Take a moment and light a candle

Take a moment and light a candle

As our friends in the southern hemisphere settle in for a long summer ahead, of summer rain storms, high temperatures and humidity, we in the northern end of the world are seeing shorter days, dropping temperatures and a sense of hibernation approaching. We will soon see the shortest day of the year.

It is also a time when the frenzy of Christmas preparations begins in earnest. Plans are made for family gatherings. Children are frantically finalising letters to Santa. They may well and truly burst with excitement over the next few weeks. Parents take even deeper sighs. A joy underneath it all is getting ready to unleash. One of the most grace-filled times of the year approaches.

Yet, life continues. Loved ones pass away. Illness calls on our doors. Successes are celebrated. Hurdles are overcome. A homeless person sees a sandwich placed on his lap under his downturned eyes. Elsewhere, hard-earned presents are purchased and carefully hidden. Loneliness calls. Surprise homecomings from overseas beckon. Friends call for help. Busy lives make weary. The human experience continues.

In this moment, take a moment, and light a candle. Follow the pace of the flame. Let silence surround you, for a moment. Feel the natural heart-beat of life, today. Take a sacred moment to find your place in it. Catch your breath. Blend it with the silence. Contemplation allows all to unfold naturally. Lean back, just a little, and allow it. 

Reflection - The Velveteen Rabbit

                    From "The Velveteen Rabbit"                                                                           by Marjory Williams


"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked," or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." (Velveteen Rabbit)


The Boy showered so much love on the Velveteen Rabbit that he had become shabby and was losing his beauty. He had even felt so much love in his sawdust heart that it almost burst. Seasons passed. A look of wisdom and beauty had come into his eyes, that even the Nanny noticed it: "I declare if that old bunny hasn't got quite a knowing expression." As The Boy lay sick with Scarlet Fever, the Velveteen Rabbit had whispered all sorts of wonderful planned adventures in his ear, for he knew he was needed.

He had to endure the rejection of being thrown out with the rubbish, and he had cried a tear, a Real tear. This activated the heart of the Nursery magic fairy, who takes care of all the playthings that the children have loved. "When they are old and worn out and the children don't need them anymore, then I come and take them away with me and turn them into Real." She gathered him up in her arms and kissed him on his velveteen nose that was all damp from crying. He was changed, changed altogether. He had received Real hind legs, and long whiskers. He had become a Real Rabbit. What's more, The Boy recognised him.

Can we like the Rabbit, patiently allow the changes of Life to come about? He had endured his owner's sickness, anxiety, ridicule from other Rabbits, excitement, fun, laughter, deep love and friendship, danger, loneliness, rejection, and heart-break. He had shown kindness, love and humility.

Can we let Life happen to us, knowing those wrinkles and scars are all excellent signs that we are becoming our true nature? How can we allow ourselves to be transformed and made Real by the seasons of Life? Can we celebrate the joys, the fun, the summer? Can we cry our tears in winter? Contemplation asks us to sit with how we are through the seasons of Life, to allow the rhythm of Life to play out, to experience the moments knowing that they too will pass. It asks us to anchor ourselves in the reality of Life itself, to summon the patience and courage to endure Life's trials, and to humbly surrender to divine providence.

In time, internal recognition of our true nature builds and solidifies. We know it and recognise it like we've always known it. Contemplation builds certainty that this nature is inherently good, natural and how Nature intended. We also recognise the hand of God intervening in our circumstances. We develop discipline, self-knowledge. We notice patterns, we endeavour to improve. These are all good-intentioned actions. Contemplation, however, requires only a surrendering heart.

As the Rabbit's friend, the Skin Horse assured him:
"Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

 

A much loved and twice-sewn bunny

 

May you have many toothless years ahead of you. May your hair go astray, and your concerns leave you. May you celebrate your fun and successes. May you receive Love's touch. Mostly though, may you always receive a visit from the Nursery magic fairy when you need it, and may you fall into the certainty of divinity's hand holding it all together.

The Contemplative Way - Introduction

  

The Contemplative Way echoes back through many centuries of spiritual wisdom from the early Christian saints such as St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Bernard, Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart and the Desert Fathers. It has been brought to us more recently by the writings of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Fr. Thomas Keating, Fr. Richard Rohr, James Finley, Fr. Daniel O'Leary, Fr. James Martin, and the rich heritage of modern writers and living "saints".

"Contemplation is an immediate and in some sense passive intuition of the inmost reality, of our spiritual self and of God present within us," 

Thomas Merton 

Without quite knowing how to describe or put my finger on it, I have felt drawn to the Contemplative Way from my earliest memories, feeling a strong internal pull to understand my own essential nature, the nature of others and the nature of Life itself.  I am finding that it continues to dissolve all definitions and descriptions of opposites or absolutes within me. I am certain of nothing, and am softening in everything. 

While we associate the Contemplative Life more typically with cloistered monks and nuns (View the wonderful School of Love documentary on the lives of the Cistercian nuns at St. Mary's Cistercian Abbey in Glencairn), more and more people are seeking a gentler, contemplative context for their ordinary lives, whether they are parents, children, employees, or company managers. Such "Hidden Contemplatives" are finding their truest life in the thick of the busy-ness of this modern world, in the transforming of their sorrows and joys, and in their ability to come to a place of allowing and surrender within their many daily actions and activities.

We are now blessed with significant teachings, commentaries and descriptions of contemplative experiences, from the ancient mystics to our own personal experiences. I will explore the teachings and wisdom of the Christian saints and scholars, the writers and mystics, even the music and art clearly inspired by Contemplation. I will also explore the teachings of the Eastern mystics from Rumi to Lao Tzu, as deeply understood and appreciated by Thomas Merton:

"Everywhere in the East, whether in Hinduism or Buddhism, we find that deep, unutterable thirst for the rivers of Paradise. Whatever may be the philosophies and theologies behind these forms of contemplative existence, the striving is always the same: the quest for unity, a return to the inmost self united with the Absolute."

When Absolute Truth is uttered, it is received and heard by the place of Truth within us, if we are able to listen and receive from that place. I encourage all to find and anchor themselves in this place. This is the Contemplative Way.