Being the straight man in this endeavor

My last post I celebrated being able to explore color in the letters of GARDEN, so here I was cutting out white glass today. Mosaic Woman wanted to do a new word inspired by how learning the Alexander Technique has helped her to feel less body pain in and out of the studio. I had an idea.

Rough drafts got smoothed out as we consulted and finally all that was left was color choice. I said, "White." No client wanting white, and yet after the joy of cutting out GARDEN in oranges, I wanted to do it in white.

I was seeing myself as the straight man in a comedic team. I was setting up the situation knowing what beauty can and will emerge when I walk it into her studio. And on this day when so many of my friends are hoping for a bit more equality to emerge into this country, I couldn't resist being the straight man who is hoping right along with them.

Mystical Mondays: On the Road to Compassion

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

15 years or so ago I took a Myers Briggs test and scored low on most things.  I guess I tended to be on the fence in defining myself at the edges where I would have earned points.  My lowest score was in compassion, which if I recall correctly was a "zero." 


I was on the verge of entering the world of the mystics, who drew out maps on which my life has unfolded.  I think for the better...

Ask Anything

"Ask Anything,"

My Lord said to me.

And my mind and heart thought deeply

for a second,

then replied with just one word,

"When?"

God's arms then opened up and I entered myself.

I entered Myself when I entered 

Christ.

And having learned compassion I

allowed my soul

to stay.

Meister Eckhart

stuck in one's head

Mosaic Woman has been walking about saying, "IVE GOT MENDELSSOHN IN MY HEAD!"

and for good reason. Since the beginning of the new year The Academy Chorale has been meeting on Tuesday nights to practice Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2-- "Hymn of Praise." So as in the past when she reaches the week of the final practice and the dress rehearsal, she has the music ingrained in her head. Michael Kemp, the director, would be proud.

I have had compassion stuck in my head.

and for good reason. On the last day I met with my spiritual director, (I will not see him till July) he handed me a book, Love Walked Among Us, by Paul E. Miller. It is broken up into small segments, so I have spent several nights reflecting on Luke 7: 11-17. Jesus meeting a widow on her way to bury her son. The basis of the book is to learn how to love by Jesus's example.

12 years ago I took a personality test and scored low on all, but got a zero on compassion. I may have been a bit stoic at the time. "Just deal with it," was a philosophy that should apply to all in every case.

This week a friend at work was moaning about a task. It must have been my stoic self that was listening at first, but then I was slapped silly by something or other and I said, "give me a pen and a piece of paper", and in the midst of a minute or two the task was completed. Since then I have been filled with the joy of being able to help a friend who was stuck, and wondering why it took me those few minutes to respond. But a desire to be aware is what keeps flowing into my head.

I want to keep my eyes open to those in need, just as Jesus did on that road when a funeral could have just passed by him and his followers as they stepped aside out of respect for the dead and the mourners.