Wonder & Possibility
-
...Don't tell me, there is no mystery, mystery, mystery.
Don't tell me there is no mystery, it overflows my cup.
This feast of beauty can intoxicate, intoxicate, and intoxicate.
This feast of beauty can intoxicate, just like the finest wine.
So all you stumblers, who believe love rules, believe love rules, believe love rules.
Come all you stumblers, who believe love rules, stand up and let it shine, stand up and let it shine...
These are the closing lyrics in a song by Bruce Cockburn entitled Mystery.
The line that caught me was "come all you stumblers" -- or said a different way, "Welcome, all of you who believe that love is what really matters but stumble when in our attempts to have our own daily life reflect this truth."
The word mystery also caught my attention. Mystery is a much more exciting word than uncertainty. What happens if I say, "These are indeed mysterious times we are living in?" Instead of saying, "These are uncertain times we are living in." Do you notice a shift toward curiosity and away from anxiety? In these mysterious times, what will you do? What will I do? What will "we" do?
Moreover, these mysterious, extraordinary times demand unexpected leadership from each of us as we carry each other and ourselves into and through this time in history.
Unlike the news, which tends to focus only on uncertainty, fear and what is ending, I am equally and clearly aware of what is possible, what is beginning, and what is growing out of sight. It is winter and while we cannot see growth, we know it is happening underground
And Helen Keller famously remarked:
-
When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one, which has been opened for us.
Yes, the wealth in our home values and our stock portfolios is diminished or gone. For some of us, our jobs are gone, clients fewer, or maybe, salary less. One door of happiness closed. Are we looking for the new door that is opened and beckoning? Or, are we standing looking at that closed door? Are you assuming a dark time and more loss in the future? Friends comment that we need this time to unlearn our bad habits and if it turns around too quickly, we may revert to our old ways. This sounds logical. But, I have found little evidence that the universe runs on logic.
-
I believe the universe runs on daring action,
on boldness and discipline,
on desire and resolve.
Carpe Diem!
These are indeed dark times, but the dark -- the creative void, the mystery -- is the place from which anything is possible. These times were made for creativity and ingenuity, for imagining. We are being invited to dream a new world into being by turning our attention to the door that is opening, to what is arriving. In a New York Times column announcing Desiree Rogers as the Obama White House Social Secretary, she noted her goal: "What we really want to do is incite wonder, joy and celebration."
Did she say "incite wonder?" What would happen if each of us got up tomorrow morning and decided to go out and incite wonder, joy and celebration?
This is 2009, not the Great Depression of the 1900s. The 44th President of the United States is both black and white, with an African father and an American mother. The old rules do not apply. That same man, "the most left-leaning Senator in the U.S. Senate," asked right-leaning, conservative preacher Rick Warren to offer the invocation at his inauguration. The old rules do not apply. We may create another great public works project to get America back on track. Still, the old rules do not apply.
Is it true that we have to suffer for years to learn our lessons? Maybe or maybe not. It is the new millennium, the 21st century and anything is possible. I am not planning on a long period of suffering; I am focusing on how to incite "wonder and joy."
For 2009, I have a single message for you to consider:
-
You cannot serve two Gods. Will you serve the God of
possibility, wonder and joy or the God of anxiety, regret and fear?
Everything you read and hear in the news may well be true, but it is only part of the truth. Alongside what is ending, something is already growing and beginning. Don't keep looking at the closed door. Don't serve the God of regret and fear. Instead, get curious about the door that is opening. Choose to serve the God of possibility and joy. Maybe our portfolios, home values and jobs will turn around. Maybe they won't. But meanwhile, this is a planet that favors those who move toward action to manifest or create something. People are buying stocks and homes. They are planning new business ventures. They are looking around saying "What can I do to help?" and "Where do my great passions meet the world's great need?"
Yes, absolutely, mourn what you have lost. But do so from a place of gratitude and blessing, rather than lack or scarcity, so that you gain the energy to face whatever future lies ahead.
Let's make it simple and put it down on paper. Create a list of everything that has ended or is gone. Reflect on it, honor it, recall its beauty, and give thanks for it. Then recall its negative aspects and give thanks they a re gone. When finished, burn the paper, say a prayer or state your intentions to let go and move to the future. Serve the God of possibility.
Next, make a list of "What is possible now" or "My path to wonder, joy and celebration is" by asking yourself these questions:
-
1. Where, in your life can you stand up and let love shine?
2. What were you made for?
3. What are you being called to, what is a wholehearted commitment to your passions and deep loves in the world that you can make now?
4. What if each of us is being asked to play our part in building the world we want to inhabit and not waiting for it to arrive? What part of this new world has your name on it? What is yours to create now?
5. What if some benevolent force, some God planned all this so we could give birth to the best in us? What is best in you now that is just waiting to become more visible?
Yes, absolutely you must feel your fear and loss, but surround it with feelings of possibility and growth. Look at the new open door. Worrying about the future is needless or unnecessary suffering. Suffer only for today, as no one knows or can predict what your personal tomorrow will bring. No feeling, joy or sorrow, lasts forever. Let it come, offer its message and leave. Use its message to get ready for a future that matters to you, that represents your deepest values and desires for yourself and for the world we share.
Please join me in dedicating yourself and your work to serving the God of possibility and new beginnings. "Yes, we can" create a new and brighter future today by choosing to collectively turn away from fear and regret and toward possibility and joy.
In wonder and joy,
Nancy
