Leaving tomorrow

This is where I am going for the next week on a prayer retreat. I have never been there before, so you can see all I've seen so far. Since I am not supposed to arrive until dinner time, I am going to the once monthly meeting of Christian Mysticism in San Antonio in the morning. The talks will be on The Cloud of Unknowing and Julian of Norwich. When that ends, I'll meet daughter MJ for lunch. We might even go to a movie: we're considering "Doubt" or "Milk."

Then I will drive another hour north of San Antonio to Blanco, TX where Well Spring Center is somewhere out in the country. I'll be there until Friday.

Tonight I've been baking three small turkey pot pies for my absence and also to freeze. Chicken and turkey pot pies are favorites in my family, with a good recipe from that old La Leche League cookbook Whole Foods for the Whole Family.

Although I'll be gone, come back and visit if you want to read quotes and/or see cartoons in my absence. One a day will pop up!

Friday Five: All About Me

From RevGalBlogPals:
Whether it's new friends or new loves or new employers, what are five things people should know about you? (Built off of the song from "Rent" - "Take me for what I am..." (I think that's the title)...

Though I'm rather late on this Friday, here are five things people should know about me:

1. I consider myself a Washingtonian even though I've lived longer in Texas than anywhere else in my life. The only house my parents ever owned is in Bellingham, WA, where we moved when my dad retired from the Marine Corps and I was in high school. I still own that house and wonder if I'll ever move back there.

2. I love books; I love to buy and own them; I especially love to read them. I mainly read theology books (mostly, but not restricted to, Christian), but also like mysteries and Harry Potter!But then I have to add current events, history, parenting, almost anything, though I'm not much into science (unless we can put "cosmology" in that category).

3. I like things to be clean, but I tend to clutter and pile stuff. I need to get rid of old clothes and books, but haven't. . . .

4. Which leads into my fourth attribute--procrastination. Possibly due to my excellent outcomes (and grades) from writing papers in high school and college the night before, I continue in that vein. I am better if you give me a deadline or designated day than being on my own.

5. I am loyal to my friends. I am poor about calling, but good about writing (snail) mail letters, which have lessened to cards in the past few years. I am coming to discern that many people value phone calls more than handwritten letters and need to integrate this into my life.

Blogging through the coming week

I have been spending some time looking at composition books in which I copied quotes I liked over the past decade or so. I chose some to post in the days I will be gone while I am at Sandy's prayer retreat. Starting on Saturday, those posts will appear "as scheduled" with Blogger's help. I doubt that I will have access to a computer for this week of retreating, which is probably good so that I will spend more time looking at the Holy rather than the computer screen.

Dualistic Thinking can be Death

"Death is what takes place within us when we look upon others not as gift, blessing, or stimulus but as threat, danger, competition. It is the death that comes to all who try to live by bread alone. This is the death that the Bible fears and gives us good reason to fear. It is not the final departure we usually think of when we speak of truth; it is that purposeless, empty existence devoid of genuine human relationships and filled with anxiety, silence, and loneliness."

~~Dorothee Soelle, Death by Bread Alone, p. 4.

This reminds me of dualistic thinking as described by Richard Rohr. I heard him say at that conference:

"God cannot 'get in' when we are in a moral, judging, worthiness contest."

When I put myself higher or lower than someone else, I am blocking my perception of God in them and in me. That is dualistic thinking and is a trap I fall into, especially since I think my enneagram number is six and doubting oneself is one of its (my) failings. But then I may be a nine, so nine or six is my conundrum.

Our New Priest

Our new priest is Sandy Casey-Martus, who is leaving All Saints Episcopal Church in Austin, TX as associate rector to be rector of my parish, All Saints Episcopal Church in Corpus Christi, TX. Her first Sunday is Feb. 15.

She and Carla R. Mancari are authors of a book The Lessons: How to Understand Spiritual Principles, Spiritual Activities, and Rising Emotions. In this book, they teach about Christ-Centered Prayer, which is also a website they maintain.

This is the topic of a conference I am attending all next week: January 17-23. I am eager to meet Sandy!

Right now is the best moment

A friend's mother is in her 80's and is getting forgetful. This friend took her mother to see her other children in California on one trip and to Wisconsin on another one. When she asked her mother at the end of the last trip, " What was your favorite part of our trip?", she immediately regretted it because she knew how much of her time her mother forgets.

