By Christine Babson
One of my favorite books is "Gift from the Sea" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It was written in 1955 - the year I was born but her thoughts and reflections are timeless and I'd like to share a portion of one of them with you. Lindbergh writes:
"The shape of my life is...determined by many...things: my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires. I want to give and take from my children and husband, to share with friends and community, to carry out my obligations to man and to the world, as a woman, as an artist, as a citizen.
But I want first of all - in fact, as an end to these other desires - to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact - to borrow from the language of the saints - to live "in grace" as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony.... I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God."
Participants’ Reflections
I liked the idea of the state of grace. It’s like a ‘being’ state versus a ‘wanting’ state. It’s about releasing all wants. I’m thinking about the times in my life I could do that. I liked that Lindbergh removed grace from religion. This is like yesterday’s topic of inner peace, homeostasis. It’s about being in expectancy, releasing fear. I’m going to a conference next week and instead of being in fear of failure, I’m going to go in expectancy and see what I can learn.
I was reminded of yesterday as well, inner peace. It’s important. It’s hard to not be stressed right now. Important to find peace. I find peace in solitude and nature. I sat outside for 5 minutes and saw a deer and turkeys. My five minutes of solitude brings me back to inner peace. This meditation is me.
The definition of grace is inner harmony. Harmony in song is a combination of different parts. We all have many parts of us. Sometimes we discount parts, like fear. Accepting all parts creates inner harmony. I had an image of a stream flowing, then a grate that caught all the trash. The stream ran clear after the grate caught the trash.
Get rid of detritus, we can be more clear for world
Thinking of "Amazing Grace," one of my all-time favorites. It was written by a man who was blind and he transported slaves. The song is about being enlightened by what he's doing. I'm holding up the song. It's where we all are right now.
No outer harmony without inner harmony. In my chorus, we memorize our music. When singing we're told to think of who we're singing to. It's in that way we project outer harmony. Thinking of a person or group we sing to.
I read one should name a plant after oneself. You feed it, nurture it and give it light. You’ll be nurturing yourself.
If you don't have it within you, you can't have it externally.
I'm going to go buy a special plant.
Photo credit: Simon Rae