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Perspective Wed 3 Feb 2010 12:07pm Perspective. I'm trying to be mindful of perspective. I am concerned about the financial challenges that First Parish faces; I know you are too. But dozens of times in the past few weeks, the stories and images from Haiti offer perspective. Our challenges are nothing compared to theirs. I worry about the rising costs of home ownership, and then think of the rising numbers of foreclosures and homeless families. Apples and oranges. Pausing for perspective helps me convert my "worry" energy into "work for change" energy. I challenge myself to redirect my energy toward advocating for safe, affordable housing in my own backyard. I hear about the challenges to our schools as budgets tighten and resources dwindle and I think of the countless children and educators who cannot even imagine how good it would be to teach and learn in our "resource-challenged" schools - they live in Chicopee, Roxbury, and Mattapan. And then I imagine a conversation with a mother in Afghanistan - herself denied an education and, still, none available for her daughters. My list of worries that need to be converted into energy better spent is a very long list. Not all of us have the luxury to take a break from our daily routine to reorient ourselves to what's truly important. That's one of my top priorities while on sabbatical leave from February 8 to March 8. I want to regain a hopeful, helpful perspective. One thing that helps ground me each day is the morning and evening ritual I share with my husband. It starts with readings from a Celtic Psalter, celebrating and praising all creation. Then, for this past year anyway, we've been reading one selection a day from a book called Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women edited by Jane Hirshfield. The first entry was written by Enheduanna, born sometime around 2300 B.C.E, the daughter of Sumerian king (in the area that is now southern Iraq). The final one is by a contemporary Korean Buddhist nun. I re-read both as I write this and discover that each points to the need for perspective. The first suggests that we cannot focus only on beauty and harmony; we must also acknowledge the power of anger and destruction. True spirituality, her poems suggest, includes all of it. While on sabbatical leave, I will enjoy the San Francisco Bay area, staying mostly at the home of a dear friend and colleague, the UU minister serving the Oakland congregation. I hope to gain perspective on our New England-style of Unitarian Universalism by exploring a few UU congregations in the US west. I hope to gain perspective, too, with my camera. It forces me to look more closely. To focus. To discover things in unexpected places. And finally, I am taking these words with me so that I might experience what they mean, so that what I see will rekindle the fire in my belly, so that that fire will fuel my energy to work for justice, to work for equity, to work for compassion. So that I'll stop wasting time worrying and get to work! Here are the words I'm packing for the trip:
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Gary will lead a book discussion group starting January 8 from 7:00-8:30 pm in the Brackett Room using Huston Smith's classic The World's Religions, an eight week tour of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Primal Traditions. The class is free and open to the public, but you might want to add this book to your Christmas list if you want to participate. Please note: we will be using the non-illustrated version of Smith's book. The pictures are nice, but the text is much abbreviated in the illustrated edition.