A FEW WORDS ON THE SOUL
Wisława Szymborska
Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare CavanaghWe have a soul at times.
No one’s got it non-stop,
for keeps.
Day after day,
year after year
may pass without it.
Sometimes
it will settle for awhile
only in childhood’s fears and raptures.
Sometimes only in astonishment
that we are old.
It rarely lends a hand
in uphill tasks,
like moving furniture,
or lifting luggage,
or going miles in shoes that pinch.
It usually steps out
whenever meat needs chopping
or forms have to be filled.
For every thousand conversations
it participates in one,
if even that,
since it prefers silence.
Just when our body goes from ache to pain,
it slips off-duty.
It’s picky:
it doesn’t like seeing us in crowds,
our hustling for a dubious advantage
and creaky machinations make it sick.
Joy and sorrow
aren’t two different feelings for it.
It attends us
only when the two are joined.
We can count on it
when we’re sure of nothing
and curious about everything.
Among the material objects
it favors clocks with pendulums
and mirrors, which keep on working
even when no one is looking.
It won’t say where it comes from
or when it’s taking off again,
though it’s clearly expecting such questions.
We need it
but apparently
it needs us
for some reason too.
Our Soul’s and everything that’s sacredly in them always need to be free and untethered not so much that they can fly about willy-nilly but to continue to create what seems to be timelessly re-created in them;
SOUL SEEPINGS
Of course there’s testing to be done samples to be taken cross matches to be completed intentions to be discussed therapies to be administered advanced medical knowledge to be applied scientific discoveries to be utilized None of it All of it necessary or unnecessary to these Soul Seepings that come from places not yet dreamed never to be understood but known like a familiar place that needs no lighting for steps that know the way in the dark all so intimately known and at best shared Whatever seeps from the Soul outshines any rays of light refusing to be hidden. . .
but if you don’t look
but if you don’t see
it doesn’t much matter. . .
Robert Frost said, “A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or a love-sickness.”¹ If a poem doesn’t give us a lump in the throat, is it really great poetry? My final theological conclusion is that there’s only one world and that it’s all sacred. However, we have to be prepared to know what we’re saying when we say that. If we say too glibly that the trees are sacred, along with our dog, a friend, and the roses, then we don’t really believe it. We first need to experience “a lump in the throat”to have encountered the sacred. The sacred is something that inspires awe and wonder, something that makes us cry, something that gives us the lump in the throat. We must first encounter the sacred in the concrete and kneel before it there, because we can’t start with the universal.
Poets . . . make the connection between the concrete and the universal. When we make that connection, there’s suddenly a great leap of meaning, an understanding that it’s one world. The very word “metaphor,” which comes from two Greek words, means to “carry across.”A good metaphor carries us across, and we don’t even know how it’s occurred.
. . . If we’re reading a poem too quickly, between two urgent meetings or other hurried spaces, we probably won’t get it, because we don’t have time to release ourselves. We need quiet, solitude, and open space to read poetry at greater depth. Then and only then do poems work their magic.
Robert Frost, “Some Definitions,” in Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays (New York: Library of America, 1995), 701.
It’s not that the Sun doesn’t gloriously melt through the clouds so much as we just don’t take time to NOTICE; which kind of means that the worst poem of all isn’t the one not yet written, just the one not recognized or read. . .p o n d e r e d
Kids living in a slum built on a landfill in Paraguay create an orchestra made of trash, The Recycled Orchestra, and tour the world, finally realizing their wildest dream: to play with the heavy metal band, Megadeth. . .
There is not one of us that doesn’t have a trash heap landfill right in the middle of us. I mean right there at our Center. It surrounds our soul, but it doesn’t imprison our Essence
So maybe the biggest question is not what kind of a landfill do you have in you but what kind of music are you making out of the junk, the throwaways/discardeds in your life?
