Daily Dose (Feb 11 – 14)

TUESDAY FEB 11 —

“So; chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength and discipline. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” (Paul’s Letter to the Colossians)
This is our invitation this week. Remembering that we are not mandated to design or create or assemble the wardrobe. Only that we inhabit—live into—the wardrobe we’ve been given.
And here’s the good news; as every single one of us have been endowed and equipped with our all-purpose garment, every single one of us has been given the name, peacemaker.
How do we live into the name we’ve been given?
You see I was inculcated in a world that required willpower. To be whatever I should be, I needed to muster enough faith or rectitude.
Which is fine, save for the fact that our identity or wellbeing is not dependent upon earning or justifying. It’s about being true to who we are.
Which reminds me of one of my favorite images, from a magazine ad sponsored by the Humane Society, looking for homes for homeless pets. A photo of a puppy and kitten—looking up at you from the page—catches your eye and your heart. But it’s the affirmation on the top of the ad that sticks, “It’s who owns them that makes them important.”
Yes. Be true to who you are…
Yes… Dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you.
Yes… Embrace this new life of love.

So, here’s my question: What would happen if we lived as if these are true?
Can we hear that today?
There is no doubt, every single one of us is afraid at times. Who knows all the reasons?
But I do know this; when fear wins, we revert to a zero-sum view of the world.
Bottom line: with a zero-sum view, we believe that resources—including compassion, mercy, kindness, forgiveness and generosity—are finite. We believe that life is short, and you get what you can. And if I don’t know you, you are my enemy… or at the very least, someone to be mistrusted. Someone to have power over.
Today, let us remember the wardrobe.
Let us embrace those bearings that unlock mercy… and who knows, maybe even the possibility for healing and peacemaking.

This week I watched the movie Conclave. And this scene with Cardinal Bellini talking with Cardinal Lawrence, “It is shameful to be this age and not know yourself.” And it strikes a chord. And also, a reminder that we too easily forget to be gentle with ourselves.
An affirmation that care of any kind—peacemaking… and compassion, generosity, forgiveness, reconciliation, service, ministry, teaching, giving, healing—begins with and is nourished by self-care. By self-compassion.
“Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.” Thank you, Parker Palmer.
So. Our question to ask ourselves every day this week: No matter how small, what replenished (and nourished) you today? 

WEDNESDAY FEB 12 — Let us remember that no one of us is on this journey alone. We help one another “live into” the wardrobe God picked out. Remember Ubuntu, the Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity” often translated as “I am because we are.” Desmond Tutu says it as a state in which one’s “humanity is caught up and inextricably bound up” in others. Tutu says of Ubuntu “I am human because I belong, I participate, I share.”

“So; chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength and discipline. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Paul’s Letter to the Colossians
This is our invitation this week. Remembering that we are not mandated to design or create or assemble the wardrobe. Only that we inhabit—live into—the wardrobe we’ve been given.

And it did my heart good to read this from Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis.
“In its truest sense, religion should reconnect human beings—bind them again—to the creation, to one another, to the divine, to love. Religion should reveal to us how much we need one another to survive and thrive. Religion should be revelatory and revolutionary, helping us see how our biases about color, gender, sexuality, and class cause deep hurt to both body and soul…
The teaching of rabbi Jesus is simple: Love God. Love neighbor. Love self. Love period…
At a lecture in Israel, I heard one of my favorite rabbis, Donniel Hartman, say, ‘A life of faith isn’t just about walking with God, but how one walks with humanity. The core feature of a moral life is to see. Choosing not to see is immoral. The goal of religion is to improve our willingness and our ability to see.’ A spiritual life is supposed to help us see better. The aim of Love, and any God worth worshipping, is improved sight…
An ethical and moral life is about letting go of indifference and learning how to see. It’s about waking up to love ourselves, love our posse, and love our world. Imagine love as our shared spiritual practice, binding us to one another, enabling us to see our connection—that we are kin…
In order to live a moral life, a good life, an ubuntu life, we must commit to a life of love that means seeing all the things. See your neighbor suffering and do something about it. See a stranger laboring under a heavy load and help out. See lies spoken and shared in social media and call foul. See a friend soaring, and say, ‘I see you, beautiful creature!’ to build their self-love tank…
Friend, you are the only one standing where you stand, seeing what you see, with your vantage point, your story. You are right there for a reason: to have, as my dear friend Ruby Sales says, ‘hindsight, insight, and foresight.’ I want us to learn to see, with our eyes wide open, how best to be healers and transformers. I want us to really see, to fully awaken, to the hot-mess times we are in and to the incredible power we have to love ourselves into wellness…
I want us open to revelation, not afraid of it, and open to the ways that it will provoke us to believe assiduously in how lovable we each are, and in the love between us and among us because, actually, believing is seeing.
Believing is seeing our connection: We are one.”
(From Jacqui Lewis, “The Spirit of Ubuntu”)