However, her mother said, "Right now is the best time!"

Perhaps dementia or Alzheimer's cause Mrs. K. to remember little; still she spoke wisdom that I need to remember. Since I can see her diminutive and dumpy figure right now in my mind, I can also imagine her smiling and saying, "Right now is the best time!"

Blogging Friends Award

Missy gifted me with this sweet Friends Award:


Missy quotes Barbara, of Home in France, and I can say it no better than either Missy or Barbara:

As Barbara said, "The Friends Award isn't about being the most popular blogger or having the most read blog.

It is just because you are a friend."

I have met many exceptional and friendly people through my blog. It feels oddly pioneering sometimes, and I still have those moments of head shaking wonder and awe, but blogging has become a portal to a worldwide community of individuals that I clearly would never have met otherwise.

Here's the cleverly-written text of the award: "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

• Katherine E.
• Jennifer
• Catherine
• Mompriest
• Diane
• Kate
• Ellie
• Ruth
• Lauralew
  

Gene Robinson

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, a vocal gay rights leader, will open President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration with a prayer on Sunday's kick-off event at the Lincoln Memorial.

"I am writing to tell you that President-Elect Obama and the Inaugural Committee have invited me to give the invocation at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities, We are One, to be held at the Lincoln Memorial," Robinson wrote in an email to friends.

From The Huffington Post

Rejoice, as urged in the post below!

Rejoice!

by Shawn Gallaway

Be not lax in celebrating.
Be not lazy in the festive service of God.
Be ablaze with enthusiasm.
Let us be an alive, burning offering
before the altar of God.

~~Hildegard of Bingen

Our picture

I had reprints made of some digital pictures. It is rare that CB and I have our picture taken together and even more unusual, to have a pretty good picture. So this is a picture taken at Ben and Helen's wedding a month ago, at the beginning of December. Wow--my hair has gotten white!

Enneagram

Since hearing Russ Hudson and Richard Rohr speak about the Enneagram and Non-Dualistic Thinking, I have been talking and writing about the Enneagram and reading, too. Today I read this in Richard Rohr's book:

"Meditation and prayer play a central role in this (exercises that help us grow closer to God and ourselves) , because the Enneagram cannot be mastered on a purely intellectual level, not even by a Five. It is an experiential method in which through a mind of 'inner listening' I find out what 'voices' are at work within me. The 'discernment of spirits' is that instinctive spiritual authority that helps me to realize which of these voices will free me for an 'abundant life' (John 10:10) and which will lead me to jail and to death."

Rohr, Richard. The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2008. 231.

Today I ordered more books online about the Enneagram, some connected to spiritual direction, which I am keenly interested in.

Here are some links to good sites about the Enneagram:

The Enneagram Institute--founded and managed by Russ Hudson and Don Riso
This contains links to descriptions for the various types, Enneagram tests, and other sources.

9 Types.Com
This has links to various components of the personality types and other sites.

Enneagram Worldwide--founded by Helen Palmer
She also has this site:
Enneagram.Com

There's a funny dinner cartoon by Elizabeth Wagele, which I am unable to put on my blog, but will write down the dialogue below as it indicates the personality of the nine different types of the Enneagram. The cartoon is from her book entitled The Enneagram Made Easy.
And she has a link to "famous personality types" that is fun to look at.

Around a bountiful dinner table are seated nine people:
One: "Not enough food groups represented here."
Two: "It's so great to feel needed!"
Three: I need to eat and run. I'm swamped."
Four: "Cheap caviar--shocking!"
Five: "It's a talkative group. Good--that gets ME off the hook!"
Six: "She's leaving early. Doesn't she like us?"
Seven: "First I'll eat, then take some pictures, then go to my class, then. . ."
Eight: "Pass it down. Pass it ALL DOWN HERE!"
Nine: "I feel so CLOSE to everybody!"

Which type are you? These cartoon figures show me aspects of the personalities I can picture immediately.

Scenery in NM and west TX

CB and I visited the Petroglyph National Monument on New Year's Day morning. It was a time filled with beauty and awe and deep connection with the spiritual yearning of these people from 300-1,000 years ago.


