Story: Who Are You?
JCC 030120 Who Are You from architect on Vimeo.
Meditations on “I Am” and “I Am Bread” statements and Lent: songs, poetry, quotations.
Wild Geese (excerpt) — Mary Oliver
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Questions to consider about I Am and I Am Bread:
- Who are you in relationship to YWWH or the I Am Who I Am, I Will Be Who I Will Be?
- Who are you when you’re on a journey?
- Who do you want to be?
- Who have you been?
- Who are you right now?
- What are you metaphorically, spiritually, socially, existentially hungry for?
- What are you physically and mentally and emotionally hungry for?
- What hungers or passions keep you balanced? How might they become too extreme or imbalanced?
- And what hungers and passions need to change in your life?
Songs about I Am
- All I Am by Jess Glynne (pop rock)
- I Am by Mary J Blige (pop rock)
- Who I Am by Awolnation (alt rock)
- So Am I by Ava Max (pop)
- I Am by Crowder (Christian ballad)
- The Way I Am by Eminem (rap, note: some cursing)
who are you really?
you are not a name
or a height, or a weight
or a gender
you are not an age
and you are not where you are from
you are your favorite books
and the songs stuck in your head
you are your thoughts
and what you eat for breakfast
on Saturday mornings
you are a thousand things
but everyone chooses
to see the million things
you are not
you are not
where you are from
you are
where you are going
and i’d like
to go there
too”
— Attributed to MK (Mary Kate?)
I Am Meditations
I am all the ages I’ve ever been. ― Anne Lamott
The first question she was asked was What do you do? as if that were enough to define you. Nobody ever asked you who you really were, because that changed. You might be a judge or a mother or a dreamer. You might be a loner or a visionary or a pessimist. You might be the victim, and you might be the bully. You could be the parent, and also the child. You might wound one day and heal the next. ― Jodi Picoult
Feelings are something you have; not something you are. ― Shannon L. Alder
You are not born with beauty, your beauty is created by who you are. Your inner beauty is more important than how people see you on the outside. ― Emily Coussons
I am what I am. A fighter. — Gordon Ramsay
I know that I am what I am. But I am not sure what I am. — Mason Cooley
I am what I am, I’m doing very well in my life, and I’m thankful to God for that. — LL Cool J Only when we face the impossible, and experience the unbearable, do we find out who we truly are. ― Vironika Tugaleva
If you don’t know who you truly are, you’ll never know what you really want. ― Roy T. Bennett
We have this weird thing in the world where you don’t get insulted for what you do, you get insulted for who you are. ― John Green
People are who they are and, try as you might, you cannot make them be what you want them to be. ― Leila Sales
Anne Lamott on Lent
Well, it’s the most profound holiday in the Christian tradition. And I think two things really come to mind. One is something that the great writer Barbara Johnson said, which is that we are Easter people living in a Good Friday world. And I think that every year the world seems more of a Good Friday world. And it’s excruciating, whether it’s Japan, or Libya, or whether its your own best friends and their children who are sick, which is something that makes no sense when you think about a loving God. But it’s a time when we get to remember that all the stuff that we think makes us of such value, all the time we spend burnishing our surfaces, is really not what God sees. God, he or she, loves us absolutely unconditionally, as is. It’s a come as you are party.
… we come from ashes and return to ashes, and yet there is something, as the poets have often said, that remains standing when we’re gone.
… So in Easter — and Passover too — something that happens is that we stop. This is the ‘dark night of the soul’ stuff that John the Divine writes about; that in that stopping we may fall into an abyss that we have been trying to outrun since we were little children … and the American way, I think, is to trick out the abyss so it’s a little bit nicer. Maybe go to Ikea and get a more festive throw rug. But in Lent, if you are a person of committed spiritual growth, you do stop.
… When I was 38, my best friend, Pammy, died, and we went shopping about two weeks before she died, and she was in a wig and a wheelchair. I was buying a dress for this boyfriend I was trying to impress, and I bought a tighter, shorter dress than I was used to. And I said to her, ‘Do you think this makes my hips look big?’ and she said to me, so calmly, ‘Anne, you don’t have that kind of time.’ … the resonance of that simple statement; when I stop, when I go into contemplation and meditation, when I breathe again and do the sacred action of plopping and hanging my head and being done with my own agenda, I hear that, ‘You don’t have that kind of time,’ you have time only to cultivate presence and authenticity and service, praying against all odds to get your sense of humor back.
— Anne Lamott
Who Am I?
What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.
I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsín;
I am not of the kingdom of Irãqain, nor of the country of Khorãsãn.
I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell;
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwãn.
My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;
‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.
He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except ‘Yã Hú’ and ‘Yã man Hú.’
I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;
I have no business save carouse and revelry.
If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.
If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph for ever.
O Shamsi Tabríz, I am so drunken in this world,
That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell.
