Song of the Open Road
Today is part one of a five week series reflecting on Walt Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road”. Proposed as a possible candidate for the 2010 West Hill Book Study, the “Song of the Open Road” provides a depth of understanding about the road we all travel.
Gretta offers Whitman’s poem as a source of discovery for each of us, asking us to embark on that journey with the poet as our guide. She ends her discussion by stating that the spiritual journey we are on is a difficult one, made so by the vastness of the road trod upon by so many. The challenge is to choose the open road and journey upon it together in community, knowing that it is made richer by us all.
Satyagraha - Holding onto truth
Gretta’s meditation considers the Earth Charter, which the Board endorsed at their October meeting.
She highlights the principles of the Earth Charter and notes that she feels saddened that some religious communities feel challenged by those principles: because of the absence of the assumption of a divine being within it, its assertion of non-discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, and the call for reproductive responsibility.
The Earth Charter asks us to make a choice. We can desecrate the planet or we can find within our own selves the ability to live with less. We can decide that just because it’s there, we don’t have to have it. In the end, it asks us to learn to live in community while balancing our own individual needs with the needs of the community of life.
Gretta finishes by speaking of Satyagraha, or holding onto truth. This Thanksgiving, we are called speak the truth. To speak the truth not only our past but the truth of what we know will be real in the future.
We get to carry each other
October 4, 2009
This Sunday was a celebration of Worldwide Communion. In a brief reflection, Gretta examined the idea of getting to carry each other. Borrowed from U2’s song, “One” this statement suggests that carrying each other is not an obligation we undertake, but a privilege we keenly accept.
This privilege was highlighted through short readings describing the United Church’s work worldwide through the Mission and Service Fund. These stories provided an opportunity to reflect on how we might support and carry each other – those close to home and those worldwide – and how the privilege of carrying each others’ hearts can change our own hearts and in turn, change the world.
Three Fairy Tales
In today’s meditation, Gretta reflects on three fairy tales. Describing each of them, she highlights their themes of emotional escape, safety, and a parent’s love. She challenges us to think of our lives as our own stories to write and share, for it is in sharing those stories that we might be a catalyst for change in the world.