Driving to and from Albuquerque, NM, we passed through desert territory with mesas, where there were many wind turbines atop them.

AND

THE SHINING WORD
“AND”

teaches us to say yes

And allows us to be both-and
And keeps us from either-or
And teaches us to be patient and long suffering
And is willing to wait for insight and integration
And keeps us from dualistic thinking
And does not divide the field of the moment
And helps us to live in the always imperfect now
And keeps us inclusive and compassionate toward everything
And demands that our contemplation become action
And insists that our action is also contemplative
And heals our racism, our sexism, heterosexism, and our classism
And keeps us from the false choice of liberal or conservative
And allows us to critique both sides of things
And allows us to enjoy both sides of things
And is far beyond any one political party
And helps us face and accept our own dark side
And allows us to ask for forgiveness and to apologize
And is the mystery of paradox in all things
And is the way of mercy
And makes daily, practical love possible
And does not trust love if it is not also justice
And does not trust justice if it is not also love
And is far beyond my religion versus your religion
And allows us to be both distinct and yet united
And is the very Mystery of Trinity
And is why we are called the
Center for Action AND Contemplation

This comes from Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, which can be subscribed to here.

Dualistic Thinking

Dualistic thinking is the way most Western people automatically think--in opposites and in comparing. Good/bad; right/wrong; night/day; either/or. Richard Rohr stresses that contemplation gives one the openness of non-dual thinking. Since some bloggers asked about this from my post about Richard Rohr, I looked up some more about him and dualistic thinking. Thus, I found an interview in Australia on November 12, 2006. (Click on "show transcript.") Here is a specific excerpt where Fr. Richard answered a question about dualistic thinking:

"Stephen Crittenden: Let's go back to what do we mean by dualistic thinking, us and then principally, is that right?

"Richard Rohr: Yes. That the dual mind, which is the egoic operating system that we're all operating out of, knows by comparison, by differentiation, by distinction and by separation, it says 'I am not that'. It's a process of affirmation and denial, the classic Western debate and the smarter person is supposed to win. Dual thinking is very good in the world of science, mathematics, ordinary logic of getting you through the day. But once you approach mystery, infinity, eternity, God, the great concepts like freedom, the dualistic mind falls utterly short. It can't deal with it, it can't know it, it divides the field. You see, dualistic thinking is inherently a self-cancelling system. It always divides in the field. What contemplation does, and contemplation is simply my word for non-dual thinking, where you pull back and get your own ego and fear and agenda out of the way, and you look at things as they are, not as you want them to be, not as you need them to be, it just is what it is what it is. And you let that affront you and confront you. That's always a humiliation for the ego. So that's why people don't like to grow up into the contemplative mind, or non-dual thinking, because it is experienced as a loss of control."

Friday Five: Pancakes

RevGalBlogPals has this Friday Five by Sophia about pancakes:

1. Scratch or mix? Buttermilk or plain?
I always make them from scratch, rarely with buttermilk.

2. Pure and simple, or with additions cooked in?
When the kids were young, CB would cook either blueberry or apple pancakes. I usually cook plain ones.

3. For breakfast or for dinner?
Usually breakfast and a few times, for dinner.

4. Preferred syrup or other topping? How about the best side dish?
Maple syrup

5. Favorite pancake restaurant?
Probably Denny's. When we were on our trip to and from NM, CB and I discovered that we qualified for the "senior" discount at the Carlsbad, NM Denny's. Both times we were there, we ordered the Senior Grand Slam--and had pancakes with eggs for dinner!

Bonus: Any tasty recipes out there, for pancakes or other special breakfast dishes? Bring 'em on!
From the La Leche League cookbook Whole Foods for the Whole Family, here is a family favorite:

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

1/2 cup flour
1 c. cottage cheese (or tofu)
4 eggs
1/3 cup milk (approximately)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients except milk in blender and process at medium speed until smooth. Add milk until batter is like medium-thick pancake batter. Bake as for ordinary pancakes. Serve hot with fresh fruit, jam, hot applesauce or butter and cinnamon-sugar.

Our family loves melted butter and cinnamon-sugar on top. I usually have to double the recipe to make enough.