Food, Eating & Ethics
| Being mindful about what we eat, about our food choices, contributes to the wellbeing of ourselves, our relationships, and this whole world. Let breakfast be a place to pause and give thanks. And pay attention. — Rev Gail *** “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “What’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said. — A. A. Milne *** In modern life, people tend to think their bodies belong to them, that they can do anything they want to themselves. But your body is not only yours. Your body belongs to your ancestors, your parents, and future generations. It also belongs to society and to all the other living beings. The trees, the clouds, the soil, and every living thing brought about the presence of your body. We can eat with care, knowing we are caretakers of our bodies, rather than their owners. ― Thích Nhất Hạnh, How to Eat This Is Just To Say — William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold |
| FOOD, EATING & ETHICS Food Ethics — Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State Food and ethics intersect in everyday practices as well as in abstract inquiry. Buying a tomato in winter, refusing to consume animal products, participating in a community garden, or petitioning governments regarding agriculture subsidies serve as instances when food and ethics converge. Just Eating — UCC.org on ‘just eating’ Eating can be a mundane activity done with little thought or reflection; or it can be an opportunity to thoughtfully live out our faith and practice justice. … five key aspects of our relationship with food.Food sharing as sacramentalThe health of our bodiesThe access others have to foodThe health of the earth, which our food choices influenceThe ways we use food to extend hospitality and enrich relationshipsSome resources to explore further:Nutrition Ethics ToolboxTime Magazine article on 33 Ways to Eat Environmentally-FriendlyHuffington Post article about Thich Nhat Hanh’s practices and philosophies for eating midfully and justlyUnited Church of Christ/UCC (regional guide) curriculum on ‘Just Eating’ (PDF leader’s guide with reading about eating faithfully)Unitarian Universalists (UU) on ethical eating: resourcesWorld Food Day statement by Pope Francis (2018)Additional resources of interest (list at bottom of UCC page on Hunger and Food Security) About Breakfast What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast? — Anthony Bourdain Hope makes a good breakfast. Eat plenty of it.— Ian Fleming One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. — Robert Heinlein Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. — Lewis Carroll My fantasy breakfast is just a really good egg scramble. Maybe I’ll add a little feta, so, uh, obviously not totally dairy-free. Definitely some vegetables, maybe some really nice tortillas; something to make it like a Mexican-style breakfast. I just really love breakfast. — Alex Honnold We as human beings have the amazing capacity to be reborn at breakfast everyday and say, “This is a new day.” — Jack Kornfield Non-violence is a permanent attitude we bring to the breakfast table and bring to bed at night. — Coretta Scott King If you have children, you cannot feed them forever with flags for breakfast and cartridges for lunch. You need something more substantial. Unless you educate your children and spend less money on conflicts, unless you develop your science, technology and industry, you don’t have a future. — Shimon Peres “A few years ago, I asked some children, “What is the purpose of eating breakfast? One boy replied, “To get energy for the day.” Another said, “The purpose of eating breakfast is to eat breakfast.” I think the second child is more correct.” … Every minute can be a holy, sacred minute. Where do you seek the spiritual? You seek the spiritual in every ordinary thing that you do every day. Sweeping the floor, watering the vegetables, and washing the dishes become holy and sacred if mindfulness is there. With mindfulness and concentration, everything becomes spiritual. ― Thích Nhất Hạnh, How to Eat I like breakfast-time better than any other moment in the day. No dust has settled on one’s mind then, and it presents a clear mirror to the rays of things. — George Eliot I get up every morning and read the obituary column. If my name’s not there, I eat breakfast. — George Burns Loving Oneself and One’s Body I hate to say it, but only profound self-love will work, union with that scared breath-holding self, and not a diet that forbids apples or avocado. Horribly, but as usual, only kindness and grace — spiritual WD-40 — can save us. … It’s really okay, though, to have (or pray for) an awakening around your body. It’s okay to stop hitting the snooze button, and to pay attention to what makes you feel great about yourself, one meal at a time. … The self-respect and peace of mind you long for is not out there. It’s within. I hate that. I resent that more than I can say. But it’s true. … Maybe some of us can try to eat a bit less, and walk a bit more, and make sure to wear pants that do not hurt our thighs or our feelings. Drinking more water is the solution to all problems. Doing a three-minute meditation every day will change your life. Naps are nice. … I’ll leave you with this: I’ve helped some of the … women at my church get healthy, by suggesting they prepare each meal as if they had asked our beloved [guest] to lunch or dinner. They wouldn’t say, “Here … let’s eat standing up in the kitchen. This tube of barbecue Pringles is all for you. I have my own,” and then stand there gobbling from their own tubular container. No, they’d get out pretty dishes, and arrange wonderful foods on the plates, and set one plate before [guest] at the table, a plate filled with love, pride and connection. That’s what we have longed for, our whole lives, and get to create. — Anne Lamott |
