Wisdom of Waiting

 Wisdom During Waiting

Manet fainting couch

“To the disciples who always asked for words of wisdom, the Master said, ‘Wisdom is not expressed in words. It reveals itself in action.’ But when he saw them plunge headlong into activity, he laughed and said, ‘That isn’t action. That’s motion.’”—Anthony de Mello.

There is a Greek myth about Psyche and Eros that best describes women’s growth into consciousness. The story is the basis for She by Robert Johnson and Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis. To reunite with her lover, Eros, Psyche is given several tasks. At the beginning of each task, Psyche collapses and weeps when she realizes it is insurmountable.

My image is Psyche lying on one of those old-fashioned fainting couches that every woman of means once possessed—with her hand turned palm up on her forehead, her eyes closed, and her head leaning backward on or off the couch. It is the feminine body language of surrender and stillness.

Instead of plowing directly into an arduous task before us, the feminine energy in us waits and rests. In the waiting, answers and helpers come that are entirely out of the box. They are genuine answers to prayer. Some would say these solutions are received from the Spirit of God within her. Helpers come from places she never imagined. 

This is wisdom: the action of waiting, stillness, especially before we are asked to do something we do not think we can do.

I remember waiting in an outer office before a difficult meeting with other physicians. At first, it upset me that I, this important person, had to wait! But, slowly, I realized the waiting was a gift, wisdom from a mysterious source. It was time to quiet myself, surrender to the moment, and be still before this challenging meeting. When I could do this, I carried with me the feminine energy of staying in relationship with those around me. This made all the difference.

We often find ourselves in a waiting period today. We wait in “waiting rooms.” We are waiting for new vaccinations. We wait for a cure for cancer and dementia. We wait for rain. We wait for rebuilding after tornadoes, hurricanes, and fires. We wait for all our children to be vaccinated and no longer hungry. We wait to spend more time with our children and grandchildren.

Macrina Wiederkehr1 suggests a way to honor waiting in our lives. She tells us to put “pause” on our to-do list several times.

All this can be seen as a precious time or an anxious time. We have a choice.

1Macrina Wiederkehr in Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day (Sorin Books 2008), p. 20.

Joanna Seibert. Joannaseibert.com

Parker Palmer: On the Brink of Everything

Parker Palmer: On the Brink

Joanne Blue Mosque

“I’ve lost the capacity for multitasking, but I’ve rediscovered the joy of doing one thing at a time. My thinking has slowed a bit, but experience has made it deeper and richer. I’m done with big, complex projects, but I’m more aware of the loveliness of simple things... I like being old because the view from the brink is striking, a full panorama of my life.”—Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Older (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2018) pp. 1-2. 

Parker Palmer takes us to the brink of an alternative life. It is a slower life where we observe and become aware of so much we missed in this world while living at a frantic pace: cardinals, dolphins, pelicans, hummingbirds, downy woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadees, the ocean, crocus, daffodils, old friends, the list goes on. Parker Palmer has so many suggestions for our new life. First, we are to consider being a mentor, knowing that we will learn as much or more from the one we mentor. Second, we are to be more observant of the world outside of us and inside our inner world.

Palmer reminds us that “violence happens when we do not know what else to do with our suffering.” We are called to reach out with love to those who suffer and become acquainted with our own suffering and what we can learn from it. Parker Palmer simply asks us to welcome everything that comes into our lives, the good and the bad.

Palmer quotes Rumi’s poem, “The Quest House,” reminding us that every part of our life has something to teach us. Palmer talks about how suffering breaks our hearts, but if our hearts are supple instead of brittle, they break open and allow more love and a new life to come in. Our heart becomes supple by stretching it, taking in all of life’s little joys and taking in life’s little deaths without an anesthetic.  

Palmer believes faith allows us to live with all the contradictions of life. However, we become faithless when we are so afraid of contradictions that we pretend they are not there.  

We can now become observers of our world because most of the world does not have time to observe and digest. They simply react.

He reminds us that as long as we only look for results, our tasks become smaller and smaller.

We are to be seed scatterers. Others may plant, Others water. Others reap.  

Palmer’s experience is that solitude is not being apart from others but being apart from ourselves.  

Palmer reminds us of Benedict’s message of “keeping death daily before our eyes.”

Langley Santorini

In the meantime, we must reach out and learn from the younger generation, move toward, not away from, what we fear, and spend as much time as possible in the natural world.

Finally, he reminds us of how essential humor is as we age, quoting William James: “Common sense and a sense of humor are the same things moving at different speeds. Humor is common sense dancing.”

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

The Ache for Home by The Reverend Barkley Thompson

The Ache for Home by The Reverend Barkley Thompson

The baby who almost lost his hands, Christmas at grandparents, beach vacations with grandparents, fish for people as a noun, not a verb, unused switches, grandfather teaching you to swim, widows, a mother transfigured when harm might come to her firstborn, a small town lawyer’s waiting room, chased by death in a graveyard, a child’s first encounter with death, tuna fish and Alzheimer’s Disease, a lost eyeball, chocolates from Iceland, Vienna sausages, the greatest gift, paper grocery sacks nativity pageants.

Do any of these stories of childhood memories resonate with you? They and more are in the Reverend Barkley Thompson’s newest book, The Ache for Home. The stories are parts of sermons that, in the end, called Barkley back to his home state of Arkansas after he had served churches in Memphis and Roanoke and as the dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas.

Of course, the great preachers bring you to see God in your own experience as they tell their story, and Barkley is the master of this. I have been reminded of the unconditional love that flowed from grandparents who taught me about love. I remember the nativity pageants we had in my childhood playhouse for our neighborhood, the nativity pageants at all the churches I have served, and especially the pageants written, costumed, and performed by our grandchildren.

Barkley is an outstanding preacher, and all of Barkley’s sermons connect us to the scripture he brings to life with his stories—so many excellent sermons. My favorite is his preaching on the Transfiguration from Mark’s gospel. Get his book just for that one.

 Barkley’s stories and sermons also take us home, as he experiences what home is—not a place in time, but a place that first called us to a relationship with God. We give thanks to those who were there to mentor us, be our advocates, love us, and connect us to the love so great that only comes from the God of love. This is home.

Joanna Seibert