The Tree of Life is Always Rooted in Love

The Tree of Life is Always Rooted in Love 

   I have been writing this weekly column for a little more than ten years, and if you have been reading it that long you know that I have written many columns about how I believe, with all of my heart, that the power of love is stronger than the power of fear and hate. There are, of course, times when it seems like that is not the case, such as when another terrible act of hate causes unspeakable horror in our personal lives, our communities, or our nation. I suppose the reason I have written so many columns about this topic is that I know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the number of hateful incidents happening in our world today. Unfortunately, such is the case once again, as demonstrated by the ugly hatred that led to the murdering of eleven worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this past week. 

   Prejudice and hatred always come from a place of fear and weakness, though on the surface acts of prejudice and hate may wear the disguise of strength. Real strength is always grounded in love and comes from a place of recognizing that we all truly need each other to thrive and that there are no "others" to demonize or project our fears upon.  

   So in response to the latest expression of hatred that occurred in Pittsburgh this week, how do we show the world that love is stronger than hate? How do we show up and respond? In all the little choices we make each day.

    One way love showed up this week was in countless interfaith gatherings that occurred all across the country. At these gatherings, people came together to affirm their common humanity, and their love and support for the Jewish community as it laments yet another horrific act of antisemitism.  

   I was honored to attend one such gathering at Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, a synagogue near where I live in Milwaukee, WI. I was joined by 1,800 other people from every religious, racial, and political background. We held hands, sang songs, read psalms, and listened to words of lament and hope from several rabbis and other clergy.  That night, in that gathering, as well as in so many other gatherings like it across the country, love was indeed stronger than fear and hate.
   

   There is a great deal of fear in our world right now. How will each of us respond? Will we isolate ourselves and allow fear to guide our actions, or will we redouble our efforts to sow seeds of love and healing in all of our encounters with others? 

   Fear and hate are contagious, but so are love and healing. We get to choose, in the big and small decisions we each make every day, what we will both take in and what we will spread out. I know that I need to not give into the despair of, "What is happening in our world right now?" and remember that the world isn't something that just happens around us, but is something we actively participate in co-creating together.

   I know that I, and maybe you, too, need to always stay focused on remembering that in every aspect of our lives, our friendships, our families, our communities, and our nation, that the tree of life is always rooted in love, and that we need to stay committed to watering that tree in every way that we can. 
     

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Hallowed Be...

Hallowed Be...  

When it comes to words, I'm a bit of a nerd, and I love to study their origins to more fully understand their meaning. This next week the word that will be on many peoples' minds is Halloween, and in case you don't know, that word has a fascinating origin. All Saints Day, which is celebrated by many churches on November 1, was originally known as All Hallows Day. This day is set aside as an annual celebration of the saints who have gone on before us and whose lives are worthy of admiration and emulation. The evening before All Hallows Day became known as All Hallows Eve and over time All Hallows Eve morphed into our modern name for this day, Halloween.
 
      Continuing with my fascination with words, I must note that I love the word hallow even though it is not a word that currently gets much use. Exceptions are when someone talks about the "hallowed halls" of a particular institution, most often a beloved university or school, or when someone talks about sacred ground, such as a cemetery or battlefield. For Christians, it is a familiar word because it is part of the Lord's Prayer, in the line, "Hallowed be your name."
 
   The word hallowed, from which the word Halloween is derived, means holy or sacred. When we refer to something as hallowed, we are saying that it has special, often spiritual, significance for us. So with all the attention to Halloween this week, perhaps it is an excellent time to pause and reflect on what is hallowed or holy in our lives.
 
   In our Living Compass wellness programs, we invite people to pause and reflect on what is most important in their lives, or how they would define their true north. We remind them that there are many compasses that are competing to guide our lives, including the compasses of our popular culture, the values of our families of origin, of our friends, our work, and our spirituality. To make our spirituality and our values our primary compass means to identify what we believe to be most holy, most hallowed, and then to align the decisions we make in our lives with those values and beliefs.

   I hope you all have a "Happy All Hallows Eve" this week. I look forward to celebrating with my family, especially with my grandchildren, because not only is it lots of fun, but enjoying time with my family is hallowed time for me. 

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Plays Well With Others

Plays Well With Others   

Luxury Liner was the first Emmylou Harris album I ever bought, and that was forty-one years ago. I  played it so much over the years that I nearly wore it out and have been a huge fan ever since. Not until just this week, however, did I have the privilege to see her in concert and was even fortunate to have the chance to meet and speak with her after the show. This opportunity to see her in person did not disappoint. Her concert and my interaction with her were soulful, authentic, and uplifting, just as I have always experienced her music.

    Over the last few weeks, as I would mention to people that I was going to be attending her upcoming show, they often commented that they knew who she was but couldn't name any of her "hit songs." Even though she has won fourteen Grammys, and just this year received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award, she did not stand out as a big celebrity or musical star in peoples' memories.

