hatred is rage,
and he does not so much hate the white man
as simply as wants them out of his way,
and, more than that,
out of his children’s way.
James Baldwin I Am Not Your Negro
Silence
I hear my rapid thought-fire
Ricochet off your heart,
Creating a wall of words to
Keep me safe.
Wait.
Wait for the space
Between the thoughts
Between the words.
Wait.
Truth lives
In the Space Between
c. Rita H Kowats 7-18-2013
Breathe
Blessing
When the well goes dry, listen.
Sit by it, your ear pressed to its rim.
Hear the empty and the hollow of it.
Let be. Let be.
When finally you hear your breath
echo back to you,
let this sound be your first prayer.
Where there is breath,
there is water somewhere.
Breathe.
Jan Richardson
In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection & Prayer
Photo Credit: http://www.zdrillerteam.com/is-your-water-well-going-dry-5-common-warning-signs/
The Spiritual Practice Of Care-filled Speaking
For an enlightening read on this practice, see:
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People
Book by Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banaji
Waiting
The virtue of patience often eludes me. Today I am longing to return to the swimming pool in the worst way. The confines of covid don’t bother me, nor do long periods alone, because it is my intentional lifestyle. But my poor old body can barely wait to get back to the pool.
A meditation on I Ching 5 hexagram this morning is helpful, especially this line:
It is only through patience that you can
become the bridge between the fickle fish
and the eventual feast.
I send you the gift of graceful waiting today.
Heron Patience
The Great Blue Heron
Lurches from side to side
Scouting succulent salmon
Twitching in the tide.
Settling on a spot in which to spy
She turns her head sideways
To see salmon swimming.
And waits.
And waits.
In my dotage
I too lurch from leg to cane to leg,
Longing for the feast, but missing it,
Too intent upon ego offerings
That clamor for attention.
The wait is too long;
“Succulent salmon, slither hither!”
c. Rita H Kowats 5-28-18, revised 7-7-20
https://divination.com/iching/lookup/5-2/
https://tricycle.org/magazine/finding-patience-2/
Photo Credit: Photo by Hilary Halliwell from Pexels
Fallen Idols
Clay gods house clay souls
In heroes lauded on high.
Crumble and Scatter.
rhk
Spirituality Without Borders: Reflections on Spiritual Practice 