P O N D E R
while you wander through a rare double-feature
Monday Video Blog
Making MUSIC out of MUCK
is one of our greatest purposes in life
and our grandest contribution
especially when it begins with ourselves
So cue up
that magnificent Instrument of yourself
and PLAY ON
Share Your Music
and bring some much needed harmony MUCK TO M U S I C
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. . . It’s really hard to S H U S H
especially this time of the year and it’s almost impossible to KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT YOUR EYES CLOSED YOU EARS OPEN all at once but before you listen to this song again read the lyrics:
I Have Enough By JJ Heller, David Heller, and Taylor Leonhardt
There’s a box up in the attic Full of treasures from my past Paper snowmen from a season Melting into spring too fast Clay and glitter, wood and glue May not seem like much to you
It reminds me of All the ones I love When I think of them I think I have enough
We may not live up in the mountains Like we always wanted to But this old house shines like a diamond With Christmas lights hung on the roof It might not be the life I dreamed But it’s become my favorite scene
It reminds me of All the ones I love When I think of them I think have enough
Everything I want this Christmas Doesn’t cost a single thing Cookies baking in the kitchen Hearing little voices sing Tell the story once again Peace on earth, goodwill to men
It reminds me of All the ones I love When I think of them I think I have enough
It reminds me of All the ones I love When I think of them I think I have enough
. . .AND just what does three ties have to do with THAT SONG. . . ? EVERYTHING!
I’ve had those ties for years but not for as long as they’ve actually been created. . .
The two on the left are between 65-70 years old . . .I inherited from my grandfather and rarely wear them because they are fragile and I don’t want the last time I tie them to be the last time I tie them. . . The tie on the far right is my father-in-law’s that I inherited shortly after he died and no one in the family wanted it . . .none of them would make the cover of G Q but they continue to flutter through the pages of my mind in a most gentle but powerful way that makes me feel close to both of these men ESPECIALLY AT CHRISTMAS when I realize much like J J Heller’s song, I HAVE ENOUGH . . .What takes you T H E R E what song what food what smell what word what texture what piece of clothing what scene what feeling takes you way past that box in the attic out of your head and into your heart of memories that makes you feel: I HAVE ENOUGH . . .more importantly what song what food what smell what word what texture what piece of clothing, what scene what feeling WILL YOU BE SHARING that’ll keep you out of some attic box past someone’s memory but burrowed deep into their heart and forever in the delicate l a c e s of their soul that’ll forever make them feel: I H A V E E N O U G H Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst: GIVE THAT (no receipts or returns necessary)
SIMON BIRCH one of my go to movies because this is ONE OF MY GO TO SCENES of all time. . . I’ve used it in presentations Bible Studies HELP-SELF groups Workshops ALL with the question of WHO ARE YOU. . . WHY ARE YOU HERE? ( N O W ) because the answer is ever-changing, right?
Who we were as a child at the end of the hand of a parent IS A MUCH DIFFERENT PERSON of the parent the child grows into at the end of the hand of a child. . .
The Movie came out in September, 1998 and it doesn’t share the title of the book by John Irving because at his request he wanted the title changed because he didn’t believe that his novel could successfully be made into a film. . .
Irving’s book, was his 7th novel (WORTH THE READ) was published in 1989. And both, the book and the movie hover around the WHY HOW COME WHAT FOR’S of Life and OUR PLAN. . . which brings us to THE SCENE after Simon who’s never afraid to ask the tough questions and lives much taller than the dwarf he is is in trouble for causing a huge ruckus at the Christmas Eve Pageant and just wants confirmed what he believes but no one looking at him could ever: THAT HE IS AN INSTRUMENT THAT HE HAS A PURPOSE THAT HE HAS A MEANING THAT HE HAS A DESTINY THAT HE HAS A REASON for living. . . and when the Episcopal Priest has an opportunity to affirm him TO AFFIRM US he doesn’t by answering I CAN’T to the immortal question “I want to know that there’s a reason for things; I use to be certain, but now I’m not so sure. . . I want you to tell me that GOD HAS A PLAN FOR ME; A PLAN FOR ALL OF US ?”
The PRIESTNESS in all of us are capable of answering NOT WHAT BUT THAT the PURPOSES ARE MULTIPLE . . .tell me, share with me your purpose now October 12, 2020 (ESPECIALLY NOW IN 2020) so we can c a r i n g l y Catalyst together to make I T happen for each other. . .
