From Our Executive Director
ON WINTER SPIRITUALITY
A short time ago I wrote in this column that Autumn had become my favorite time of year. That I loved the dying of things, the colors, the chill in the air, the smell of composting leaves. So now, as we approach the winter solstice, I think I have to admit that I might have lied to you...because I am now remembering a Christmas afternoon in 1982 when I declared out loud that winter was indeed my favorite season of the year. I was in a car, riding down a mountain road outside Asheville, NC staring up at the trees and looking for mistletoe. I realized, I guess for the first time, how amazingly beautiful the trees are in winter. No chartreuse buds of spring, deep greens of summer or oranges and purples and reds of fall. Bare, stark, gray and brown trunks and limbs standing stubbornly against the cold and ice.
There is a startling beauty about winter...and a relief about it. It's a time when nature lies fallow and quiet. When we can close the windows and doors and curl up in front of a wood fire. And, when we're really lucky, listen to the thundering silence of a snowfall:
The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell,
lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything
quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a
way no other season did, hushed, solemn.
--Patricia Hampl
Andrew Wyeth was another winter lover. He wrote, "I prefer winter...when you feel the bone structure in the landscape—the loneliness of it—the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it—the whole story doesn't show." The whole story doesn't show, yet we feel the promise of new life, new growth, new rows to plow, new soil to till under. Winter brings its own distinct and encouraging blessings. We are wise to honor them and let them have their way in us.
And so it is with the soul. It has its winter times. When there appears to be no abundance, no harvest, no full blooms--only quiet, and hibernation. Your soul needs these times. If you garden, you know how important the so-called dormant season it. Embrace that season within yourself and enjoy it. Learn to love its bareness. Spring will be here soon enough, with its bursting forth and its busyness. For now, for a few more weeks, let it be winter. In one of his gardening books Henry Mitchell tells us to "Turn down the noise. Reduce the speed. Be like the somnolent bears, or those other animals that slow down and almost die in the cold season. Let it be the way it is. The magic is there in its power."
Savor your winter....from your winter will come a Christic beginning.
Click on the link below and enjoy Mannheim Steamroller's 1984 Classic VH1 of "Silent Night."
Blessings to you during this sacred season. Celebrate it and be filled with wonder.
Remembering John Keats
Today, October 31, is the birthday of the Romantic poet John Keats (born in 1795). The link below is to a reading of his poem, "Ode To Autumn" written in 1819. Apart from his stunning poetry, Keats is also remembered for his concept of negative capability. Wikipedia defines the concept here:
John Keats used the term negative capability to describe the artist as one who is receptive to the world and its natural phenomena, and to reject those who tried to formulate theories or categorize knowledge. In a letter to his brothers on December 21, 1817 he employed negative capability to criticize Coleridge, who he thought sought knowledge over beauty:
I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, on various subjects; several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason - Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge. This pursued through Volumes would perhaps take us no further than this, that with a great poet the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration.
The origin of the term is unknown, but some scholars have hypothesized that Keats was influenced in his studies of medicine and chemistry, and that it refers to the negative pole of an electric current which is passive and receptive. In the same way that the negative pole receives the current from the positive pole, the poet receives impulses from a world that is full of mystery and doubt, which cannot be explained but which the poet can translate into art.
Watch: Ode to Autumn
Those of us affiliated with The Educational Center thrive in the mystery and unknowable. We have written a few questions to accompany the reading. Enjoy a FREE RESOURCE: Ode to Autumn
Finding Home
October, 2011
How do you become a better writer? By writing.
How do you become a better small group leader? By leading and by being led.
More than that, how do you become a better scholar and critical thinker, a more compassionate soul, and a more courageous explorer? For me this happened, or I hope it did, when I had the privilege of spending 3 days with the writers and editors who contribute their astonishing talents to the work of the Educational Center and CenterQuest.
Held on the beautiful 6-acre compound belonging to one of our Board Members, our annual autumn gathering opened us all to new possibilities, both individually and collectively. It is an exciting time here, as CenterQuest has officially launched as a path and pattern for developing ideas and opportunities to sit alongside the esteemed BibleWorkbench...which is coming up on its 20th anniversary!
As we explored some new paths, one theme that cropped up in a number of contexts was "home." Some questions that arose: What is home? How do we get there? Why is coming home so vital to who we are? What's it like to feel "not at home" in your own family? Your own body? How do things like retirement, aging or loss affect your sense of home? How do startling new opportunities and possibilities affect your notion of home?
One of our writers, Beth Harrison, will be working on a resource based on the theme of home. To get us thinking/feeling about theme, she led us on a guided meditation in which we entered each room of our inner house and took note of what we found there and felt there.
What dreams did we leave in that room?
What hopes do we have for that room?
What memories reside in that room?
Can we even find that room anymore?
Where's my front door? Or do I even have one?
What's stored in my basement, hidden from view?
What's cooking in my kitchen?
With whom do I dine and why?
This was a powerful experience. You may wish to adapt it for your group.
Although this new resource is just now taking form, we hope to make it available in 2012. In the meantime, we already have one resource about finding home: our new film study series, An Undivided Life: Five Films to Explore the Journey Toward Wholeness. The working title for the series was "Living Authentically," and the series is themed around what Parker Palmer calls "the undivided life." In this month's CenterLine there are sample questions from one of the films, The Secret Life of Bees, as well as a link to a YouTube interview on "Faith and Film" featuring three cast members—Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, and Alicia Keys. Read the questions and find the link to the interview at : Centerline Newsletter – October + November.
