Keeping Watch
Gretta Vosper offers the image of The Watchers, an installation by Peter von Tiesenhausen, as a way to visualize a spiritual longing that drives each one of us. The Watchers is five life-sized figures of burnt cedar that were taken to various locations across Canada and ended up on the shore of Labrador looking out to sea. The installation evokes that primal sense of the longing we all have for the assurance that there is someone watching on our behalf – and more particularly, the longing to be wholly known. We all know a divided consciousness – a sense that we are alienated from the world our bodies inhabit – and we seek a communion.
Gretta discusses this longing in the context of a criticism sometimes raised against the progressive point of view – it lacks spirituality. Maybe what is here meant by “spirituality” refers to practice rather than content. Some people find nurture in practices that one might describe as extraverted e.g. worshiping in community, singing en masse, participating in liturgies; others find nurture in more introverted practices e.g. meditation, chanting, solitary prayer. Whatever the practice, the aim is a heightened sense of integration – integration with the self, with others, with the world. The fact that we may not engage a particular practices makes it no less spiritual.
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Life is a journey
On the occasion of infant baptism, Gretta Vosper takes us on a whirlwind visual journey through all life’s stages, from the simple needs at birth that dictate all we do, to the opportunities for reflection and deliberate action that present themselves later in life even as the body is in decline.
Photo Credits are available as a word document.
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From Resolution to Action
Following up on last week’s meditation … While it’s wonderful that we resolve to do better for ourselves and others in the new year, if we want our noble intentions to carry us for more than a few days into 2009, we have to take a few things into account. First, we have to acknowledge our tendency to say “Yes, but …” It’s easy to rationalize our way out of commitments. We have to face down our natural tendency and say: “Nevertheless …” then move on to action. Scott Kearns guides us through the course from resolution to action with the help of many others whose wise words you can download here.
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