June 17, 2012 Jedis and Disciples – Week 3: Sacrifice and Redemption

June 17, 2012

Jedis and Disciples – Week 3: Sacrifice and Redemption

Anchor: Star Wars and Joseph Campbell

Frame: The Return of the Jedi; the redemption of Darth Vader

John 15:12-15

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from Abba God.

                As the saga has progressed, Luke has learned that Darth Vader is indeed Anakin Skywalker, his father. Luke is stalwart in his belief that there is still good in his father. For all of the evil that he has committed, from the destruction of the Jedi knights to his complicity in the destruction of whole planets, Luke still maintains that there is something worth redeeming in Darth Vader. This is a challenging position to take, and maybe Luke is swayed by a romantic ideal of family connections. Still, are we ready or able to believe that evil can never completely expunge good? Was there some glimmer of good left buried in the hearts of Hitler or Stalin or Qaddafi or Bin Laden? What if we behaved like Luke and continued to work for their redemption, even being willing to offer our lives for them?

                Luke is determined not to give in to the Dark Side. Though tempted sorely, in the climactic scene, Luke refuses to commit patricide and throws his light saber away. In so doing he makes himself ultimately vulnerable to the evil power of the emperor. Yet it is this action (or refraining from action) that prompts Vader to save Luke’s life and thereby reclaiming his true identity of Anakin Skywalker. While much of this thinking is based on “The Power of Myth,” this line of thought is expressed very well in a Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhaECqI19aM

                (One additional layer to remember  is that this Sunday is also Father’s Day. That is an interesting twist considering the complicated relationship Luke Skywalker has with his father!)

                Somewhere in my education I was told that in one way or another all the stories that we tell are attempts to tell redemption stories (I don’t believe that this was direct reference to Campbell, but I think he sees thing in a similar manner). Campbell does say that part of the function of myth is to discover that in the middle of a monstrous world that life can be rapturous. Maybe that is one definition of redemption: experiencing the joy of living triumphing (even momentarily) over the horrific pain of life.

                And maybe this is why Jesus’ commandment is to love one another: that by our love we can see each other through the pain and dehumanization of living. Love is what saves us from the Dark Side.  “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That is a terrifying standard for Jesus to set. Yet that is the extent of love that Jesus is talking about. In another gospel Jesus says, “those who would save their life will lose it.” Ultimately, our lives are all that we really have to give for those we love.

                We have the privilege of celebrating a baptism this Sunday. In most of Christian tradition, baptisms are public events, not private ones. As a rule, we baptize in the context of a worship service, with the congregation gathered around. It is an occasion that happens in the midst of the extended family of Christ. This particular family coming to baptize their baby has a connection to Star Wars, and they have specifically asked to celebrate the sacrament as a part of this series. This has added some significance for me. Maybe one of the reasons we baptize infants is the confidence and the promise that somehow our love for each other will see us through all the awful stuff that life can bring. As a congregation we promise to love each other as Christ loves us, and to specifically love this infant and his family through all that may come in his life. We believe that there will always be good in his life.

                Love redeems life from all the pain, injustice, and despair we experience. This is not mushy Hallmark-card, My Pretty Pony kind of love. It is the determined, committed love that changes us. It is a choice to live this way and not that way, just as Luke finally chose to throw his weapon away. This story, and the Jesus story, challenges us to ask what kind of life we will choose.

June 10 Jedis & Disciples, Week 2

June 10                 Jedis & Disciples, Week 2: Apprenticing

Acts 9:8-19

Saul got up from the ground unable to see, even though his eyes were open. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus. For three days he continued to be blind, during which time he ate and drank nothing. There was a Disciple in Damascus named Ananias. Christ appeared to him in a vision, saying, “Ananias.” Ananias said, “Here I am.” Then Christ said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street, and at the house of Judah ask for a certain Saul of Tarsus. He is there praying. Saul had a vision that a man named Ananias will come and lay hands on him so that he would recover his sight.” But Ananias protested, “I have heard from many sources about Saul and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. He is here now with authorization from the chief priests to arrest everybody who calls on your name.” Christ said to Ananias, “Go anyway. Saul is the instrument I have chosen to bring my Name to Gentiles, to rulers, and to the people of Israel. I myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for my name. With that Ananias left. When he entered the house, he laid his hands on Saul, saying, “Saul, my brother, I have been sent by Jesus Christ, who appeared to you on the way here, to help you recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and his strength returned after he had eaten some food. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.

“Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us, the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

― Joseph Campbell, introduction to “The Power of Myth”

                What wonderful assurance Joseph Campbell gives us: “The labyrinth is thoroughly known.” That means that we are not blazing the trail. Others have gone before us and can guide us. Luke Skywalker had Obiwan, and in the 2^nd film he has Yoda. Saul (later known as Paul) had Ananias. We all know the story of Paul getting knocked off his horse by the religious experience he had on the road to Damascus. We don’t know so well his Yoda. Ananias wasn’t sure he wanted to take on this particular pupil, but it is worth noting that Paul did not spontaneously have all the knowledge and wisdom he needed. He was taught. Someone who had traveled the path before him guided him until the scales of his blindness finally fell away.

                Campbell reminds that this is exactly reason we tell and retell these mythic stories: they free us from the chains and dragons of our lives and free us to live fully and abundantly. Here are a few of the paths he takes in the conversation on “The Power of Myth”: 1. Freedom from the expectations of an external system, 2. How myths offer us freedom, and 3. The freedom and power of acting from our center.

                I see these as corresponding with the following Star Wars scenes (from “The Empire Strikes Back): 1. Luke and Vader’s confrontation at the end of the film. Vader and his mechanized existence embody capitulating to the system (in the film, The Empire). Luke loses his hand, which sets him on a path parallel to Vader’s. Campbell asserts that myths cannot tell us how to change the system but rather how to live with integrity in the midst of the system.

                2. Luke meeting Yoda. Yoda is the voice and the wisdom that has gone before, the one who has charted the labyrinth. We are not simply fledglings pushed from the nest to fly or fall. Yoda’s wisdom and knowledge are strange to Luke, and he has trouble accepting much of it, even at first being almost unable to accept Yoda’s authority as a Jedi master. Even so, it is Yoda’s experience that opens the path for Luke to become a Jedi, to fulfill his destiny and become all that he truly is.

                3. Yoda’s teaching about being at peace. This corresponds to Campbell’s insights about find our center. It is in our center that we are truly authentic and alive. It is from our center that we find the strength to face our dragons. In our center we are freed from our ego (the construct of that “secondary organ). Another scene here is Luke finding Vader in the swamp on Dagoba, a reflection of himself. Clearly at this point Vader is Luke’s dragon.

                Con E. did a great job last Sunday of telling the Jonah story in first person (which I hadn’t thought of!). We could find someone to do the same with the story of Saul/Paul’s conversion and connection with Ananias.

                I think we had a good Sunday last week, though we had little in the way of experiential activities (other than becoming a part of the story as they watch parts of the movie). I’d like to find some way of inviting the worshipers in on the experience-path.

                Campbell’s assertion is that myths are all about transformation. We see the transformation of the Hero on the journey. But telling those stories (the only stories that really matter, for Campbell) also invites us into transformation, to claim the rapture of living even in the midst of a monstrous world.

Jedis and Disciples June 3

Series Title: JEDIS AND DISCIPLES: the hero’s journey
Anchor: JEDIS AND DISCIPLES: the hero’s journey
Thread: clips from Star Wars
June 3 -Wk#1 – introduction to myth; entertaining the inner life;

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Joseph Campbell, Star Wars, and Jesus Christ: this is the cast of players in our upcoming drama. Campbell’s deep sensitivity to the genre and function of myth comes as a deep challenge to traditional modes of operating. Interestingly enough, Campbell (who died in 1987) foretold much of the Great Emergence and transformation that Diana Butler Bass, Phyllis Tickle, and other are now proclaiming. Campbell said: “We live in a period of the terminal moraine of mythology… Mythologies that built civilization and are no longer working that way are in rubble all around us.” He also clarifies the Creation vs. Evolution” debate as succinctly as anyone I’ve come across:  “Myth has to deal with the cosmology of today and it’s no good when it is based on a cosmology that is out of date. Religion has to accept the science of the day and penetrate it to the mystery. The conflict is between the science of 2000 B.C. and the science of 2000 A.D.”

