Walt Whitman – Page 2 – Jackson Community Church

Reflections on Lent 2: Genesis 17 & Mark 8: names, identities, life, self.

By jacksonnhccPosted on February 20, 2018Posted in Home, Justice & Activism, Weekly MeditationsTagged "Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start" O, "Losing Myself to Find Myself", "Who Do Men Say That I Am?", Alan Brehm, ames H. Cone, and Joy, Anne Lamott, Billy Graham, Brian Doyle, Bruce Epperly, Center for Action and Contemplation, Credo, Cullen Murphy, Dave Barnhart, David Lose, Following the Path: The Search for a Life of Passion, Fr Richard Rohr, G.K.Chesterton, identities, In the Meantime, Joan Chittister, John R.W. Stott, Jurgen Moltmann, life, martin luther king jr, Nadia Bolz-Weber, ohn Adams, Oscar A. Romero, Patheos, patheos.com, Pulpit Fiction., Purpose, Reflections on Lent 2: Genesis 17 & Mark 8: names, Robb Mc Coy and Eric Fistler, Romano Guardini, rumi, self., Sermon on Losing Your Life, Sr Joan Chittister, The Adams-Jefferson Letters:, The Atlantic.com, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, The Oprah Magazine, The Violence of Love, Theology of Hope, Thich Nhat Hanh, Waking Dreamer, Walt Whitman, William H. Willimon

Themes in Lenten readings from Genesis 17 and Mark 8 about claiming names, embracing new life, and transforming identity. Meditations on ideas such as “Taking up the cross” and “losing life to gain it.”

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
— Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

Soul, if you want to learn secrets,
your heart must forget about shame  and dignity.
You are God’s lover,  yet you worry what people are saying.
― Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi

Giving Up a Life, a Self, an Identity: Themes from Mark 8

Do not lose yourself in the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. Do not get caught in your anger, worries, or fears. Come back to the present moment, and touch life deeply. This is mindfulness. ― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and LiberationWe begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be. The only problem is that there is also so much other stuff, typically fixations with how people perceive us, how to get more of the things that we think will make us happy, and with keeping our weight down. So the real issue is how do we gently stop being who we aren’t? … Here’s how I became myself: mess, failure, mistakes, disappointments, and extensive reading; limbo, indecision, setbacks, addiction, public embarrassment, and endless conversations with my best women friends; the loss of people without whom I could not live, the loss of pets that left me reeling, dizzying betrayals but much greater loyalty, and overall, choosing as my motto William Blake’s line that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love. — Anne Lamott, “Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start” O, The Oprah Magazine

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Reflections on awake, arise: scriptures that call us to engagement

By jacksonnhccPosted on September 12, 2017Posted in Adult, Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged arise, awake, Carl Sagan, Dale Carnegie, E.B. White, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Friedrich Nietzche, Henry David Thoreau, Krista Tippett, Leonardo da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Pema Chodron, rumi, Soichiro Honda, Walt WHiman, Walt Whitman

Meditations inspired by scriptures that call us to wake up, be alert, pay attention, be present and engaged. What does that spiritual practice look like in your life?

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes
Smiles awake you when you arise. — Thomas Dekker

I cannot be awake for nothing looks to me as if did before.
Or else I am awake for the first time
and all before has been a mean sleep.
— Walt Whitman

There are many whose eyes are awake
and whose hearts are asleep;
Yet, what can be seen
By mere creatures of water and clay?
But he who keeps his heart awake
Will know and live this mystery;
While the eyes of his head may sleep
His heart will open hundreds of eyes.
If your heart isn’t yet illumined
Be awake always, be a seeker of the heart,
Be at war continually with your carnal soul.
But if your heart is already awakened,
Sleep peacefully, sleep in the arms of Love,
For your spiritual eye is not absent
From the seven heavens and seven directions
— Attributed to Rumi

Awake

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds awake and a basic understanding of how the world works. — Carl Sagan

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn. — Henry David Thoreau

Buddhist mindfulness is about being present but I also think its about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on. — Krista Tippett

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake? — Leonardo da Vinci

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. — Pema Chodron

In these times you have to an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning. — Carl Sandburg

Today is life —the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.— Dale Carnegie

I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know? — Ernest Hemingway

Sleeping is no mean art. For its sake one must stay awake all day. — Friedrich Nietzche

Arise

Person after person has said to me in these last few days that this new world we face terrifies them. I can understand how that feeling would arise unless one believes that men are capable of greatness beyond their past achievements. … The times now call for mankind as a whole to rise to great heights. We must have faith or else we die. — Eleanor RooseveltFirst thing every morning, before you arise, say out loud, ‘I believe’ three times. — Ovid

I am not concerned that you have fallen, I am concerned that you arise. — Abraham Lincoln

When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. — Marcus Aurelius

I arise in the morning town between the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy it. This makes it hard to plan the day. — E.B. White

There is a Japanese proverb that literally goes, ‘Raise the sail with your stronger hand’, meaning you must go after the opportunities in life that you are best equipped to do. — Soichiro Honda