Rohr: Messages From Nature

Rohr: Messages From Nature

cottonwood leaves clapping

“If you scale chronological history down to the span of one year, with the Big Bang on January 1, then our species, Homo sapiens, doesn’t appear until 11:59 p.m. on December 31. That means our written Bible and the church appeared in the last nanosecond of December 31. I can’t believe that God had nothing to say until the last nanosecond.”—Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, Center for Action and Contemplation.

david dahler

I remember staying at a favorite hotel by the Mississippi River. We watch the sun give its last hurrah of pink and orange as it sets over the churning water, racing to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. We are treated to a rare event: the migration of a super full moon, which is brighter and larger, appearing closer to Earth than usual. It finally sets over the north shore of the Mississippi River and quickly disappears into a cloud bank at early dawn.

A gentle breeze blows the last leaves from their trees near the water’s edge. The cottonwood leaves seem to be the last holdouts. As the wind blows their palm shapes, we hear the sound like clapping, as if they are praising their Creator—in awe of the spectacle we witness just before their last flight.

cottonwood leaf

Nature is telling us something. There is still breathtaking beauty in the world. Something more significant than we can ever imagine fashioned it all. All of nature seems to give thanks and honor its Creator. Dare we consider joining the dance and doing the same?

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Thomas Merton: Prayer of Surrender, Third Step Prayer

Thomas Merton: Prayer of Surrender, Third Step Prayer

fork in the road, Camp McDowell

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me... Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you...And I know if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost.—Thomas Merton in Thoughts in Solitude (1956).

I share many prayers with spiritual friends, and this is one of my favorites. I especially love praying it with friends, discerning how to become the person God created them to be when deciding on a vocation, making life-changing decisions, or simply trying to live in the present, one day at a time.

This prayer has similarities to the Third Step Prayer (p. 63 in Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book): “God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always.”

These are prayers of surrender to each day, to whatever God puts in front of us for that day. It is a prayer about realizing that trying to control our lives is driving us crazy. It is a prayer about learning that we cannot control our lives, but something greater than ourselves can guide us. When we turn our lives and will over to God, “we will know a new freedom and a new happiness,” as we have never known before. (p. 83, “The Promises” in Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book).

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Lewis Hines: Photography as a Spiritual Practice

Photography as a Spiritual Practice: Lewis Hines

little oyster shucker: 7-year old Rosie. Regular shucker. Her second year at it. Illiterate. Works all day. Shucks only a few pots a day. Varn & Platt Canning Co. Location: Bluffton, South Carolina. 1913

“He arrived at the coal mines, textile mills, and industrial factories dressed in a three-piece suit. He was just a humble Bible salesman, he claimed, who wanted to spread the good word to the laborers inside. What Lewis Hines actually wanted was to take photos of those laborers—and show the world what it looked like when children were put to work.”—Jessica Contrera, “The Searing Photos That Helped End Child Labor in America” in The Washington Post (9/3/2018).

This important article by Jessica Contrera in The Washington Post reminds us how art can change the world. Most of us know the story. Hines was a photographer in the early 1900s who photographed the horrendous working conditions of young children laboring in mines, factories, and any business that employed unskilled workers. He could enter these places by saying he was a Bible salesman!

Our hearts break when we see these young girls and boys, slightly older than toddlers, working long shifts in dangerous conditions. Their faces are dull. There are few smiles. They were, in essence, slave labor.

I love seafood, but almost every time I eat oysters, I see this childish girl photographed by Hines of maybe six or seven, with her yellow hair pulled back, standing on a stool to reach the table to shuck oysters with the older women. If you have ever shucked oysters, you know it is a dirty task that sprays mud all over you and includes the hazard of cuts from a slip of the oyster knife. It is not an easy job for adults, much less for children.

Oyster shells form the floor of the bleak room. The young girl’s apron is almost as big as she is. We do not see her face. That might be too much to bear. We do observe the women’s faces—perhaps relatives—working beside her. They look older than their presumed ages, with hapless expressions on their faces.

Photographic exposure to such scenes mobilizes our country and leads to labor laws for children. Hines not only shares dramatic pictures of children doing dangerous tasks, even for adults, but he also reveals the children’s ages and tells us their stories. For example, Hines’ story that accompanies this image is of “seven-year-old Rosie. Regular shucker. Her second year at it. Illiterate. Works all day. Only shucks a few pots a day. Varn & Platt Canning Co., Bluffton, South Carolina, published February 1913” (Library of Congress Photographs Online Catalog).

Hines’ work reminds us that art, photography, music, writing, and stories are as influential as guns and cannons in the revolutions of history. So when I talk to people about how they want to change the world, I remind them of how this one person with one camera and maybe a Bible in hand made a difference.

We are not all Lewis Hines, but we have been created with talents that can make a difference in others’ lives just as he did—with no threat of violence.

We discover and activate the difference we can make by connecting to the Christ within us and the Christ in our neighbor. We become the person God created us to be and lead others to help our neighbors become the people God created them to be.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/