Grasping & Learning To Let Go

4:45pm
Matter of Taste Coffee Bar
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

It's rare these days that I actually sit and write my thoughts down on my blog. Usually it's a quote or part of a news article and I make a few brief points. But today is perfect for writing a few thoughts down. The cinnamon hazelnut coffee is delicious in the warm café as the winds of Autumn blow the leaves - and people - around outside.

This evening I'm thinking about grasping, and really how futile it is. Maybe you're like me, and maybe you're not, but I spend a lot of time grasping - even if it's in my mind - for the things that I want. Love, people, money, entertainment, a sense of comfort. But it seems that the more I grasp, the more I reach out for things, the more frustrated I become, and rarely do I obtain the thing that I seek. I am left damned frustrated and more miserable than before.

I think a lot of it has to do with us losing touch with who we are. Call it our identity, our souls, our inner voice, our spirit.  We know somewhere deep within us that nothing and no one outside of ourselves can provide the true peace that we are looking for, yet there we go again. It's like we're at a parade full of distractions, with hot dog vendors and people swilling cotton candy along the route. We are easily distracted and we trade true, deeper peace for short-term entertainment or fulfillment.

Learning to be still with ourselves can be a very hard thing for many of us to do, because we've been deeply hurt or because we simply have always kept ourselves busy. This is where therapy or a meditation course can prove highly beneficial.

I'm not suggesting that we all become islands, needing nothing and no one. We need food. We need the touch of another human being once in awhile. But the truth remains that everything around us is fading, and the more we grasp onto it, especially people, the more we realize that true peace only comes from deep within.

There is a verse in the Bible that says: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you."  What I personally take this to mean is that #1: the kingdom of God and what it stands for is complete love. If we simply focus on love - love for ourselves, love for others, love for the world, #2 comes in: all of what we truly need for fulfillment and contentment will be provided for us.

I run away far from these ideals - often daily. But each moment is a chance to begin again.

Mark Andrew Alward

The Art of Loving

Henri J.M. Nouwen, Catholic Priest, Author, Teacher, Friend. (1932-1996)

True Intimacy

“Human relationships easily become possessive. Our hearts so much desire to be loved that we are inclined to cling to the person who offers us love, affection, friendship, care, or support. Once we have seen or felt a hint of love, we want more of it. That explains why lovers so often bicker with each other. Lovers' quarrels are quarrels between people who want more of each other than they are able or willing to give.

It is very hard for love not to become possessive because our hearts look for perfect love and no human being is capable of that. Only God can offer perfect love. Therefore, the art of loving includes the art of giving one another space. When we invade one another's space and do not allow the other to be his or her own free person, we cause great suffering in our relationships. But when we give another space to move and share our gifts, true intimacy becomes possible.”

~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

Thanksgiving For Non-Christians

If a person doesn't believe in a Supreme Being, is Thanksgiving meaningless? I share my thoughts on this, Canadian Thanksgiving.

A Not-So-Happy Canadian Thanksgiving: Canada Cuts Non-Christian Prison Chaplains...AND MORE!

If you're a Muslim, a Sikh, a Jew, a Buddhist, or a prisoner of another faith in need of spiritual care - TOUGH LUCK. The Conservative Canadian government has cut your chaplains.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is also responsible for Canada’s penitentiaries, made headlines in September when he ordered the cancellation of a tender issued for a Wiccan priest for federal prisons in B.C. Toews said he wasn't convinced part-time chaplains from other religions were an appropriate use of taxpayer money and that he would review the policy.

In an email to CBC News, Toews' office says that as a result of the review, the part-time non-Christian chaplains will be let go and the remaining full-time chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates. Basically, Muslims, Jews, etc would have to depend on the Christian chaplain to provide spiritual care to them. *Sidenote: Canadian Prime Minister is an evangelical Christian.

"The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths."