Notes from Richard Rohr's talks

I'm just going to copy down some of my notes from the talks Richard Rohr gave in Albuquerque, NM at the "Laughing and Weeping: The Enneagram as a Tool for Non-Dual Thinking" conference, Dec. 31, 2008-Jan. 3, 2009.

• highest level of thinking=wisdom=non-dualistic thinking
• honor incongruity without fixing, so you'll laugh and/or weep
• Training for conflict, to misunderstand through dualistic thinking, so the ego is invested in own opinion
• polarity thinking is the norm with comparisons, competition
• sin is self-defeating behavior; sin messes us up
• We are not punished for our sins, but by our sins.
• mystics loved and suffered profoundly, which is what destroys dualistic thinking
• Religion gives you patience with mystery, NOT certitude
• Ego is out of control when one is certain of eternity (heaven/hell), especially in judgment towards someone else
• God cannot "get in" when we are in a moral, judging, worthiness contest
  
• God doesn't need to eliminate the negative in us to love us
• If you pretend you're not wounded, you'll miss out on the mystery of God.
  

Sometimes

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest

breathing
like the ones
in the old stories

who could cross
a shimmering bed of dry leaves
without a sound,

you come
to a place
whose only task

is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests

conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions
that have no right
to go away.

~ David Whyte ~

(Everything is Waiting for You)

2008 Retrospetive Meme

I saw this meme when I was in New Mexico and thought it looked fun. It's a good way to "waste" time, even though it is one week into 2009. Here's how it goes:
If you'd like to play, here's what you do:
Take the first sentence of the first post of each month in 2008 and see if you notice any pattern or common theme.

January:Nothing is more practical than finding God,
That is, than falling in love in quite an absolute, final way.
What you fall in love with,
what seizes your imagination will affect everything.

February:I'll be driving to San Antonio tomorrow, and somewhere around there is this spot, though I've never seen it.

March:March 1 is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years). There are 305 days remaining until the end of the year.

April:


May:I am saddened and very disappointed, as are these people at the United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, TX, that the majority of delegates (55%-45%) voted to keep the exclusionary wording the same for the United Methodist Church.

June:I wish CB and I were feeling this way, with everyone, especially MJ gone.

July:First day of July: My first child's birthday is on July 6, and his dad's is three weeks later.

August:It’s easier when I am alone—listen to the radio or cd in my car.

September:I miss being at the computer, especially visiting blogging friends.

October:This is my third beautiful day in Calgary, where they are experiencing a sudden Indian Summer.

November:And I am an old, fat, (not) naked woman for peace!

December:

Enneagram of the USA

While at the conference in Albuquerque, NM, Richard Rohr spoke about the United States being a corporate #3 on the enneagram. Threes strive for success and do everything for praise--to put it simplistically. Here's a brief snippet of what Richard Rohr writes in his book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective:

"In the U.S. there is no motivation not to be a Three. Anyone who has mastered the Three game here will get to the top of the system. In this country Threes become CEOs, bishops, and presidents. That is one of the reasons why we are so often disappointed by our leaders. Every now and then it dawns on us how superficially things are managed up there. All their lives these people have been so busy climbing the ladder of success that it has become the sole focus of their lives. The Three is the prototype of the white male American. . . .

"We Americans have an extremely hard time seeing through the lies of our system. America, that 'kingdom of the good,' is exalted above every impure motive. This kind of deception is part of our system and lifestyle. . . .

"The Three is a type that grows out of affluence. . . The United States has to go a long way to meet its false collective self, to confront it, and acknowledge its susceptibility to lies, deceit, and illusion." (89)

Richard Rohr expressed hope of Barack Obama becoming our next president. From afar, Richard thinks that our new president is a 9, who are excellent peacemakers and mediators (when integrated).

For a quick overview of the personalities typified in the Enneagram, go here or here.

The Five Love Languages

Going to and from Albuquerque, CB and I listened to the four cd's of Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages. We were amazed at the insights we gained, even though they seem like "common sense." It is based upon the book of the same title. By listening to it together, we could stop the cd player in the car and talk or ponder silently together. The five love languages are:

1. Language of affirmation
2. Language of quality time
3. Language of receiving gifts
4. Language of acts of service
5. Language of physical touch

I wish I'd known more about these when I was a parenting young and adolescent children, too.

I am still planning to post about Richard Rohr's enneagram conference, but that will come later.