the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
Albert Einstein
The physician and the artist beheld one the other;
Each a sage, each a well-learnèd brother –
Might they oppose and with their wisdom compete?
Or rather, together, address a mystery complete?
There are many vying for attention, but I’ll tell you about the one I’ve just started reading and that was alluded to yesterday – Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience.
I had a book gift voucher to spend and wandered into the chain store pondering what on earth I might spend it on. And there it was – calling out my name! And only 5 bucks more than the value on the gift card.
Why did it call to me? My life long disposition, as people focused as it is, has been a bit dyslexic as far as “feeling” language is concerned. I have trouble accurately naming the emotions depicted above, even though I feel empathy with anyone experiencing them. Of the head, body and heart centers, I live primarily in my head and am adept at “thinking” language. I gradually learned to spend some time in the “body” center, my secondary preference. There I can discuss how I experience something, no longer limited to my thoughts. This has been a gift in connecting with others. Most remote to me, but important for the continuing journey of integration and communication, is my heart center, where nameless emotions roil and churn.
Maybe Brown’s book is the primer I’ve been ready for for sometime (I’m in my 70s!) – why it called my name when I went browsing. Maybe the juxtaposition of experience in the subtitle had something to do with it. Maybe Brown’s 13 clusters of 87 emotions will open up that next frontier of unexplored territory where phenomena recognised and experienced can be felt and named.
Whatever, it represents a beckoning forth and I am always up for that! Now back to some reading …
#Bloganuary Writing Prompt: What is a Superpower You Wish You Had?
It seems one is doomed to push back on these prompts. A lot of us don’t realise the “superpower” we already possess. My brief brush with martial arts as a teenager left me with one life lesson (and a gammy ankle!) “Do not resist force used against you – receive its strength and use it to your advantage.” For this reason, one’s perceived weakness can become a superpower – something that the heroes and antiheroes of the Marvel menagerie have begun to highlight.
“My strength is made perfect in weakness,” is part of the sage reflection of the Apostle Paul as he describes the act of owning his flaws and vulnerabilities as making room for his experience of the transforming strength of Christ.
And how’s this for synchronicity? Today I was gifted a book by Brené Brown, and in looking up her bio, I came across this TED talk that put her name on the map.
I leave it here as a benediction!
#Bloganuary Writing Prompt: What is a cause you’re passionate about and why?
News just broke of his deportation
Tennis can’t save his mixed reputation
Oz immigration brooks no mitigation
Outrage and sorrow split more than this nation.
Yet refugees linger long through the years
Detained indefinitely for fleeing their fears
Split from family, self, friends and their peers
All but forgotten, alone with their tears.
Brief juxtaposition highlights our shame
Celebrity status throws light on the game
Our government toys with those it would tame
“Rules are rules” and “there’s only you to blame.”
Whether deserved or not, humanity’s on ice
Fortunes can change in a blink or a trice
All it takes is a throw of the dice
Those who hold power determine the price.
I dream of a world that is more like a home
That resembles the vision of the ancient shalom.
Wholeness of purpose, like sweet honeycomb
Friendship abounds, and life is a poem.
Gingerly I laid out my clinical case
Involving some conflict I refused to face
My mentor stood up, tall and intense,
Determined to inject me with some good common sense.
“Who is your bishop?” he demanded to know.
“We have none – we are our own,” I declared so.
He leaned forth and pounded table with fist.
Snarling “Then claim your authority!” – he seemed to insist.
His meaning I savored and began to reclaim
Authority I avoided when it could have been my aim
Not from loveless base or greed for control
But love that is authentic and seeks to make whole.
Authority founded on Christ-love drives me these days
Boundless and free, without fear or malaise
No dogma to nip at heels and oppress
Confounding those who control and suppress.
For all whose timidity prevents them to thrive
May they seek their kernel that makes them alive
That’s what’s authentic and where authority’s found
And leads to new vistas where all good abounds.
#Bloganuary Writing Prompt: A Challenge You Faced and Overcame
Pimpled and bespectacled, I stood before the class
“One minute speech,” he said, “if you expect to pass.”
Butterflies a-flutter, my propensity to stutter,
Prevented speech, for only nonsense I could splutter.
“Sit down, Ryle,” he commanded with disdain,
“Another turn will come, if marks you wish to gain.”
Red-faced and downcast, I shuffled to my seat.
This fear of public speaking, showing off my sound defeat.
Now a retired preacher-man
who looks back on that occasion.
I shake my head and wonder
at the powers of persuasion.
Mentors woke within me
A strong and fervent passion
Tempered by my quietness
and words I liked to fashion
Some stints in factory and emporium
and some practice on cows in confusion
honed some oratory skill and an ornery will
to beat my shy disposition.
Yet Jonah-like I fled
Nineveh filled me with dread
Still the Inner Nudge-Nudge gently made me budge-budge
Fifty years on, speech has long been my bread.
Is it me or do others feel like wreaking mischief on some of these questions? (Insert appropriate emoji for signaling no hostile intent!)
What is an ideal day?
Each day, whether work or leisure, significant anniversary or ordinary humdrum, free or restricted through health or circumstance, provides a fresh unexplored landscape that is fecund with opportunity and possibility, risk and hazard. Each day, then, depending one’s disposition, can present as ideal.
As for me? Carpe Diem! Seize the Day!
What was that? Why do you assume
That emoji use is something I consume?
Annoying little blighters that would sully my page
when they appear, winking and blinking; they cause me rage.
Meant to subtly enhance a tone,
they change one’s voice to something unknown.
If I can’t write a coherent phrase
A cartoon blip won’t improve my ways.
A polly I knew texted only in emoji –
She was once the Minister in charge of diplomacy.
Effective? Who are the ones that can really say?
Egyptian hieroglyphics may have saved the day!
Star Trek memes abounding; different voices sounding;
To live boldly is to step into the unknown –
for those grafted to perfection, dare to be marred:
for those winning affection, dare to say no:
for those wedded to success, dare to fail:
for those striving to be special, dare to embrace the ordinary:
for those hoarding knowledge, dare to spill out extravagantly:
for those clinging to safety, dare to let go:
for those at the happy party, dare to suffer
for those in charge, dare to be vulnerable
for those lost in numbness, dare to engage.
… and so, live long and prosper!
Wondering Pilgrim 