Nourishing the Spirit
What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning. ~ T.S. Elliot
As we seek to create a new world order, the old must pass away. If we look at anything in nature, at how Life itself operates, before something new can come into existence the old thing has to be released or transformed. In growing a garden, for example, we don’t just plant fresh seeds on top of what was growing there before. We have to dig up the old crops, clear the weeds and rocks, till the soil — to shift and break up outworn habits and beliefs for new ones to take root and flourish. The great rototillers in our lives can be painful or frightening, but they open the way for undreamed possibilities to come forth. Even the seed itself must die to being a seed — must break open to allow its full expression as plant, flower, fruit.
To do the world-making work we are called to (and even just to survive) we must keep our spirits tended, watered, nourished. In my classes and workshops I often invite participants to maintain an ongoing list of things that reconnect them to the wellspring of the Divine. I make the analogy to the “emergency contact list” that many people keep by their phones. (When the house is burning is not the time to have to look up the number of the fire department, for example). This “spiritual 911 list” might include such activities as time in nature, the creative meditation of baking bread or cooking, dance or movement, artistic expressions, time with animals or babies or children, gardening and touching earth, inspirational readings, particular songs or pieces of music that evoke different feeling responses (to sing, cry, praise, shout, move), films that reliably soften or break open the heart, and trusted people to call for prayer, support, encouragement, or a listening ear.
The key is in knowing what works uniquely for you, to keep track of specific resources and activities, and write them down where you can easily access them in times of need. We do not generally do our best thinking when our hearts are constricted and our spirits parched. When we are running on empty is not the time that we will be likely to remember which video or passage from scripture it was that touched us so deeply and melted our armor. Or which song absolutely compelled us to dance no matter how tired, or sing our way out of despair. Or which poem helped us breathe again.
But even more effective than the “emergency list” is cultivating communion as a way of life — making the commitment to establish a dedicated spiritual discipline and to integrate small rituals of nurturance and replenishment as part of our daily living; to practice the presence moment-to-moment. We can make our lives a sacrament — every breath, every bite of food, every sip of water, every time we bathe, every touch, every word, becomes an opportunity to experience the Divine.
Another way to fill the well, to reconnect with our awareness of the goodness in the midst of Life, is the practice of gratitude. It is a powerful balm to steep ourselves in the remembrance of our many large and small blessings… especially at the times when we may not be feeling particularly blessed. The recounting of our own testimony of overcoming can sustain and uplift us. Sharing testimony with others, and bearing witness to the miracles in someone else’s life supports our faith and expands our receptivity and alertness to the ongoing miracles latent in every moment. God’s grace is every-where, simply awaiting our recognition. As we turn again and again to this awareness, it becomes our habitation.
Our spiritual practice must not be regarded as something occasional or extra, but essential. The Indian mystic Sri Ramakrishna taught that we must pursue illumination with all the urgency and intensity of a person whose hair is on fire in search of a pond. We are living in a time on this planet when all of us have our hair on fire. But fire is a way to prepare the ground for new growth. And fire can be a purifier, and an alchemist.
In these days of transformation, every emergency can catalyze the emergence of fresh possibilities. If we look closely, we will find the determined green shoots of new life pressing upward within ourselves and in our world. And if we nourish them they will grow.
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