Minister's Post, Fri Mar 3

Dear Ones:

In the end, everything is everything else. Filip Holm explained it this way:

"Try to think of that flower without the soil from which it grows, without the sunlight that helps it grow and illuminates it, without the very space in which it stands, or without the particular time in which it is there. Suddenly you no longer have a flower at all."

This is just a fact of our physical world: everything influences everything else, and so what anything is depends on what everything else is.

This fact about our physical world is important to remember for our spiritual growth. It's easy to fall into the delusion of separation. Remembering the reality that nothing is separate -- and because everything is connected to everything else, it is constantly changing as those influences fluctuation -- so nothing is permanent and unchanging, including ourselves. Somehow, there's a profound spiritual liberation that comes to us from remembering this about ourselves, each other, and our world.

Yours in the faith we share,
Meredith

Join a Journey Group: http://cucwp.org/journey-groups

I.C.Y.M.I. (In Case You Missed It)

The Feb 26 service, "The Ecological Thought"



The Feb 19 service, "Free to Be You and Me"



PRACTICE POINTER

Life means ongong change. And Change includes also some loss. We feel grief, and we need to grieve.

Grieving is a form of learning. It’s the process of learning how to be in the world without whatever-it-is that is no longer there: a spouse, friend, parent or child – or a job, a marriage, or an ability – a home or a familiar place. New habits and routines, new patterns have to form. We have to work out who we are in this new world that is bereft of some one or something that had once been a part of ourselves. People will say, “I feel like I’ve lost part of myself” – because they have. Adapting takes time and involves changes in the brain – as learning does.

To distinguish grief from grieving: Grief is a feeling. Grieving is an action in response to the felt loss.

“Grief is that emotional state that just knocks you off your feet and comes over you like a wave. Grieving necessarily has a time component to it. Grieving is what happens as we adapt to the fact that our loved one is gone, that we're carrying the absence of them with us.” (Mary-Frances O’Connor, Clinical Psychologist)

We’ll feel the grief forever – it’s the remembrance of a thing past. But the act of "grieving," will, over time, change our relationship to that grief. To facilitate the learning that is grieving, it helps to: - choose good company – friends who won’t try to fix you, or place expectations on you;
- be gentle with yourself. Try not to judge yourself for not “doing better”;
- be intentional about getting rest, exercise, and eating; and - have a spiritual practice or a creative outlet.

For more detail, see the full post: "Grieve Your Losses"

Here it is, your...
MOMENT OF ZEN
#147: All Truths

If the snacks are good, what better response could there be to any idea than to have a snack?

Case

Owl dropped by one afternoon and asked Raven, "I've heard that the opposite of truth is also true. What do you think of this idea?"
Raven said, "Let's have a snack."
Owl said, "Aren't you devaluing my question?"
Raven said, "Not at all. We have fresh grubs today."

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