HELLO!

Today we celebrated and mourned David Halozan. Here is the link: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZmpkhJZa9OB33F9q2Je53n8c4BEOj9QonYk Dave’s sister Sonia shared wonderful Words of Remembrance.

On Tuesday October 27^th at 7 pm in the Sams Room we will engage the book “Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World” by Karen Armstrong for the fourth time. The title of the chapter we will explore together is “Our Broken World”. Again, participants do not need to have the book, to have read the book, or to have attended previous sessions, to join us on any of our gatherings (we will be meeting until December 8^th). I offer a summary of the chapter at the outset of our session, then ask others who have read the chapter to include what I may have passed over. Finally, we all join in with questions and comments.

The chapters of this book are short, dense and do contain some words and concepts that may need further explanation (I refuse to use the cliché “unpacked”, many of my colleagues use that word like everyone talks like they do but five minutes at a Tim’s would tell you otherwise…). One reason this book by Armstrong needs some clarification is her multi-faith references. Although she was raised as a Catholic Nun, Armstrong later found God in other expressions of faith. Those expressions typically are found in cultures and languages not until recently found in places familiar to western European audiences. I agree with Armstrong that we broaden and deepen our faith by listening to voices outside our own experiences. I find that venture so worthwhile I am not frustrated by the extra steps of looking up words and discovering their meaning.

In this chapter Armstrong wants us to know nature is not a “pretty object”, a tranquil source of calm. In 80’s there was a popular means of relaxation offered as soft classical music with nature sounds in the background. Armstrong suggests the world is a place of brokenness, suffering, pain, in need of healing. She quotes Susanne Langer, “emotions and moods we have not felt, passions we did not know before”. When we see the life, death, and new life in Creation, something inside us is moved deeply, it draws out our own feelings of mortality, fear and the search for something brings deeper peace. The great Muslim mystic Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi reveals from his sacred teachings what he considers the words of God, “I was a hidden treasure, I desired to be known. Accordingly, I created the creatures and thereby made myself known to them. And they did come to know me.” This “holy emancipation” began in indescribable pain. Daoist thought believes the world is the “breath of the Merciful” and everything in it is an expression of the "divine sigh.”

Armstrong believes the “pain of Creation” we witness in the natural world is a source for healing and understanding for humankind, it provides a mercy, a way of being, where we do not look to blame or rationalize or escape our pain, but rather see it as a part of ourselves and our purpose.

Peace, Kevin