Contemplfiy NonRequired Practice - Quarantine Edition #3
Contemplify NonRequired Practice | Quarantine Edition #3
Contemplative Friend,
This quarantine keeps kicking the meditation cushion out from underneath me. Tossing my sacred books out in the rain. Cluttering my closet with outcomes of expectation. And most brutally, he has locked solitude out of the house. I have been a man of solitude and relished the few hours of my day kept in my own company. In this place of quiet, thought balloons drift overhead and provide a color to the scenery of my day. But these days between the sacred responsibilities of family and work, my cherished solitude needed to vacate the premises so the essentials could expand and fill the house. Like an amputated limb, I feel a phantom solitude. Now I keep bumping up against my irritations (who have refused to leave) and I can be prickly to be around. What the hell is a former solitaire to do?
“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone.” (Thoreau, Walden, p. 128)
I’ve invited Henry David Thoreau to live with our family during the quarantine. We are old pals, but it had been a minute since we had sat together and talked like it. Thoreau has been retelling me his tales of Walden, what he paid attention to, what he let slide, and the curiosity of enoughness. Ol Davey Thoreau turns the conversation over to me and I relay that I’ve tried to keep my toes pointed south on the path of simplicity and to pace my stroll in stride with my soul. I was sure this quarantine would be an easy bake oven compared to the hellfire it would be for others. That was how cocksure I was of my bonafide solitudinal chops. Well, truth is revealed more than learned. I never realized how dependent I was on external solitude to keep the experiential and internal solitude going. Thoreau scratched his neck as he sighed and gave me a knowing look. I continued my inch deep revelation. Solitude has been an armor I put on to withstand the battle axes of the Absurd Civilization Army. Even being precious about it. Thoreau swallows a chuckle. The solitude that was once internalized had become a protective layer. When did I lose sight of the path? Thoreau shifts in his chair and tells me not to worry so and sips his tea. He says that I am catastrophizing and still on the path of simplicity in life and spirit. He tells me plainly that I am a snake shedding a layer of skin and that it had not occurred to me how necessary this shedding was. The conditions were right for this stripping to take place. Then he put it another way, your anchor has been cut out in the “midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live,” quit searching for that anchor at the bottom of the sea and trust the buoyancy of your body.
This past week has been all about learning to trust the interior solitude that camps out somewhere between the colon and the soul. A solitude that cannot be touched by the shifting conditions of the woeful or joyful. May that trust expand in me and in you. I am a slow learner.
As you sit alone or crowded with your beloveds, I offer a few more practices to a contemplative approach to quarantined life in uncertain times.
Productivity
Happy Monday everybody. If you are still in the lucky camp of employment, I hope you enjoyed the days of rest. As you start your workweek do not get sucked into the productivity trap of quarantined times. It is rusty and dangerous. These are challenging times and a season of rapid and unpredictable change is already upon us. The wishing well of productivity is full, splash in your internal wellspring instead. And by God, above all remember you are a human being with limitations. Here is short snippet from ‘Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure‘ By Aisha S. Ahmad, “Now more than ever, we must abandon the performative and embrace the authentic. Our essential mental shifts require humility and patience. Focus on real internal change. These human transformations will be honest, raw, ugly, hopeful, frustrated, beautiful, and divine. And they will be slower than keener academics are used to. Be slow. Let this distract you. Let it change how you think and how you see the world. Because the world is our work. And so, may this tragedy tear down all our faulty assumptions and give us the courage of bold new ideas.” Hat tip to Lee, read full article here.
A Guiding, A Light
Good folks, another guided meditation to seat your heart in the daylight of the Beloved. Fr. Adam Bucko and company are graciously offering up the fruits from the nourishment of their own contemplative practice. From Adam Bucko, “The method of prayer that we will practice today is called the ‘Jesus Prayer’, or the ‘The Prayer of the Name.’ In this practice, we simply repeat a short prayer phrase together, at first by whispering it together, and then in silence. One spiritual master said this about the Prayer of the Name: ‘Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.’ This practice can help us clean the dust of our hearts and begin to live in the remembrance of God.” Listen to the guided meditation here.
Earth Day
Earth day is approaching. Given the current global crisis it seems like we are finally starting to realize that our species needs one another more than we’ve been letting on these past few millennia. A highwatermark of our species, Gary Nabhan, has been offering morsels of wisdom paired with concrete action these past few weeks and will continue to do so all the way up to the celebration of our 50th Earth Day. Read his work and heed the inspired action. Any chance I get to connect with Brother Coyote, I take it, and walk away a better man. Go here to follow his insights in the muck and dew of our times.
Music is the Merriest Companion
This song is gorgeous in lyric and performance. Sit back and let the light of this song wash over you. Melanie DeMore sets a new standard for how music can connect us and flow through us while we are keeping our distance from one another. DeMore performed with Julie Wolf on ‘Sending You Light’. (Hat tip to Cliff)
May this message find you with the dishes done, a cupboard full of groceries, lungs breathing clean air, and the first cup of coffee hitting your protective mask, and then your lips.
In Trust,
Paul
P.S. I seem to be confusing some folks by my inarticulate emails. My intent is not bombard your inbox beyond what the FDA recommends for daily email consumption, so if you want to read the daily Quarantined Qontemplative posts they are available at contemplify.com. If you were forwarded this NonRequired Practice List, first wash your hands, and if you want to sign up to receive the next one, sign up below.