Rev. Cathy Harrington
Our theme for November is ABUNDANCE. It is not the material kind of abundance because too much stuff can stifle. Someone once coined the word “stuffocation” to describe what happens when we seek stuff to make us happy. Isn’t that a great word? And it is not the kind of abundance that fills your calendar with so many obligations that you are stressed out. WARNING: Dates in calendars are closer than they appear!
Natalie Goldberg once said, “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.” It is true that abundance can get in the way of abundance.
Fall is a good time to take stock and ask yourself, “What indications are you receiving that your life is out of balance?” For one friend of mine it was the awareness that she had no patience left for her one-year-old daughter after spending hours doing her job and everything she “had” to do. It’s making her want to quit her job. Folks, we deserve to live balanced lives! For another dear friend a stroke was the wake-up call. Ram Dass referred to his stroke as “fierce grace,” the kind of wake-up call that screams; “Life is precious, people are too precious to wake up one day and discover that you lived 60 years but you weren’t there. You were too busy and missed most of it.”
Martin Marty says, “True simplicity is the process of living in which very busy people leading complex lives can learn how to sort out what really matters from what doesn’t.”
The Buddhist philosophy of life comes to mind, “You must be present to win.” I’ve made myself a promise to be fully present for the holiday season this year. I want to appreciate true abundance by discerning the things that I can let alone and to practice the “art of stillness.” In addition to Sunday morning worship some of us gather for meditation on Fridays at noon at UUCC and I hope you will consider joining us. On November 19, we will be participating in an interfaith Thanksgiving Service at Pilgrim Church at 3 PM.
And Henry David Thoreau wrote, “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” Meister Eckhart said, “The soul does not grow by addition but by subtraction.” And Jules Petit-Senn said, “It’s not what we have that constitutes our abundance, but what we appreciate.”
Now there’s an abundance of wisdom! Don’t let abundance get in the way of joy, join me in letting go of that which is not life-giving and appreciating that which is. What really matters to you?
In faith,
Cathy