Our congressmen and women today are locked in idealogical warfare that resembles trench warfare in WWI: endless attacks and no movement.
One of the transcendentalists who “hung out” with Emerson and Thoreau (I can picture that with these people) was the chaplain of the US Congress. His words need to be heeded for today:
To live content with small means; to see elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion. To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy not rich. To study hard, think quietly, talk gently and act frankly. To listen to the stars and birds, to babes and sages with open heart.
To await occasions, hurry never. In a word to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.
Something new is attempting to be born of our financial and commercial and governmental ways of being on the planet. Some think all the old rules apply; some only their ideology. How convenient? Who knows what wants to and needs to emerge? Who is humble enough to inquire rather than pontificate.
The new order will never emerge unless we talk gently and listen to each other, babes and sages and the stars, metaphors for nature, wisdom and innocent newness. We can do this with courage and imagination, but maybe we won’t.
And the same holds true for our personal lives.
What spiritually unbidden potential needs to grow into the commonalities of your daily life, if you allow it and don’t force it? A new relationship pattern, a new habit at work, a new approach to your entertainment life?
Who knows? Listen to the stars and hurry never. Be worthy.
Image: Some rights reserved by drplokta