{"id":5083,"date":"2017-04-26T13:20:29","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T20:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2017-04-26T19:51:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T02:51:29","slug":"april-26-2017-supreme-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/april-26-2017-supreme-blessings\/","title":{"rendered":"April 26, 2017 – Supremely Blessed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Beatitude”<\/p><\/div>\n

You know I\u2019m an artist; you know that I am a guide to those on their own creative journeys – and if you have been reading these posts for a while, you likely know that I\u2019m also a spiritual seeker. \u00a0My seeking began in my 30\u2019s centered in what would be called New Age spirituality, but now my heart finds nourishment and curiosity in the Christian path. \u00a0I shiver a bit as I write this. \u00a0I wonder what you might be making up about my saying this? \u00a0Even to my ears it sounds freaky \u2013 Jesus freaky. \u00a0Telling you I\u2019m Christian makes me want to clamor to explain \u2013 I want for you to know what kind<\/em> of Christian I am. Because I\u2019m not the kind of Christian that comes to mind for most people in the liberal circles I travel in \u2013 or would have come to my own<\/em> mind thirty years ago.<\/p>\n

As were most Americans, I was raised in a family that had its spiritual roots in Christianity, but hardly anyone around me seems to have much connection to that fact. \u00a0Even our big Christian holiday celebrations \u2013 Christmas and Easter – lack much connection to Jesus\u2019 birth and death and resurrection. I have no idea how or why, but I am heaven bent<\/em> (because \u201chell bent\u201d so doesn\u2019t seem to fit!) to discover for myself the pearls of wisdom and useful practice in the tradition that has come out of the remarkable life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. \u00a0And some of what I\u2019ve discovered is such a far cry from my knee-jerk understanding of \u201cChristianity\u201d in my earlier life \u2013 that it is astonishing! \u00a0I know that what I\u2019ve learned is soundly rejected by those who follow more traditional ways of believing. \u00a0But what I\u2019ve discovered feels right and true to me.<\/p>\n

I also see that I am not \u201call the way in\u201d as some others are. \u00a0I am still holding on to my rational, figure-it-out mind when considering who Jesus was and is. \u00a0I don\u2019t consider him my \u201cLord and Savior,\u201d I don\u2019t even worship him \u2013 worship \u2013 to me – is for God, the creator of all that is. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure how I would describe a relationship I might have with Jesus \u2013 if I even have one. \u00a0But I deeply, deeply appreciate that in his time on the Earthly plane he was an enlightened wisdom teacher \u2013 whose teachings are as relevant and useful today as ever.<\/p>\n

Because I wasn\u2019t raised practicing our tradition, I\u2019ve never read the Bible and don\u2019t have much of relationship with it, either. \u00a0(Some Christian I am, huh?) Except for one section \u2013 the Beatitudes. \u00a0I do<\/em> have a relationship with the Beatitudes. \u00a0I was introduced to them on a trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2003. \u00a0Led by my then Pastor, Sara Vurek, we spent 10 days staying with the Benedictine Sisters and met and visited with some of the poorest people in the area. \u00a0I learned about Liberation Theology and the life and work of the beloved Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated. \u00a0We went to a church in Cuernavaca that had the Beatitudes engraved on a large exterior wall on its side \u2013 surrounded by a garden. \u00a0\u201cBlessed are those with the spirit of the poor\u201d I read. \u00a0We were told of how central these words, spoken by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, are and the place they hold for those living in such oppressive poverty in Latin America.<\/p>\n

A few years later, Evelyn, my mother-in-law, gave me a book called \u201cReading Jesus: A writer\u2019s encounters with the Gospels\u201d by Mary Gordon. \u00a0I think it was her<\/em> relationship with the Beatitudes that really helped me form mine. \u00a0She writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many days, I write and rewrite these words by hand and then I am paralyzed. \u00a0Struck dumb. Afraid to write. \u00a0Silenced by the depth of my attachment to them, silenced at the example of sheer moral greatness and the sense that after these words there is, perhaps should be, nothing to say.<\/em><\/p>\n

What kind of life, what kind of living is suggested by the Beatitudes? \u00a0Perhaps equally important, what virtues are not mentioned\u2026 elided, simply left out?<\/em><\/p>\n

Most striking: \u00a0the bourgeous virtues. \u00a0There is nothing about honesty, keeping your word, paying your debts, placing yourself in the right place in relation to authority or hierarchy. \u00a0Mercy, peacemaking, poverty of spirit, purity of heart (the body is not mentioned here). \u00a0The sexually well-behaved are not given a place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

She later writes movingly about the second one: \u00a0\u201cBlessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted<\/em>\u201d as a \u201cperpetual mourner\u201d having lost her father when she was a child. \u00a0This Beatitude speaks of the dignity, the duty even, to allow our pain as we mourn our losses, knowing that comfort is at hand.<\/p>\n

At the end of January I finished the painting above, and gave it the name \u201cBeatitude.\u201d\u00a0 The Beatitudes are each a paradox: \u00a0amidst what we\u2019d think of as lesser is really something far greater. \u00a0On the same plant \u2013 at the end of the season \u2013 are both the dying leaves and the still-radiant flowers. \u00a0The name came to me before I started painting it \u2013 before even drawing it. \u00a0It also occurred to me that these teachings from this man who lived two millennia ago could use a higher profile right now \u2013 to be more top of mind than ever before in my life.<\/p>\n

During my vacation over the following two weeks, I took on the audacious task of interpreting them for myself \u2013 from my point of view as one who creates and supports others in creating too. \u00a0I\u2019m certainly not the first to do this, but every other interpretation that I found online was done by a pro \u2013 those who make their lives in this tradition \u2013 including Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

In the next two weeks I\u2019ll share with you what I\u2019ve come up with \u2013 the first four next week and the remainder the week after. \u00a0I\u2019d so love to hear from you \u2013 (even more than usual!). \u00a0I\u2019d love to know if reading how I<\/em> see these ancient teachings, looking through the experience of bringing forth creative expression, might meet\u00a0you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s scary to do this, to reveal this part of me to the world so publicly. \u00a0But doing scary stuff is where life is really lived. \u00a0And it\u2019s what Jesus did.<\/p>\n

Offering you blessings – and my appreciation for who you are to me,<\/p>\n

Cara<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know I\u2019m an artist; you know that I am a guide to those on their own creative journeys – and if you have been reading these posts for a while, you likely know that I\u2019m also a spiritual seeker. \u00a0My seeking began in my 30\u2019s centered in what would be called New Age spirituality, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nApril 26, 2017 - 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