Our Need of Recovery

Hello, dear readers! Since I am preoccupied with writing material for a book proposal, I'm obviously not writing many blog posts just now. Today, though, I want to share a quote by Brian McLaren, which I received from Inward/Outward, a regular emailing from a ministry of the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC.

For many people, economic recovery means getting back to where we were a few months or years ago. That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life. I'd like to suggest another kind of recovery, drawing from the world of addiction. When an addict gets into recovery, he doesn't want to go back and recover the "high" he had before, or even to recover the conditions he had before he began using drugs and alcohol. Instead, he wants to move forward to a new way of life---a wiser way of life that takes into account his experience of addiction. He realizes that his addiction to drugs was a symptom of other deeper issues and diseases in his life---unresolved pain or anger, the need to anesthetize painful emotions, lack of creativity in finding ways to feel happy and alive, unaddressed relational and spiritual deficits, lack of self-awareness, and so on.

Similarly, I'd like to suggest whenever we hear the word "recovery," we as a nation see it not as a call to get back our old addictive high, but rather as a call to face our corporate and personal addictions...."

I think Brian makes a lot of sense. Our society is an addicted one and the 12 step principles are what can help us, from the individual, outward.

The 12 Steps

• Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable
• Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
• Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God
• Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
• Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
• Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
• Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings
• Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
• Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
• Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it
• Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out
• Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

As Christmas draws near, may you find time and space to visit your heart and welcome God's Presence there!

The Irrational Season

I wrote this last year and am re-posting it, because, well, I like it!

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason,
There'd have been no room for the child.

I love this little poem by Madeleine L'Engle, a zany and brilliant woman who wrote copiously and with great joy. I thought of it and her as Advent began. The Cathedral Church of St. John the DIvine in New York was rededicated Sunday, finally restored after a disastrous fire in 2001. Madeleine worked for many years in the library at the Cathedral. As well, my mother-in-law went to missionary school on the grounds of that magnificent church. When I saw it for myself in 2002, I was overwhelmed with its beauty and magnitude. I can only imagine how it looks today, sparkling and open--"a house of prayer to all people"--as it proclaims itself to be. (That's Biblical, by the way.) And as an Episcopalian, I know how wondrous the liturgy Sunday must have been. With all its faults, I do believe the Episcopal/Anglican church's greatest gifts are beautiful liturgy and, usually, inclusiveness.

Madeleine came here to speak years ago, when my daughter was young and a huge fan of her children's fantasies. We had the privilege of escorting her. What a kind and fascinating woman! She delighted in children and encouraged M. to hang on to her imagination and nurture her creativity. I'm grateful for Madeleine L'Engle, God rest her soul. I'm grateful for all people, especially women, who have the courage to put what they have to give out where others can access it. By the way, she was turned down by publishers for years before finally being accepted.

In this "irrational season" put away your doubts, your skepticism, your false humility. Let love bloom bright and wild. Make room for all that wants to be born through you. God asks; let us answer "yes"!!

Look at the beauty; listen to the music; laugh at yourself; love with all your heart; breathe in the Life that keeps your feet on the ground and your soul in flight.

Thanksgivings

Here are a few of mine:

For a mind and body that work pretty well, I give thanks.
For medication which will help my brain chemistry stay in better balance, I give thanks.
For the creative gifts given me by a loving God, I give thanks.
For an intelligent, creative, and compassionate daughter, I give thanks.
For family members, far and near, and for the dear ones who are on the "other side", I give thanks.
For the critters who tolerate spending their lives sharing my home, I give thanks.
For all the children who grace my life, I give thanks.
For all the women and men who love me enough to stay connected and caring, I give thanks.
For the many men and women with whom I've been privileged to share spiritual life, I give thanks.
For the home that protects me, the church that sustains me, the city and state full of beauty and possibility, I give thanks.
For the country that struggles to keep an ideal alive, I give thanks.
For the love I have given and received and for all the love which lies ahead, I give thanks.
For the hope of the future, and legacy of the past, and the joy of the present, I give thanks.

Those are just a few, but they speak of a rich and rewarding life, not without it's sorrows, but also awash in blessing. May you, too, find gratitude no matter what life sends your way.

I have to admit I have nothing to write about today. Therefore, this should end my post, right? Well, having nothing to say never stopped me before! I get frustrated with other bloggers who don't post very often. I even get tired of seeing the same thing day after day on my own blog .

So what's on my mind? Well, more than anything, THE BOOK (and I don't mean The Bible)! It is on my mind, my heart, my body, my spirit. It's "dwelling" in and with me, like the dwelling concept of the book. Thus, almost everything I experience, observe, or sense gets analyzed for it's usability in THE BOOK. I'm already tired of it and I'm only just beginning. However, after timidly sending my less-than-polished outline to my editor and receiving reassurance and encouragement in return, courage and determination seem to be restored. She actually thinks I've got something worth saying. Since putting the inner voice I call "the Spoiler" in her place rather soundly the other night, there seems room for hope. Precious friends are offering regular reminders that I can do this. So, as the saying goes, I'm standing at the edge and trying to trust that when I step off there will either be something there to hold me up or I will be taught to fly.

As we move inexorably into the season of darkness, cold, hunkering down, as well as giving thanks, celebrating Life and Light, and remembering who and Whose we are, I pray that each of us be freed and empowered to be and do what we truly are capable of, to the glory of God and the benefit of all the world. And that's the end of my not having anything to write about today!