THURSDAY FEB 13 — This week we receive (and hopefully embrace) the invitation to dress “in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength and discipline. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment.” (From the Letter to the Colossians)
And there is this affirmation: we—every single one of us—has been “chosen by God for this new life of love”.
Oh my. This does sound great. However, truth be told, there are days when we wonder (okey, there are days when I wonder) if we have it in us. You know, living a life of “compassion, kindness, humility and quiet strength.”
So. Often, I need to pause. And to remember, that this invitation (being dressed in the wardrobe of God) is not a contest or race or beauty pageant. This isn’t about something we need to earn, or even deserve. And yet, the wardrobe has still been picked out for us. Which means, much of this comes back to the healing power of self-compassion.
Or self-care.
We often forget that self-care “is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.” (Parker Palmer)

And I really resonate with Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis’ affirmation, “By self-love I mean a healthy delight in your true, imperfect, uniquely wonderful, particular self. I mean an unconditional appreciation for who you are, head to toe, inside and out: quirks, foibles, beauty, and blemishes—all of it. I mean seeing yourself truthfully, and loving what you see. Life has ways of turning upside down and sometimes the upside down fuels the inner voice of doubt or shame blame self-loathing we don’t deserve.”
Yes, and amen. Being grounded, and at home in my own skin.

For me, it’s always back to the garden, to absorb the lesson.
In a NYT Magazine article by Umberto Pasti, he talked about gardens, creating sanctuaries and not making it a race or a contest. “To rebuild a little chunk of the flowering earth… begin with a light heart and open eyes… to become a gardener means to try, to fail, to stubbornly plug away at something, to endure serious disappointments and small triumphs that encourage you to try and fail again… Look and learn. Begin with honesty.  Your garden, not withstanding all the mistakes you’ll make, will be marvelous… There is no destination end to this. It is a condition, a form of being. Your garden is you, as you make it. No mask, pretense. That is why the errors are important: not only because it is thanks to them that you learn what not to do, but because in them you express something profoundly yours your identity… Meet the gardener who is within you. Befriend him.”
Self-compassion indeed.

I do hope you’ve been serenaded and enchanted by February’s Snow Full Moon these recent nights. My Oh My. I know I’ve been mesmerized. And I read that this moon has been known to bring about new beginnings, healings, or other positive changes. I can’t argue with that.

FRIDAY FEB 14 — “The way of peace is a seamless garment that must cover the whole of life and must be applied in all its relationships,” A.J. Muste wrote.
Yes. In other words, living the invitation to dress “in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength and discipline. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment.” (The Letter to the Colossians)

A.J. Muste, a life-long pacifist who, during the Vietnam War, stood in front of the White House night after night, for years, holding a lighted candle. (Anne Lamott tells the story.)
A one person protest, conducted near the end of his life.
One very rainy night, a reporter asked him, “Mr. Muste, do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night with a candle?”
“Oh,” Muste replied, “I don’t do it to change the country, I do it, so the country won’t change me.”

I know that we feel like we are banging our heads in a world of onslaught, of social media and news reports. But lit candles are still real. And they still spill light. And they still make a difference.
And the good news is that we are not standing alone.
So. “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
(Often attributed to the Talmud, this is a loose translation of commentary on a portion of the Pirke Avot, which is itself a commentary on Micah 6:8, Rabbi Rami Shapiro)

Let’s give A.J. Muste the last word, “When I am willing to cross the line of how much I think I can love, I am changed. When I am more in touch with what I love than what I fear, I take a stand. My prayer is that more and more of us, on behalf of all children, will use the energy of a mother to touch the seeds of courage and love within us for the sake of the world.”
Not a bad thought (prayer) to carry with us on this Valentine’s Day. Peace and blessings, and the healing power of love, to all.

Prayer for our week…
Dear God,
May we find the strength to heal,
the courage to fight for what matters,
and the wisdom to cherish those we love
in the present moment.
May love guide our steps,
even through loss, uncertainty, and change.
Amen.
Maria Shriver

Photo… The geese wondered why I wrote about them yesterday, but didn’t include a photo. They do have a valid point. (Port Ludlow, WA)… I’m so grateful for your photos, please send them to tdh@terryhershey.com