A glimpse of joy: Guari and grandkids watching the birds

Living Deeply with Joy

An ongoing challenge for me is maintaining a full schedule while living deeply.  I don’t like feeling busy, or running from one thing to another.  I much prefer a sense of spaciousness in the midst of my varied activities.  Living deeply enables me to have glimpses of joy, even while facing the pain, sorrow, and struggles of life.

I know many activists who have burned themselves out.  I’ve experienced burnout myself in the past, and I don’t intend for it to happen again.  My solution?  Go deeper.  (That’s my solution to many of the challenges I face.)  Pray.  Meditate.  Practice discernment–say “yes” to some things and “no” to others.  Talk with someone else who is on a spiritual path and who knows what is at stake.  Take a walk.  Take a break.  Practice any of the traditional “means of grace.”  Laugh.  Dance.  Play with children.  Do yoga or Tai Chi.  And while you’re at it, practice staying in the NOW.  Practice the presence of God.

I’m convinced that the great challenges of our time require a rising up of people who are deeply grounded in the world’s various spiritual traditions, and in the earth itself.  We need to reclaim, reinterpret, and renew these traditions so they can adequately address the institutionalized system of domination, violence, and greed that has taken over our world.  In this transitional age, we need to go deep, for we need to reinvent the world’s systems and institutions in ways that are just and sustainable and, as Thomas Berry said,  “We need to reinvent the human at the species level.”

Whatever your circumstances, may you experience a sense of spaciousness today.  May you live deeply with joy.   It will take transformed people to transform the world.