So our task is to discover and engage today’s mythology. And our particular task in the studio (and I think the great challenge of this series) is to move this past an intellectual exercise into something visceral and experiential. So maybe our underlying question for this series is, “How to we experience the transformative and sustaining power of myth?” Campbell again posits this in a compelling way: “God is the metaphor (myth) for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being.” He goes on to say that the myth that is essential and functional is the one that puts you in touch with the mystery that is the ground of your being.

Human beings have been story-tellers likely from the time we developed language (maybe it was the desire to tell our stories that drove us to develop language?). I don’t know what those first stories were, but I suspect they were more than just an attempt to report on the latest hunt. Those stories might have been an attempt to express the gratitude of having meat to eat, or the escape from a predator, or the mysterious connection to some greater Spirit. The images so artfully drawn on the walls of ancient caves convey a desire engage those essential metaphors of life.

An insane twist has occurred in recent generations, though. Somehow we have lost the appreciation of myth and storytelling. To be direct, our society considers myths to be lies, untruths, flights of fancy. We instruct our imaginative children to stop telling ‘stories’, by which we mean lies.

We have forgotten that telling these stories, living in dynamic myths, is how we make sense of life and connect ourselves to the electric mystery that is life. The stories of the Exodus, the Exile, and Jesus’ death and resurrection are exactly these kind of stories. The challenge of our day is whether the story of the cross and the empty tomb still connect us to the Mystery, or if they need to be recast and retold, or if their cosmology is too outdated to speak essentially anymore.

The apostle Paul lived in the same kind of time, and he was telling a new story. Living in an age of rampant death, the ever-present Roman Empire, and an oddly cosmopolitan mixing of cultures he offers a symbol of agonizing death as a metaphor of vibrant life. At face value, this makes no sense at all. The cross was a tool of torture, intimidation and oppression. How could the cross be a metaphor of life? Yet that is exactly what Paul and other Christians experienced. He told a new story for a changing age.

In many ways (though not with the pervasive depth of the gospels), George Lucas told a story that captured the imagination of the late 20^th century. Star Wars has become part of our cultural vocabulary, even for those who might never have seen the films. The story speaks to our longing to battle the Empire of our lives (however we encounter that), to discover and claim our inner power, to find the community that welcomes us and upholds us.

Engaging myth is telling stories, but not just any stories. We are seeking stories that matter, stories that transform, stories that connect us with the Mystery and the energy of life. What are the great stories that arise from our own age and cosmology? Those will be the stories that will become the gospel of our times.

Pentecost Day – May 27

Pentecost Day – May 27

Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

She comes sailing on the wind,
her wings flashing in the sun,
 on a journey just begun, she flies on.
And in the passage of her flight,
her song rings out through the night,
full of laughter, full of light, she flies on.

This hymn by Gordon Light, though a lovely hymn, is typical of how we often approach Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is described as a dove, a breeze, a gentle presence. The Gospel of John reinforces this image when Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and an Advocate. I think we relegate the Spirit to the sidelines of our lives as a kind of ethereal presence more often than not glimpsed only in our peripheral vision.

But there is another aspect to the presence of the Holy Spirit. The first chapter of Mark says that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to face temptation. SCUCC has a sense of that kind of the Spirit’s presence when we say “May the Spirit of the Living God… push us into places that we wouldn’t necessarily go ourselves.”

The Celts have given us this persistent, strident Spirit in the image of the wild goose. Some wild animals are cute and cuddly. Geese are not. Geese are noisy, cantankerous, and sometimes downright mean. I can imagine a wild goose driving Jesus into the wilderness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdYwVrgdNJc   A gentle breeze might not knock me off course. A cooing dove probably would not make me change direction. A wild goose? Flapping and hissing and charging? Yes, I would move!

Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church, when the Spirit came upon the apostles and they spoke in a variety of languages. They were likely quite happy among themselves, locked in that upper room. But the Spirit changed the conversation and drove them into the streets of Jerusalem. You can almost see the goose at work.

