What Is Your Song?

Last week I read an article about a beautiful practice of the Himba people of Namibia.  Apparently, when a woman is thinking about having a baby, she goes off by herself.

When a Himba woman decides to have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, alone, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child who wants to come.

And after she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches him the song. When they make love to physically conceive the child, they sing the song of the child as a way of inviting the child.

The Himba are not the only people who believe that each of us has a song that is unique to us and which, in some ways, contains or conveys the essence of who we are.

Try going to sit under a tree (literally or metaphorically) and listen for the sound of your song.  It might be a song you know and love.  It might be a tune you've never heard before.  Even if you're not able to hear a specific song, you can still think about what type of song it would be:

• is it something instrumental, or something with lyrics?
• is it jazz, classical, heavy metal, easy listening?
• does it have a traditional or avant-garde structure?
• have you heard this song before, or is it something new?

As I often suggest, if you journal take note of where this exploration takes you.  And again as always, you could talk about this with a spiritual director.  (You might even sing your song together!)


Pax tecum,

RevWik

Switch Things Up

In my book Simply Pray: a modern spiritual practice to deepen your life I describe four different types of prayer:  Naming, Knowing, Listening, and Loving.  I describe in detail in the book, of course, and I wrote a post here -- Types of Prayer -- back in September of 2018.  Here's the briefest of overviews:

• Naming prayers are like prayers of praise, thanksgiving.  They focus on naming the things we are grateful for in our lives -- the glory of a sunrise, a loved one's presence in your life, your life itself, the Infinite and Inestimable I Am.
  
• Knowing prayers are like prayers of confession.  That term -- confession -- carries a lot of baggage for a lot of folks today, some of it deserved and some not.  Think instead, then, of Step 4 of Alcoholics Anonymous:  "a searching and fearless moral inventory."  Just as a shopkeeper should take inventory regularly, making note of the things they have that are in good shape as well as those that are outdated or in some other way(s) spoiled.  No shame, no blame, no condemnation.  These prayers aim to help us in truly knowing ourselves -- strengths and weaknesses, both.
  
• Listening prayer is about silencing the internal chatter and listening to what the writer(s) of  the Biblical book 1 Kings called "the still small voice."  (I've been told that a better translation is "the voice of quiet stillness.") 
  
• Loving prayers are analogous to prayers of petition or supplication.  Call to mind those who are in need of support, strength, comfort, love.  Make sure to include yourself in these!  These prayers are an opportunity to express your loving intentions.

Is there one of these types of prayer that speaks most strongly to you?  Some religious traditions tend of focus more on one than the others, and many people seem to have a natural inclination toward one.

As an experiment -- switch things up.  For a month (or even just a week, depending how frequent your practice is), spend less time with the type of prayer to which you're usually drawn and emphasize a type you'd be more likely to minimize.  If you keep a journal, note what this switch surprises you with.  This could also provide a great topic for conversation with a spiritual director.


Pax tecum,

RevWik

One for All and All for One

A. Powell Davies, pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., once wrote:

"The years of all of us are short, our lives precarious. Our days and nights go hurrying on, and there is scarcely time to do the little we might. Yet we find time for bitterness, for petty treason and evasion. What can we do to stretch our hearts enough to lose their littleness? Here we are – all of us – all upon this planet, bound together in a common destiny, living our lives between the briefness of the daylight and the dark, kindred in this: each lighted by the same precarious, flickering flame of life, how does it happen that we are not kindred in all things else? How strange and foolish are these walls of separation that divide us!"

It's so easy, though, to fall into "us" and "them" thinking -- as a species we seem to be hardwired to distinguish between who's "in" and who's "out."  Resisting that urge, that frequently unconscious habit, can be incredibly difficult.

Successfully enlarging our circle of inclusion is not just something we will do with our minds; it takes an expansion of our hearts as well.   And that's a spiritual undertaking.  "Love one another ... regardless" is a teaching that can be found in virtually every religious tradition (even though most religious traditions don't quite practice what they preach).  Even simply becoming aware of when we're defining someone as "Other," learning to see what we've so often be oblivious to, can be a spiritual practice.

A Spiritual Director can help us navigate the new terrain in which we will inevitably find ourselves.  They can listen to our stories of successes, as well as those of when we've been unable to see that underlying commonalty.  None of us will get this "right."  In fact, that can be said of every single thing the Spirit calls us to.  It is the effort, though, the desire to try, that is the practice part of "spiritual practice."

Pax tecum,

RevWik