Saying For Today: Could it be it is all the dance, and we called to dance with the dance? Maybe, in life and death, the dance is the real normal, and we are danced also.
LOTUS OF THE HEART
Everyone is Welcome Here
Living in LOVE beyond Beliefs
Just finished, driving from the cemetery, a death yard in Savannah, GA. See, I work in dying and death, some would say. In some sense, they are right. Today already two of my patients dead. Another they say dead a few days ago, so here we stand in this lovely death yard to honor her. Ashes of the mother rest in an urn, nearby remains underground of two sons that went before, one age eight from falling off a horse. I speak of love and life ~ about living before death, rather than being one of the walking dead. I mean, she is dead, so we remain to live or not before we die too, and we will die, each of us here on this spinning planet. We already are dying, and all talk of an afterlife will not save us from death. So, why not live now? Anyway...
Now driving away, two visits still today, they say about death... yes, in some sense. Suddenly, the arising of a felt-wish to let go of all this seriousness, this dying and death, and - do what? - turn on some music, music playful, music fun. I rarely do this on the road, the arising of such an inspiration surprises ~ Why do I still get surprised at what Grace surprises me with, after all the surprising surprises?.
What to listen to? I think. Why not Sheryl Crow, "My Favorite Mistake"?. A song about a romantic break-up, but I find the song playfully presented, kind of whimsical holiness. I have been through breakups, I find them in looking back, at least some of them, now quite humorous, how they played out: then, not so. I find the song on my phone, turn it on, turn it up, enjoy ~ I really mean that enjoy, as in-Joy. I listen to it over and over and over, for about an hour, until I drive into the drive-way of a next patient and family. I can be present-with again, here. Loved ones are staring into the face of death. I can stare with them, in that love them.
* * *
I ponder this. Spirit has no problem moving from one apparent extreme to another apparent extreme. And I can say, I am much more playful than earlier in life: I was raised on serious, deadly religion. Life is too serious not to be playful, and religion can be playful too. Not like the Catholic priest who got into trouble with church hierarchy, for he danced gladly, thankfully around the Altar and Eucharist. Anyway, the Greek word used for the Trinity, by the Eastern churches, is from "to dance". So, seems to me that sounds rather playful.
I am more comfortable with the extremes, and holding them together at the same time. The more I have been drawn into Love with Grace, the deeper the Yes to Life, the more playful that Yes. The playfulness is not egoic, or arising from self, but spiritual, or Spirit-inspired. At times, I have appeared to shock some of my colleagues, seeing they image a chaplain being so-serious minded and not kind-of crazy-at-times. Yet, we who work with the dying need a lot of comic relief, so why not a chaplain to provide some? I find persons relax with this, after getting over the surprise an ordained clergyperson can have for-no-purpose-really fun. I sense a lot of us are looking for more clean fun, more relief from the seriousness we take too seriously often.
* * *
Possibly, another lesson I am learning, confirmed this day, and one that might make living more joyful, is death is part of the playfulness of Spirit also. I know that may sound weird, even uncaring, but I mean it. Maybe not the details, for they can be painful, horrible. But death is not merely about the details of dying, is it? I have been inspired by the Hindu teaching that all life is the dance of the Divine, all of it. Anyway, I have shared in a lot of fun around death, with families of dying patients, with the one dying. We have shared many smiles and laughter. I have oft been loved and inspired by their sharing playfulness. Maybe, they have something to teach us about both death and, yes, living before death. Could it be it is all the dance, and we called to dance with the dance? Maybe, in life and death, the dance is the real normal, and we are danced also. If so, that leaves us with a choice, does it not? What do you think? You decide.
♥ ♥ ♥
Grace and Peace to All
The Sacred in Me bows to the Sacred in You
*Lotus of the Heart is an interspiritual work of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, Florida USA. Brian is a practicing spiritual contemplative, interspiritual Chaplain, and writer of nonfiction and poetry.
*Move cursor over photos for photographer and photo name.
*These presentations, at times, include adaptation to gender-inclusive language in quotes from other writers.