Where are we when the Wild Goose confronts us? Where does the Wild Goose need to drive us, either as individuals or as a community? When does the presence of God interrupt our routines, our expectations, our comfortable positions? Maybe the sound of Pentecost voices is more like the cacophony of geese than the United Nations.

May 20 - Week 6 Finding Balance

May 20, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #6:  Finding Balance

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Finding Balance

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Clothed and walking with dignity, the figure strides into a new future

Colossians 3:9-15

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.

                It seems that there is a lot of synchronicity in that this week is also our graduation Sunday. As the graduates don their robes and stride across the stage they are walking into a wide open future. For the first time, the figure in our drawing has put on a robe; she has claimed her own dignity. Last week she was dancing with abandon. Now she walks with a measured pace. She has claimed a balance that will see her into the future.

                I am not a great fan of Paul’s letters, and much so for the pseudo-Pauline letters. That’s an esoteric way of say that most scholars think it very unlikely that Paul himself wrote the letter to the Colossians (because of writing styles, content, and historical references). But hidden in the midst of some pretty crappy theology are a few gems. This passage is one of those. The author uses the metaphor of robing for the spiritual life. We can don a new self, a Christ-self, like a new set of clothing or more appropriately for the day like a graduation robe. We can leave behind negative aspects of our lives, our wounds and scars, like so much dirty laundry. This letter tells us that the clothing that makes for a healthy and peaceful life are compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  It sounds a lot like loving each other as we love ourselves, more like the way Christ loves us. And even if we think that those characteristics do not come naturally to us, we can wear them like stiff new blue jeans until they are soft, broken-in, and comfortable on our frames. I debated about including verse 15, the last one which encourages us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. I finally decided to include it because I realized that it is in fact the heart of why we carry the name of Christ. It is good advice for anyone to be compassionate, kind, humble, etc. But we put on those clothes because it is what we are called to do as we follow Christ. Early Christians understood that for all their disagreements, it was the peace of Christ that bound them together, that gave them their balance.

                Finding that balance is one of the pieces of wisdom that makes life a joy. Somehow the dignity that our figure has found speaks of a balance that she has now attained. It can be exciting to swing from extreme to extreme, but it is also exhausting. And like a car out of control on the highway, swerving back and forth will eventually  make you skid off the road. Following Christ, taking on the peace of Christ, is one of the ways that we find our balance in life.

                We will need to find ways of recognizing our graduates, as well as the entire Christian Education program. Melani tells me that the Sunday Schoolers would like to reprise their song as well. We have also talked about bringing the prayer beads back, and offering them to worshippers to take with them (perhaps for a donation!). And maybe we can find some way of offering a metaphorical piece of clothing for people to put on as a symbol of putting on love and peace and Christ. This has been a great series, and we can celebrate the Spirit that has brought us from woundedness to forward moving balance!

Dare to Dance Week #5: Stepping Out/Freedom

May 13, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #5:  Stepping Out/Freedom

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Releasing/ Opening

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  She has fully risen and is dancing with joy

2 Samuel 6:12-16

 It was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

In one of our planning sessions I shared a story from the book, “Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens” in which one author (a Korean woman) tells of a time when she and her mother were walking to a village where some relatives lived. Her mother was a very traditional Korean woman: reserved, obedient, modest and subservient. On their walk they stop by a stream to wash in the cool water. But her mother does not just wash her hands or face. She begins to strip down. The author (relating her memory as a girl when this occurred) was horrified. But to make things worse, her mother begins to dance around in the deserted woods. It took years for the author to realize how bound and constricted her mother was by her traditional role in that society. That day by the stream was a rare moment when freedom overtook her, and in that freedom she had to dance. Just like her traditional clothing, she had shed (even for the briefest of times) the constraints of her life. She was naked, and she was free, and she danced.

