Photographer and Writer Eve Turek Talks about Fox-Walking

 Photographer and Writer Eve Turek talks about Fox-Walking

Guest Writer: Eve Turek

“Come, follow Me…” -Jesus (Mt. 4:19)

I have always defined “Christian” for myself as “Christ-follower.” I take that phrase both literally and spiritually.

Fox Tracks

In the mid-1980s, I became interested in animal tracks. I practiced identifying the tracks I saw in the sand. I tried to imagine how the animal might have moved and where it paused or lengthened its stride, based on its footprints. I quickly learned to recognize obvious tracks, like those of rabbits, mice, and raccoons. I puzzled over bug trails. I marveled at the many tracks fanning out from a single ghost crab hole. 

But my favorite tracks belong to my favorite animal: the fox.

Fox tracks are unusual in that they almost always occur in a straight line. Foxes’ normal gait exhibits a “perfect register” – their back paws land precisely where their front paws do, creating a single line of tracks. Their footprints speak to me of purpose and direction. I have tried to walk in a perfectly straight line. It’s not easy, especially in rough or uneven terrain. “Fox-walking” requires focus, concentration, and balance in the natural world. “Christ-walking” takes all of that in the spirit.

So, what stride, direction, and pace do I strive to maintain?

Simple, but not easy. Challenging and demanding both focus and balance, no matter the surrounding terrain or circumstances.

Love is what I strive to follow. The kind of love that says to love God with all you are and have, or, in Bible words, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love. The kind of love that says, “Love your neighbor as you would love yourself.” And then, just so we don’t misunderstand, Love Himself gave us a story about “neighbor” being the least like us, the one we might more naturally despise or feel superior to. Love THAT one.

Love. The kind of love that says, “Love your enemies.” (Really? You have got to be kidding! How does an ordinary person do that?!?) Yes, those parenthetical sentences sum up the arguments I have tried to have with God many times.

 Over the decades, I have found an answer: I ask for healing, a blessing, forgiveness, restoration, and better choices. I ask to see as God sees, as a loving parent sees, who wants only and always the best for every child. 

I don’t, I’m sorry to say, always think in a perfect register. And I don’t always speak or walk in one either. However, I’m grateful to say that I’m very aware when I “step out of line.”

The idea of “fox-walking after Jesus” informs every conversation I have, every decision I make, and all my choices. It will guide my vote in the upcoming election. I will not vote for hatred or division, nor for any candidate who advocates despising others for any reason. Are there perfect people, perfect candidates, or a perfect nation? No. 

But I am determined to fox-walk, as best I can, in the life I have been granted, and for my part, that means trying, with focus and balance, to walk the walk of being a Christ-follower, not just talk the talk.

Eve Turek

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

Thomas Merton and his Practical Thoughts on the Spiritual Life

Thomas Merton and the Spiritual Life

“The only trouble is that in the spiritual life, there are no tricks or shortcuts. Those who imagine they can discover spiritual gimmicks and put them to work for themselves often ignore God’s will and his grace.”—Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayers.

Thomas Merton’s concise book, Spiritual Direction and Meditation, is another excellent resource for those seeking to learn about spiritual direction and the spiritual life. I often recommend it to spiritual friends before we meet for the first time to discuss the spiritual life. It should also be a frequent reread for those giving spiritual direction. Merton reminds us that spiritual direction is not psychotherapy and that directors should not become amateur therapists. He recommends that directors not worry about unconscious drives and emotional problems. They should refer. 

Merton’s sections on meditation are classic, straightforward, and practical. For example, he uses the story of the Prodigal Son as a model for reflection, noting that the son “entered into himself” and meditated on his condition, starving in a distant land far from his father. Merton also suggests that the Incarnation, the birth of God into human form, serves as a focus for another meditation on birth events within our own spiritual life.

Merton emphasizes the importance of holy leisure, believing that meditation should not be treated as work and that it requires time. He reminds us of promising artists ruined by premature success, which drove them to overwork in an attempt to continually renew the public image of themselves. On the other hand, wise artists spend more time contemplating their work beforehand than putting paint on canvas; poets who respect their art burn more pages than they publish.