The decision caps a week of bone-headed statements or decisions made by Conservative Members of Parliament. Calgary-West MP Rob Anders basically told a news outlet early in the week that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair had killed late leader Jack Layton by "making him run" in the last federal election. Anders then started a petition on his website that would make it illegal for transgender men to use women's washrooms, basically calling them sex predators. And late in the week, it was revealed that Stephen Woodworth, MP for Kitchener-Centre, would be attending an event hosted by a leader in the "gay conversion therapy" movement.

It isn't the Happiest of Thanksgivings In Canada.

Contact Your MP: http://bit.ly/SCePaR

Contact The Prime Minister of Canada: pm@pm.gc.ca

A Muslim Response To Muslim Violence

I received this in my in-box the other day and thought it was worth sharing.

The Doorway Into God Is Always The Same As The Doorway Into Our Own Humanity

Bishop John Shelby Spong

 "Jesus was the life in whom a new consciousness appeared. His consciousness called, beckoned and empowered us to be something we could not then even dream of being. Jesus was a human being who was so whole, so free and so loving that he transcended all human limits, and that transcendence helped us to understand and even to declare that we had met God in him. That is what the story of the resurrection was all about. Every human limit, including the limit of death, faded in front of Jesus. So he opens a door for me to walk into the final arena and to walk past the ultimate boundary. I can see in him what I can be - a life at one with God, at one with myself and a part of eternity. That is my stunning conclusion. The Christ-path becomes for me a path that is always opening to something more. It is a human path that all people in all times and in all places can walk, regardless of the name by which they call it. The Christ is no longer a religious symbol and the Christ-path is no longer a religious path. Christ is the fully human one and the Christ-path is above all else a human path, the sign that the doorway into God is always the same as the doorway into our own humanity. The oneness of God held so deeply by the people of the East thus merges with the individualism so deeply valued by the people of the West. Individuation within the oneness of God enables us to transcend all the human boundaries of tribe, race, gender, sexual orientation and even religion. No separation is eternal and no difference can finally be permanent. For God is ultimately one, and that means that each of us is part of that oneness. 'My me is indeed God.' The mystics are right. They are people of a deeper consciousness. There is one consciousness, but self-conscious people alone can know it. I am finite, but I share in infinity. I am mortal, but I share in immortality. I am a being, but I share in being itself.

So I now have reached the point in my journey where I, like St. Francis before me, can welcome death as my brother. I live in the appreciation that it is the presence of death that actually makes my life precious, since it calls me to live each day fully, and it is by living fully that I enter the timelessness of life.

~ John Shelby Spong, 78, Eternal Life: A New Vision 

 

My Tuesday/Wednesday Sabbath

Today is Sunday for me, though for most of the world it is Tuesday. It's just after 5pm and I'm at a local coffee establishment, and

I am.
Completely.
Drained.

I tried to amble out of bed around noon today, but that just ended up with me going back to bed til about 230pm, and even then I didn't bother showering and instead I grabbed my computer and made my way here to Tim Hortons. I need today and tomorrow so much after a very busy weekend of events that I attended on behalf of the Kitchener-Centre riding association of the New Democratic Party that I am happy to be a part of.

They were all wonderful events.

The first was a First Nations PowWow on the campus of St. Paul's University College at University of Waterloo.

The second was Take Back The Night, which exists to push back against violence against women, children, and the trans community.

The third was the Grand Opening of a Rainbow Community Space for the Waterloo Region Rainbow Coalition.

The fourth was a 25th Anniversary Open House for ACCKWA (Aids Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area).

Now, after many conversations and picture-taking, my mind has almost shut off and I have no real energy for theological discourse or in-depth discourse of any kind, really.

Maybe times like this can be a good reminder that "being" isn't all about thinking afterall. I'm not saying that intellect is a bad thing, but today it was my body talking to me quite clearly when I exited my rooming house and it said "Don't do much, don't go far today Mark." I'm listening to my body and my soul a lot more lately, and it's a good thing, though my mind often tries to step in and say "Screw it. The way to work through this dilemma is by doing it logically!"

I - we - are people who need the clean crisp air, the changing colours of the leaves, the smooth hand on our back or face that says "Everything will be OK."

Welcome to my weekend.

Mark Andrew Alward