I see that same joy in our figure for this week. Her nudity has nothing to do with shame or poverty. She is free and beautiful and perfect just as God made her. And now she dances, stretching free of the cramps that fear had imposed upon her. Her arms and legs reach out into the world. She vibrates with joy. Where in the first image she is isolated by her posture, here she is a part of the energy of life. At first she seemed a small child, vulnerable and defenseless. Here though we see all the strength and vitality of adulthood just attained. She is ready to make her own mark on the world.

David had made his mark on the world, too. He has gained the throne of Israel, and in this passage he is bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. David is bringing the very presence of God into the capital city, the heart of the people. And so he dances. His joy overflows and exceeds all expectations of decorum and reserve that a king show exhibit. Elsewhere in this passage, David joy is symbolized by the free feast he shares with all the people. The text says he is leaping and dancing before God. This is no socially acceptable waltz. This is gyrating joy, a primal celebration of life.

In an interesting twist, like the daughter in the first story who is appalled by her mother’s behavior, David’s wife Michal is appalled at his behavior. So much so that the text tells us “she despised him in her heart.” It is one of the curiosities of healing and the joy it may bring that others around us may not share those feelings. In fact, it can cause resentment or even anger. In addicted family systems, they have often learned how to cope with stress of the illness but not on the stress of recovery. When one family member begins to recover the old coping methods no longer function. Sad but true that too many times not everybody is happy when somebody heals.

The point here is not a warning against dancing in order to prevent offending somebody. No, it is vitally important to dance anyway. David bringing the Ark into the city was a sign that the wounds of their warfare were ending. God, the life-giver, was here. The Korean mother danced even amid her daughter’s crying because she sensed the presence of a liberating Spirit. Out figure dances without regard to the cost because she has risen from her pain and celebrates the gift of joy.

This Sunday is also mother’s day and we should thing about how our celebration may lift that up. I am reminded that one of the origins of Mother’s day is Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. Following the devastation of the Civil War, she call for a day of peace and life (http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm ) Here is a video of dramatic reading of that proclamation (a couple minutes in) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/mothers_day_for_peace_a_dramatic

I will also try make contact with Don Titmus again and see if we can bring Conscious Dance back into the Studio. The energy and freedom of Conscious Dance would lend themselves well to the feel of the day.

So the question I face in thinking about our coming Sunday (one more to go!) is, How do we give ourselves the freedom to finally dance?

Dare to Dance Week 4 - May 6

May 6, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #4:  Releasing/Opening

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Releasing/ Opening

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Child is naked, crouching, fists clenched, beginning to rise

Mark 10:46-52

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Our figure has now risen (if not fully) and her clenched fist has opened outward. Whatever she was clasping tightly has been released and now something new can fill her open hands. Henri Nouwen wrote in his book, “Open Hands”: To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, therefore, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises, and find hope for yourself, your fellowman (sic) and the whole community in which you live. 

I suspect that one of our greatest obstacles to healing is our inability to release our woundedness. Bartimaeus knew what he wanted. He wanted to see. (Mark is also making the point that this blind person could already “see” clearly who Jesus was, while the religious people were blind to who Jesus was) I think too many of us don’t want to see or hear or dance. We are getting some kind of demented reward out of wallowing in our victimhood. I believe it also feels safer to stay as we are (even if what we are is wounded) than to be open to becoming something new. The figure in the drawing stands with Bartimaeus, ready to receive.

This is the Sunday that Tsahai and her dancers will be with us. Their healing will be seen in their dancing, but not in physical restoration. This may be a good time to explore the nature of healing: not as cure but as wholeness.  Because of the need for more space, the dancers will be performing in Bond Hall. I suggest that we begin our worship in the sanctuary and then move into Bond Hall and conclude there. Maybe we can get Tsahai and/or a dancer to lead us from space to space.

I’ve also had a conversation with Bill S. who has been attending SCUCC the last couple of months. Bill is a pastor and hospice chaplain. He is willing to talk about healing at the end of life. Marge G. blew us away with her dialog and interaction, and I can’t promise that from Bill but he might have some insight.

I think our focus should be on the openness for whatever healing is offered. For Bartimaeus it was sight, for those in hospice it might be peace, for Tsaihai’s dancers it is beauty in a different form. How can we free ourselves from defining the healing we want, and open ourselves to the healing that Love can offer?