is perfect"
- Matt 5:48
"The wind blows where it wills, and you can
hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes."
- John 3:8-9
"Our real journey in life is the interior; it is a
matter of growth, deepening , and of an ever greater
surrender to the creative action of love and grace in
our hearts. Never was it more necessary to that action."
- Thomas Merton
"There is another great difference between our civilization
and yours. You admire one who pushes their way to the top
in any walk of life , while we admire the one who abandons
their ego."( a Buddhist Monk)
- H. Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet
Inspiration
It's been written that the origins of the word for "perfection"
can be found in the adjective in the Aramaic/Hebrew "Tamiym"
from the root"Taman" meaning to "be complete" or "to be finished."
Many scholars suggest that in the New Testament Jesus' uses this word,
"tamin", intending to implore his followers on the importance of being
complete with personal character: live life with integrity ;selfless;
and compassion in a covential relationship with the divine and all creation.
The Writing :
The Art of Imperfect Perfection: The Retreat
The seeker's weather worn vessel carefully kept
on course , he believed, as storms came and went.
Winds of an unknown source filled his sails
directing him to the hidden-in-plain sight safe harbor.
Sometimes seekers take careful steps and
sometimes they might take a leap.
Seekers always looking for something to find.
Ulysses had nothing on this sailor.
His vessel finally arrived to what the local ascetics called-
"The Holy Ground."
Seven days and six nights of silence and contemplation
in solitude waited to welcome him into the mystic.
The resident stoic Obi-Wan , disguised
as a humble spiritual sherpa, with a generous smile
welcomed and counseled the sojourner,
"It's just you and the great Divine , pal."
With no map or cosmic GPS
the seeker commenced his long solitary walks
amid the transcendental pastoral sanctuary.
The result ...fatigue...physical, mental
and spiritual. His new mantra grew to "What a waste
of time.I'm done. What a waste of time.
I'm done."...over and over and over.
By the third dawn of this retreat it was time for the seeker
to meet the typically candid unassuming advisor
and informing him that he would withdraw
from these spiritual exercises.
An aroma of fresh columbian coffee filled the new
morning's air cut through the mist coated sanctorium .
A fully awake enthusiastic dining room server
approached him with the fresh brew asking,
"Cup of hope?" The seeker smirked responding,
"Yeh, sure . I can use all the hope I can get."
Within minutes he was proposing his conclusions to his spiritual
guide who just cracked that reverent smile.
"This is normal. Stay one more night. Tonight
go for your after dinner walk, have your cigar and don't
think ...just let it go and be."
Though a strange proposition the seeker agreed.
As the sun shone it's last glimmer
lighting his post dinner cigar he moved a little slower and
more deliberately than normal through the bucolic pathways.
Drifting lost in thoughts it hit him - "I'm lost!"
In a blink there were eyes curiously staring at him.
Four deer within ten feet surrounded him
in a sacramental semi circle.
A sound of silence of sanctified angelic voices
found their way to his unsettled spirit.
"Why are you worried? Don't you know you are blessed?'
Do you realize this is 'holy ground' , a sanctuary"?
Wiping the tears meandering down his cheek he realized
the deer had departed like that consecrated wind.
He scampered like a frightened startled buck
to the retreat house where he collared
his spiritual sherpa explaining what had just occurred.
"Was it real? Was it a dream?"
The wise one looked up smiling gently touching the seeker .
"The deer have always been there .You didn't see them before
because you were busy making a retreat and not allowing
the retreat to make you."
- JF Sobecki
--------------------------------
Words: Poetry and Such (for your Inspiration)
"Ring the bells that still can ring.Forget your perfect offering.
There's a crack in everything.That's how the light gets in.
- L. Cohen , Anthem
The Buddha's Last Instruction
"Make of yourself;f a light,"said the Buddha
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness , to send the first
signal - a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man. he lay down
between two lala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattahced, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt the thought of everything
that has happened in his eternal life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire_
yet I feel myself turning
into some inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head
He looked straight into the faces of the frightened crowd.
- M. Oliver
News of Death - David Whyte
(for Francisco)
https://youtu.be/Lav7vWaLRSc?si=7pieYUYC_WKqPtyv
------
Music : for your listening pleasure and reflection
click on "links" below each picture for video and sound
I have need for Solitude - Mary Chapin Carpenter
https://youtu.be/S3ZMq24XnLk?si=W1HpOmWsPDvJ5xzj
Sail On - Mary Black
https://youtu.be/zv113_HGT60?si=Jo_p0WF3F2Lwaf3I
Awake My Should - Mumford and Sons & Milk Carton Kidds
https://youtu.be/I1V73Asi19U?si=C44QvYnRD9Lsp3e4
Anthem - L. Cohen
https://youtu.be/c8-BT6y_wYg?si=ChDqww-rhjc6R-51
I Know There's an Answer - Beach Boys
https://youtu.be/9TfUo2Pg0Sg?si=uXN-wq2zCqu1vTDm
CODA: Now something from the lighter side
( No thing and no one is perfect)
The Meaning of Life - Everyone Loves Raymond
https://youtu.be/FZb4jBE0Gr0?si=7ERyTgHUWin_aA7d
and from the serious side
Kundun - ( the Dalai Lama escapes Tibet
from the Chinese invasion- movie ending)
https://youtu.be/WB5Buz0MvZM?si=V-npWOvcOyjbi-0K
Remembering -
There is an old joke about the Jesuits:
"A humble Jesuit? A Rarity.
A Jesuit Pope? An Impossibility.
A humble Jesuit Pope? A miracle."
( & miracles happen)
When Pope Francis was asked how he hoped he would be remembered
he said, "A good guy who tried to do good."
"Be a Francis."
For Fr. Lou and all my companions and friends who have guided ,
inspired and walked with me on my Camino
AMDG
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