“God comes to us disguised as our life. Everything belongs; God uses everything. There are no dead-ends. There is no wasted energy. Everything. ”

— Paula D’Arcy plus Richard Rohr in The Universal Christ

On November 8th, we will mark the first anniversary of the 2018 Camp Fire that nearly obliterated the town of Paradise, CA, killed 85, burned over 150,000 acres and left our own Marilyn Colbert homeless. Fortunately, Marilyn has landed securely back here among us and for this, we are very grateful.

And as I write this reflection on Tuesday, October the 29th, we are still living through another devastating fire season filled with mass evacuations, power outages, and toxic smoke.

One of the hardest things about living through wildfires and hurricanes is that it is easy to fall into a “worry” loop as your anxiety increases about all the unknowns. Will the power be on tonight? Will the air be smoky tomorrow? Am I ready to evacuate? And of course, if I have to evacuate, where will I go to be safe? Add to that the trauma of watching the destruction happen with graphic video and horrifying detail. Then multiply all that worry and anxiety by each day that you go without being able to reduce the “cone of uncertainty”.

Right now, all the public safety entities are pushing out preparedness messages about “Go Bags” and “emergency kits”, but no one is inviting folks to be prepared for the worry and anxiety that goes along with these events, perhaps because these are spiritual and emotional issues and most folks would rather talk about physical concerns instead of feelings and spiritual practice.

As people of faith and practice, we have the opportunity to apply our spiritual wisdom and practice in small, daily challenges so that when the going gets tough, we’ve already got practices and tools that help us navigate difficulty. If you’re feeling lost, these questions might help you unlock the resources you already have that can help.

How do you prepare to face the unknown? When disaster is on the horizon, what helps you find courage and strength? What role does being part of a spiritual community play in your spiritual preparedness for disaster?

The Good Table Volunteers at the El Sobrante Stroll, 2019

“An ounce of practice is worth more than a ton of preaching.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

Concert pianist Arthur Rubenstein was walking down the street in Manhattan when a tourist stopped him and asked, “do you know the way to Carnegie Hall?”  And Rubenstein reportedly replied, “practice, practice, practice!”

 Do you know the way to develop a deeper relationship with the Divine?  Same answer.

Now Rubenstein was certainly thinking of the piano (or any other artistic pursuit), but what are the spiritual practices that lead us closer to God?  My crackpot theory is that absolutely anything may become a spiritual practice if done with intention.  But not all so-called spiritual practices are created equal, so let’s take a look at the spiritual practices of Jesus.

In the Biblical witness, Jesus feeds, prays, heals, loves, and forgives.  What is remarkable about all these spiritual practices as Jesus did them is that he chose to love his enemies, forgive those who were difficult to forgive, and fed and healed among the most despised outcasts of his society.  And when Jesus managed to get away from the disciples and the crowds to pray, he chose places of quiet contemplation that were a great contrast to the busy and bustling settings of his healing, feeding, forgiving ministry.

 The central miracle of the Jesus story, in my view, is that God took human form.  God took on a body like mine, like yours with all of its problems and joys and need for spiritual practice.  Bodies learn and grow through practice. Just like it takes a lot of repetition and tedious, physical practice to learn to play a Bach suite on the piano, we need to engage our full selves, our body-spirits in order to live a life in communion with the Divine.

What spiritual practices do you do regularly?  Do you pray on a regular basis?  How do you pray?  Do you get on your knees, sit on a zafu, go to a special place, listen to music, what do you do when you pray?

There are no correct or wrong answers to these questions.  But simply asking the question is not enough, as beings who live in bodies, we must practice, practice, practice.

Apriums

“Perpetual anticipation is good for the soul, but it’s bad for the heart. It’s very good for practicing self-control. It’s very good for morals, but bad for morale.”

— Stephen Sondheim, A Little Night Music

In October, it will be four years since we moved to our El Sobrante garden home from a San Francisco high-rise. In many ways, it feels like forever, but in terms of our fruit trees and garden, we are still just getting started.

This summer we had our first big harvest from our aprium tree which produces a hybrid apricot-plum that is like a bigger and juicier than usual apricot. So very delicious!

Then our nectarine tree produced significant (and delectable!) fruit, but has now finished. We’ll also have a few pears this Fall, but we still have cherry and peach trees that haven’t reached enough maturity to produce much. And so we wait for them.

It takes a goodly amount of faith and patience to be a gardener. Maybe that’s why I’m NOT one! I admit that while I’ve done a lot of spiritual practice to remain more centered in this present moment, I haven’t really developed a lot of long term patience.

What about you? Are you a naturally patient person? If patience isn’t your problem, what “virtue” would you like to be able to embody better?