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