In our interior life, we must allow for silent transitions in our prayer. Merton reminds us of St. Teresa’s words: “God does not need our works. God has need of our love.” Our prayer aims to awaken the Holy Spirit within us so the Spirit can speak and pray through us. Merton believes that in contemplative prayer, we learn more about God through love than through knowledge. Our awakening is brought about not by our actions but by the Holy Spirit’s work. 

Merton also cautions us about what he calls informal or colloquial “comic book spirituality,” which flourishes in popular religious literature. For example, when Mary becomes Mom and Joseph is Dad, and we “just tell them all about ourselves all day long.” For some, this may be a helpful path to God, but it was not Merton’s.

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

Thank you for supporting our camp and conference center, Camp Mitchell, located atop Petit Jean Mountain, by purchasing this book from the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Ordinary Time: Readings from Pentecost to Advent. All proceeds from book sales will benefit Camp Mitchell. If you enjoy this book, please take a moment to write a brief recommendation on its Amazon page at https://smile.amazon.com/Daily-Spiritual-Ordinary-Time-Pentecost/dp/B08JLTZYGH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=joanna+seibert+books&qid=1621104335&sr=8-1

 More thank-yous than we can say!!!

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Buechner, Carl Jung: Synchronicity

Frederick Buechner, Patrick Murray, Carl Jung: Synchronicity

“I remember once sitting parked by the roadside, terribly depressed and afraid about my daughter’s illness and what was going on in our family, when out of nowhere a car came along the highway with a license plate bearing the one word out of all the words in the dictionary that I needed most to see at that exact moment.” 

The word was TRUST. … The owner of the car turned out to be, as I’d suspected, a trust officer at a bank. Not long ago, he found out where I lived and, one afternoon, brought me the license plate itself, which sits propped up on a bookshelf in my house to this day. It is rusty around the edges and a little battered, and it is as holy a relic as I have ever seen.”—Frederick Buechner in Telling Secrets (HarperOne, 1991).

Frederick Buechner beautifully recounts an instance of synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences, also known as serendipity. Many believe that such an experience occurs when the unconscious mind speaks to our conscious mind. How this happens remains a mystery. Jung and Patrick Murray describe it as “a simultaneous relationship between an inner psychic experience and outer external physical event.” The inner experience and external event of the synchronicity then become “a meaningful coincidence contributing to one’s sense of wholeness.”

In spiritual direction, we discuss seeking out times of synchronicity, the occurrence of meaningful coincidences, being aware of them, and pondering them—not letting them pass unnoticed. Patrick Murray calls these “moments of transformation, embracing us with a profound sense that life is ultimately purposeful.” Some believe these are signs that we are on the right path.

We sense a divine connection. A friend happens to call just when we needed it. We turn on the radio and hear a musical piece that brings back pleasant memories of hearing it with a loved one or dear friend. We feel peace. There are moments like that every day if we just step out of our routine to be aware of them.

Before the pandemic, I would stand in a particular spot and talk to those who came by for food at our food pantry. Once, when we arrived a little late, people were already sitting outside, waiting for the bags filled with their orders. For no particular reason, I decided to go out and greet them there. 

Suddenly, I saw a friend I had worked with for thirty-three years, who had just lost her job. We hugged, and she told me about her struggles to find another job. I saw courage and faith in a way I had never seen before. She had a plan, was not giving up, and still felt cared for by a loving God. For me, this was synchronicity—that by some miracle, we ran into each other and could openly share the Christ within each other for a few moments.

I will put this visit in the memory book of my imagination and hope to remember to be on the lookout each day for times like this—when the Holy Spirit calls us and offers us an opportunity to share Christ with one another.

At our staff meetings at Saint Mark’s, our rector begins with prayer and then asks whether we have any “God moments” from the week to share.

Times of synchronicity are “God moments.”

[See Patrick Murray, “Jung’s Concept of Synchronicity,” The Haden Institute, December 2002.]

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/