If you'd like to see another artist's "take" on home, there is a great song by The Avett Brothers called "The Once and Future Carpenter", and from it comes this line: "If I live the life I'm given, I won't be scared to die." It is reminiscent of the theme of finding home, finding who I really am, and following that hobo's path until I get there... if you're interested, here is a link to a July 2011 review in Forbes magazine which will then link you to a performance of the song: The Avett Brothers .
I hope you find some wonderful sense of home this autumn, maybe with Trick-or-Treaters, maybe in a Thanksgiving spent with your family. In any case, take time to enjoy the harvest of what you have experienced in 2011. Notice the colors. Study the composition of your life. See yourself as a work of art. Become part of the rhythm of the seasons. Perhaps climb into a painting called Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock? We have a free downloadable resource on this painting on our website. If you would like to learn more about the painting and about Abstract Expressionism : click here.
To download our free resource honoring autumn: The Rhythm of Autumn.
September 5, 2011
On Summer's End*
I am writing this column on Labor Day. For many of us Labor Day is the "official last day of summer", although kids are already back in school and churches have returned to their regularly scheduled services and activities. Autumn is my favorite season of the year, and I particularly look forward to this fall, as it will bring welcome respite from a severely hot summer with heat indexes consistently above 100 for days at a time! But there are other reasons I love autumn. Fall always brings to my mind new beginnings. While some might argue that new beginnings belong to New Year's Day and not Labor Day, I associate autumn with the excitement I always felt at the beginning of the new school year--new teachers, new topics, new chances to be a little better student than I was last year. A time full of hope and promise. Here at the Center, there is much to be hopeful about and many promising projects are underway.
For most of last week I was putting finishing touches on one of our new Advent resources (available later in September) called The Characters of Christmas. It is a study guide for five of the Christmas stories: Mary, the angel Gabriel and the annunciation; Joseph's first dream and his encounter with the angel who tells him about Jesus; the shepherds encounter with the heavenly hosts; the Magi's journey, and Joseph's dream of the angel who tells him to take the family to Egypt for safety. In working with these scriptures I have fallen deeply into these people's stories, trying to imagine what challenges they faced and what joys they experienced. I have come to appreciate the enormity of what these humble people were asked to do, what they were asked to believe, what they were asked to risk so that new life could come into the world and so that "glad tidings" might, in some way, overcome fear.
The Christmas stories are filled with angels—angels that sing of God's glory, angels that appear in the heavens, angels that appear in dreams, angels that tell of the future, angels that warn of eminent dangers. Very busy angels.
And if there are angels, would it not stand to reason there would be demons? Dark angels? Aren't there forces that propel the likes of Herod to prevent new life, ambush hope, implant despair, demand control?
I recently listened to a podcast from Sounds True in which Tami Simon, founder, interviewed Caroline Myss on, among other topics, angels and demons. (Myss is a renowned lecturer on intuitive healing and energy balancing. Click here to learn more about her at: Caroline Myss. )
Myss has much to say on the presence of angels and how they can and do impact our lives...but we have to listen. Mary listened. Joseph listened. The shepherds listened. What they heard might have been confusing and might have defied all logic and reason, but what they heard managed to penetrate their realities and insist on an audience. What the angels offered was a chance to be the agent of birth, rebirth and transformation. As the summer winds to a close I am paying attention to my dreams and listening for angels. All in the hope that I won't miss the star or the voice or the chance to abandon the safe and predictable and, instead, slouch toward Bethlehem.
At the Center we are also moving from the safe and predictable into venues of new growth and, we hope, transformations. Please visit the website frequently and look for our new resources and opportunities for the rest of 2011.
In the meantime, and many weeks before Advent, consider these questions:
Do you have angels in your life?
How do they appear?
What kinds of things do they "tell" you?
How do they tell you?
How have you responded to your angels?
I would love to hear your angel stories. If you have one, consider emailing it to me: Sheila Ennis. Perhaps we could come up with a collection of such encounters to share with one another on this website during Advent. I will end by posting a "teaser" from The Characters of Christmas. In addition to the BibleWorkbench-style questions that accompany each of the five stories, we have also added visual art, music and film to each week's design. This Gandolfi painting captures one artist's "lens" into Joseph's first dream.
Joseph's Dream by Gaetano Gandolfi (1790)
Gaetano Gandolfi was born in 1734 near Bologna, to a family of artists. He was an Italian painter of the late Baroque and early Neoclassic period. Gandolfi became a prominent artist and was active for nearly five decades in the late 17th Century. With an output of about 220 paintings plus etchings, terracotta sculptures and many drawings, he also had a national reputation as one of the "greatest Italian artists of his century." He traveled to England, and became strongly influenced by Tiepolo. Gaetano Gandolfi died in Bologna, Italy. His philosophy is summarized as he says, "All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator."
Taking the artist's quotation into account, consider the following points as you contemplate the painting:
• What characteristics in this painting might evoke a sense of a 'certain mystery' within you as you study the piece?
• Much has been written about the gaze, in particular the male gaze. Gandolfi's use of the word spectator (from the above quotation) sets up that relationship. What are ways that you feel outside of the story as a spectator?
• How do you feel that you are involved directly in the piece?
• This painting is composed of dramatic diagonals. How do you see this movement as being part of the story? How so?
* The photo is by Kathy Richards. It's called "Knowing the Difference". Taken in 2011. Permission by the artist.
