Falling toward the center of our longing

In one of the book's I'm currently reading, I came across this poem by David Whyte. I believe it captures the spirit of what our life journey is and should be about.

Self Portrait

It doesn't interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong -- or feel abandoned;
If you know despair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With its harsh need to change you;
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying "this is where I stand."
I want to know if you know how to melt
Into that fierce heat of living
Falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
To live day by day
With the consequence of love
And the bitter unwanted passion
Of your sure defeat.
I have been told
In that fierce embrace
Even the gods
Speak of God.

~ David Whyte ~

(Fire in the Earth)

5 different looks

Goatee (Second most common look)

Clean shaven (I look like I'm 14)

Brethren Beard (My most common look)

Full Beard (Mr. Counterculture!)

Mountain Man Goatee (Name says it all)

I was having some fun with different styles of facial hair! Gotta favorite?

What matters most

The message today at church was particularly challenging in light of an all too familiar passage of scripture that has been used probably throughout all Christianity in order to convert to the faith. It got me thinking about our “aliveness”. When we read the passage, we must not forget that it was written not to unbelievers but to a church that had become lukewarm.

I agree with the message about how it is easier to work with someone who is spiritually “cold”, because they care enough to disagree; versus someone who is a “lukewarm”, apathetic, quasi-Christian. Even more so is the fact that God prefers us to be either hot or cold.

There is an affirmation response that we used at the A Place Apart retreat last year that really captured the kind of aliveness that God seeks for our lives:

This is what matters most now
To know the one who died and came to life
To walk in the way that he walked
To love in the way that he loved
To come alive
To be alive
Now and forever*

Last May, I posted a series of reflections on the heels and after the A Place Apart weekend about our atrophied spirits and what it means to be alive. I was so moved by the experience that I ended up renaming my blog from Liminal Space to Quest for Life. I believe I am really starting to uncover in my own life the ways that my spirit has become atrophied. My quest for life has been shared with you about the places that I fell most alive. I hope that we can all benefit from such a quest rather than our persistent state of narcolepsy.

Reread the Revelation text and sit with the imagery of what it means to have passion in your life and who may be drawing that passion out of your present “mummified” state.

Hot?
Cold?
Lukewarm?

Your life?
The church?
America?

Where are you and where are we going?

*From the A Place Apart Training Manual, pg. 82

Eight Intelligences

One of the many interesting points made in the Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods, dealt with the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

This is a small summary from that chapter in the book:

Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard, developed his influential theory of multiple intelligences in 1983. (He) argued that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on the I.Q. testing, was far too limited; he instead proposed seven types of intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These included: linguistic ("word smart"); logical-mathematical ("number/reasoning smart"); spatial ("picture smart"); bodily-kinesthetic ("body smart"); musical ("music smart"); interpersonal ("people smart"); intrapersonal ("self smart"). More recently, he added an eighth intelligence: naturalist ("nature smart").

I can think of two strong intelligences that I claim as my own with bits of other ones as well. Whether you agree with Gardner or not, the author was challenging the reader not to overlook each child's (or your own) possible intelligence and how they may best be able to learn.

I can only imagine if I had more training in the naturalist intelligence of how much more knowledgeable I'd be. Many children today are lacking a nature education form of training to heighten their own nature intelligence.

- Quote from page 71 in the book.