Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
It comes down to being who we are, doing what is ours to do. Sounds simple enough. Who couldn't do that? I would like to know.
My hunch is that integrity, sincerity, authenticity are rare across the races over time. What's your bet for the most authentic race (And the most authentic species, while we are at it)? I would like to know, though I think authenticity comes into play only at the human level of existence. I can't imagine an oyster faking it. Or a dinosaur. Pretending to be a grizzly bear, for instance, or a great white whale.
Show time is a throughly human creation. Donald Trump is who he is all right, but not who he thinks he is. If anyone doesn't belong on Mount Rushmore, or doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, it is Donald Trump, yet he thinks he should be there, have that. Reflecting the gap between being and wannabeing.
Too many of us pretend to be something other than who we are, and do something other than what is ours to do, without having a clue. The emptiness, stillness, silence does not lie. "The Shadow knows!" And what lies in the shadows knows for sure. Time spent with silent reflection, attending what arises, emerges, appears there will lead to awareness and realization--and would right the world in time.
Being who we are, doing what is ours to do would be automatic, spontaneous, actual, true, and real for all who spent enough time in the right way with emptiness, stillness and silence. No?
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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