When one goes to university one expects to learn. However, where and what do you learn? It is here I am discovering so much about myself and this question. Let’s see if I can share what I mean. Each morning I spend time meditating before I get out of bed. I use an app on my phone and pick a morning meditation and listen while still laying in my bed. It sets the tone for my day. I have been doing so for well over a year now, almost going on two years. It has been one of the things that has shifted my thinking.
Today I was introduced to Tony Brady – Life of Mindfulness and discovered he is in Dublin, Ireland. I am going there in April so hope to meet him and connect with him. He further introduced me, through this meditation, to Mary Oliver, a poet. Here is one of her pieces.
This poem spoke loudly to me today as I am studying this masters degree here in Waterloo. As I ask myself, “what am I learning?” in the doldrums of winter cold and the dreary landscape, this poem helps me to revisit my thinking and my view on life. What am I learning? I am learning about myself. I am learning what I want and what I do not want. I am learning how to say no and how to say yes to my own heart and soul.
In the early stages of the my third third of life I am gaining momentum and becoming stronger and stronger in my aging. Spiritual Living is key to my self care and I am hungry to grow with others in this area. One of the greatest learnings I have gleaned since September is how once again my heart’s desire can be derailed and stifled. University ethos can be myopic, and lack in a greater vision. With the current landscape of cuts, and potential financial struggles for university enrolment, we must remember the basic understanding of anything is “follow the money”. While learning is the main focus of university their bottom line is also kept on par with this learning focus. The other observation must be what are they teaching?
This beautiful poem by Mary Oliver opens asking “Who made the world?” Depending on learning the response to this question is wide and varied. This is an area where I have felt stifled in the past few months. Not because there is lack of open dialogue in the classroom or in the teaching but in the ethos of the program and that is where I do not fit. In Mary Oliver’s poem she asks, “doesn’t everything die at last?” and while she says too soon, sometimes things do not die fast enough. I am learning I must take a stand on my spiritual journey and let go of trying to keep my feet in two camps. The traditional Christian message needs to be let go. While we focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus we are relentless in letting go of traditional patriarchal Christianity. Studying theology in a Christian ethos or through a Christian lens makes no sense to me.
I used the analogy recently how when you study psychology, if you are to study it only using cognitive behavioural therapy you would be restricted in your learning. So as we study theology we must study from a genre using various ways of seeing who made the world as Mary Oliver asks.
It is heart month and February is a time when we look to the depths of soul and I invite you to spiritually dig deeply into the corners of your own life. Dig out the cobwebs that have developed in the darkness of winter and begin the process of waking up the seeds of new vision. We are heading toward the light of spring equinox when the tipping of the earth means new life, new growth and fresh perspectives.
#breakingstibah 