    Some of my friends asked me why I had remained such a devoted fan for four decades. My response was that I find her music to have great depth, authenticity, and soulfulness. In addition, one of the things I love about Emmylou Harris is that she is such an outstanding collaborator. She has recorded and performed with over a hundred other notable artists including, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Bill Monroe, Alison Kraus, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Lucinda Williams, Tracy Chapman, Gram Parsons, John Prine, Guy Clark, Neil Young, Mark Knoplfer, The Band, and Bob Dylan . A talented songwriter herself, throughout her career she has also discovered and supported a multitude of other songwriters and musicians.

   In a world that often overvalues the role of the individual star or talent, I find Emmylou to be a refreshing alternative. She has embodied the truth captured in the African proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." A "one-hit wonder" might be able to create a splash with a top-selling hit song and have short-lived fame, but an artist like Emmylou Harris, on the other hand, has the ability to perform at a high level over a long period of time.  She has lasted in the music industry over fifty years due to both her individual talent and her gift of collaborating with so many others, across a wide variety of music genres.  

    To be a good collaborator, you need specific skills. You must be a good communicator, be willing to bring people from different walks of life together and celebrate their unique strengths, be prepared to compromise, be tolerant and accepting of others, be able to work well with others and conduct yourself in a way that adds value to the whole. You must be able to value the ability sing harmony as much as you value the ability to sing lead. Emmylou must have these skills and traits to be the collaborator she is, and I admire that in her as much as I admire her music. 

    This is a wellness column, and so what's the connection to wellness in all of this? When I reflect on my description of Ms. Harris, it seems to me like the perfect description of a well-lived life: depth, authenticity, soulfulness, and the ability to collaborate well with others. These traits, while perhaps not assisting us in being able to travel fast, will definitely help us to travel far.  

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What Nourishes Your Soul?

What Nourishes Your Soul?   

    I just returned from spending ten days experiencing the rugged beauty of Northern California. After four days of leading a training retreat at the Bishop's Ranch Retreat and Conference Center, in Healdsburg (80 miles north of San Francisco), my wife and I took some vacation time to venture a few hundred miles further north to explore on foot  the remote coastline at Shelter Cover and the giant redwood forests in both Jedidiah State Park and Prairie Creek State Park. 

   Hiking is, of course, good for the body, but in my experience, it is even better for the soul. It is the perfect metaphor for the journey of life itself. All that is required is to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again. The key in both hiking and life is to take time to stop and become fully present to the beauty that is around you, to feel the breeze, to smell the air, and to listen to the quiet sounds that you might otherwise miss. The journey itself, not the destination, is the most precious part of the experience.  

   Our journeys are always enriched when we are privileged to walk amongst elders. For me this week, this included redwood trees that were between five and seven hundred years old. To be in their presence and wonder about all that they have witnessed, all that they have endured, was a balm for my soul. Silence was the only response to the humility I felt standing before their almost incomprehensible height and breadth.  

   Is it any wonder that so many spiritual traditions contain stories of experiencing God in the wilderness? Whether on a mountaintop, in the desert, by a river or sea, or in the presence of a burning bush, the Sacred has always been experienced in and through nature. Experiencing creation has a way of connecting us with the Creator.  

   I am pretty good about remembering to nourish my body with proper food and rest. I, however, sometimes forget about the importance of nourishing my soul, and so this past week was an important reminder of both what feeds my soul and the importance of doing so.  

   What nourishes your soul and how might you make time for that?

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An Undivided Life

An Undivided Life 

   Many churches this week are celebrating the life of Francis of Assisi, a 12th-century friar, preacher and lover of nature and animals. I had the opportunity to visit his hometown Assisi, Italy last year, and my time there only increased my admiration for this man whose life and teachings continue to inspire the world some eight hundred years after his death. The power of Saint Francis is grounded in the fact that the way he humbly lived is life was so entirely congruent with is beliefs and teachings.

   Parker Palmer, a modern Quaker author, writes about living an "undivided life," a concept that guides all of our Living Compass wellness programs. To live an undivided life is to live like Francis of Assisi, where one's core values and beliefs orients all that one does. Saint Francis summed up what it means to live an undivided life with these words,  "Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words." 

   There is a well-known prayer, supposedly written by this man and thus referred to as the Prayer of St. Francis. For me, it has been an important compass that I've used as a guide for my life for many, many years as have many others. Although there is no concrete proof that he actually wrote this prayer it is entirely congruent with his life and teachings.  

   I close this week's column with this prayer in hopes that it may inspire all of us on our path to living an undivided life.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. 
Where there is hatred, let us sow love; 
where there is injury, pardon; 
where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; 
where there is darkness, light; 
where there is sadness, joy.
 Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 
to be understood as to understand; 
to be loved as to love. 
For it is in giving that we receive; 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

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