Johnny Mathis and a host of others have been singing for the 6 weeks IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR
Charles Dickens wrote: IT’S THE BEST OF TIMES, IT’S THE WORST OF TIMES
and even though it was from a TALE OF TWO CITIES
and not
THE CHRISTMAS CAROL
it somehow seems that it could well fit,
doesn’t it?
The World is a huge
M A G N I F Y I N G G L A S S
about now. . .
E N L A R G I N G
especially those things that make us the most unhappiest:Loss Disappointment Unmet
Expectation DeathIllness Job Security Money Woes Health Family Distances or
anything else you might want to place in this:_________________________________________________________________________
HAPPINESS has traditionally been considered an elusive and evanescent thing. To some, even trying to achieve it is an exercise in futility. It has been said that “happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
Social scientists have caught the butterfly. After 40 years of research, they attribute happiness to three major sources: genes, events and values. Armed with this knowledge and a few simple rules, we can improve our lives and the lives of those around us. We can even construct a system that fulfills our founders’ promises and empowers all Americans to pursue happiness.
Psychologists and economists have studied happiness for decades. They begin simply enough — by asking people how happy they are.
The richest data available to social scientists is the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, a survey of Americans conducted since 1972. This widely used resource is considered the scholarly gold standard for understanding social phenomena. The numbers on happiness from the survey are surprisingly consistent. Every other year for four decades, roughly a third of Americans have said they’re “very happy,” and about half report being “pretty happy.” Only about 10 to 15 percent typically say they’re “not too happy.” Psychologists have used sophisticated techniques to verify these responses, and such survey results haveprovedaccurate.
Beneath these averages are some demographic differences. For many years, researchers found that women were happier than men, although recent studies contend that the gap has narrowed or may even have been reversed. Political junkies might be interested to learn that conservative women are particularly blissful: about 40 percent say they are very happy. That makes them slightly happier than conservative men and significantly happier than liberal women. The unhappiest of all are liberal men; only about a fifth consider themselves very happy. . .
I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t FEEL IT but after nearly 40 years of being Ordained I FEEL IT more strongly now than ever before and have a better way of c o m m u n i c a t i n g it than well over 40 plus years ago. . .
The most debatable question that I have ever had to answer at any of the four churches (FIVE if you include the three years I served my Student Church in Seminary) and now 25 years of being a Hospice Chaplain is:
AM I WRONG TO THINK THAT JESUS CAME LESS TO SCARE THE HELL OUT OF ME AND MORE TO BRING HEAVEN TO MY HELL. . . ?
I never could get my h e a d h e a r t s o u l around a God who loves me u n c o n d i t i o n a l l y who’s Son died for the sins of the world being weaker/less than my worst flaw and blatant wrongnesses. . .
My Caring Catalyst s o u l just can’t quite figure it all out but it doesn’t F E E L right THIS THEOLOGY of HELL we’re bound unless, until, except, if, but, Y O U should better ought-to have-to. . .
Sometimes The Well-Worn Prayer F I N D S and Prays for U S
W a i t. . . W h a t. . ? Can it be T H A T s i m p l e ?
H E Y: What would happen if we substituted whatever we call GOD MOHAMMED ALLAH BUDDHA HIGHER POWER ENERGY SPIRIT SUPREME BEING O THOU WHO ART FOREVER with the word: L O V E. . .
Make Life or the Living of it a little d i f f e r e n t. . . . (it really can)
They Scare and paralyze more than amaze and awe us.
I’m in the middle of The Wedding Season right now. I will conduct weddings from now until Labor Day and then a a couple more in the Fall, including my youngest daughter’s on 12/13/14.
There is absolutely NO MIDDLE to the Burying Season. They happen year around, oddly enough, much more so right after the major holidays than at other times (but that’s another Blog Post).
It’s fascinating isn’t it?
All weddings really seem to be fairly similar, but every marriage is vastly different. Death…well…we know that it’s the other side of the Coin we all carry that will one day Come UP for all of us. Death without any Vegas odds comes to everyone, but ONE MOURNS SADLY ALONE.
Whatever seeps from the Soul outshines any rays of light refusing to be hidden. . .
