Learning from Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

“You let me sing, you lifted me up, you have my soul a beam to travel on. You folded your distance back into my heart. You drew the tears back to my eyes. You hid me in the mountain of your word. You gave the injury a tongue to heal itself.

You covered my head with my teacher’s care; you bound my arm with my grandfather’s strength. O beloved speaking, O comfort whispering in the terror, unspeakable explanation of the smoke and cruelty, undo the self-conspiracy, let me dare the boldness of joy.”―Leonard Cohen, “Poem 19,” Book of Mercy, 1984.

My husband and I recently watched a remarkable documentary about Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah and its 80 to 180 verses he wrote during his lifetime. Indeed, the music and its verses documented the Canadian poet and songwriter’s life. The story of the life of Hallelujah was just as fascinating. It took Cohen five years to write the song.

 Cohen initially released Hallelujah in an album rejected by a major record company in this country, and it was released only in England in 1984, where it was minimally successful. Only when other popular singers, John Cale and Jeff Buckley, began performing Hallelujah did its widespread popularity get its start.

Amazingly, the use of Cale’s Hallelujah in the animated movie Shrek in 2001 skyrocketed the song. Then, with Cohen’s death in November 2016, the music reached international prominence again.

I remember being moved by Hallelujah when k.d. lang performed it at the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010. She was dressed in white on a high stage, singing the anthem with all her heart.

Lang described the verses as the struggle between human desire and spiritual wisdom. The early verses have biblical references to Samson and Delilah, as well as King David and Bathsheba. Many see the music and lyrics swaying between blessings and losses. This history of the anthem and its lyrics seem to be a remarkable timeline for the spiritual autobiography of Cohen’s life.

What music could each of us write to share the timeline of our spiritual autobiography?

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Picture This: Stars Waiting for Us to See

Picture This

Guest Writer: Isabel Anders
“Often a star was waiting for you to notice it.” —Rainer Maria Rilke.

Picture This

“The whole of life lies in the word seeing.” —Teilhard de Chardin. 

Picture Lucy and Charlie Brown and the famous football. Or Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in a chase. Think of Pooh Bear with his honey pot. Whether we imagine familiar characters facing danger, sudden change, or a welcome turn of events—they will always bring themselves to their “close-up.” They act and reveal truths to us in character.

“The best illustrations catch the light and let it shine through,” wrote Stephanie Duncan Smith. Ezra Pound defined the image as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.”

Wisdom is found in actual living: photos of heroism, kindness being practiced, and Jesus’ example in all his acts. Gerhard Von Rad, in his classic study Wisdom in Israel, cautions that, too often, modern minds “are asking about ideas and looking for definitions of terms where Israel spoke about facts and described an occurrence” in time:

“Poetic expression [in Israel] was … the expression of an intensive encounter with realities or events.”  

—Gerhard Von Rad, Wisdom in Israel.

Many Proverbs, such as “fitting words are like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Prov. 25:11), almost read like scenes in a frame; they are so graphic and specific. They catch a moment and make it into a picture.

Add to this imagery the beauty of their word arrangement. Von Rad further explains that Proverbs usually “do not bother to provide the reader with conceptual definitions which appear indispensable to us”—they instead supply “intense poetic feeling” in their descriptions of human activity.

Proverbs lodge in our minds, feeding us wisdom and welcoming all to her house: “Come and eat my food” and as a “tree of life to all who embrace her.” No wonder such symbols abound in churches’ stained glass windows. An apt picture can sometimes convey more than a multitude of words.

Isabel Anders’ latest book is Twinkle, Twinkle, Shining Star, and Row Your Boat Just as You Are! (M. T. Publishing).

https://mtpublishing.com/product/twinkle-twinkle-shining-star-and-row-your-boat-just-as-you-are/ 

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Soul Friends

First Soul Friend

“Finally, I suspect that it is by entering that deep place inside us where our secrets are kept that we come perhaps closer than we do anywhere else to the One who, whether we realize it or not, is of all our secrets the most telling and the most precious we have to tell.”—Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Center, Quote of the Day, formerly in Telling Secrets

Kenneth Leech’s book, Soul Friend, an Invitation to Spiritual Direction, was the first book I read on spiritual direction over thirty years ago. Something was calling me to be more connected with other spiritual friends. I was going to a counselor who helped me deal with life on life’s terms, but somehow, I instinctively knew I needed a friend who cared for my soul, concentrating on helping me see the God of my understanding working in my life.

I learned the importance of sharing ideas and consulting with others in my medical practice. I knew from many mistakes that when I tried to make decisions without getting input from others, I often went down the wrong path and made the incorrect diagnosis.

 How do you find someone you can trust with your soul? Spiritual directors were rare breeds at that time. It had to be someone I trusted with my fears and secrets. I knew I shared my life with my family members, but my direction or path to God always affected them directly or indirectly. I needed to talk or be with someone who was not explicitly affected by the insights we might have.

After some time, I found another friend, Dean McMillin, in a book group. She was also seeking a soulmate and a spiritual friend. We read Leech’s book together. Leech had so much to teach us, but we concentrated on this message. We met once a week.

We each told what was going on in our lives, our secret worries, our concerns, our fears, and where we thought God might be working. We each talked without interruption or interpretation. There was no advice to the other, nor was there empathy or sympathy. We just listened. Then, we prayed for each other, specifically for each other’s concerns.

 I am sure Leech would have wanted us to do more, but that was a start for both of us. It connected us to God by telling our stories to someone else. In doing so, these secrets lost their power over us, and somehow, we entered the secret place inside of us where God was dwelling.

It was a start. I learned a little about how the power of secrets and fears can seal us off from God. We no longer meet, but we are still friends and trust each other. We give thanks for this time when our journeys brought us together and started both of us on a new journey.

I have more soul mates now. Many are from my spiritual direction class at Kanuga. Many others have traveled beside me for years as we have supported each other. Soul mates are now writers like Barbara Brown Taylor, Phyllis Tickle, Kate Bowler,  Dean Kate Moorehead Carroll, Frederick Buechner, and Henri Nouwen, who visit us daily in their writing. I don’t know how people make this journey without soul friends.

This kind of friend is invaluable, a gift from God. If you are looking for one, keep it in your prayers. My experience is this kind of treasured spiritual friend will materialize.

Joanna joannaseibert.com