Allysha Lavino
April 10, 2020
‘The journey to becoming the hero of your own story isn’t easy … but it is a well-marked path.
There are certain signposts, trials, and tribulations every hero must undergo in the process of becoming. While Your Path will certainly be your own, there is a crucial first step to embarking on any quest.
ASK TO BE SHOWN THE WAY.
This might look like a prayer, a wish, a hope, a whisper, a willingness, a plea … It is a conscious pulling on one of the strings of the quantum web, so that the music of the Quest may begin.
“…it’s all part of the process. The Initiate has to set out on the quest without knowin’ where she’s goin’. It’s in all the stories … Along the way, there are clues and tests. The Initiate has to gain new awareness and use all her skills to survive and complete the quest.” ~THE HERETIC
The key to questing is that you don’t know where you’re going. It is all ways a journey into the UNKNOWN. That is how I know that we’re all on a Quest right now.
I may not know what the terrain ahead looks like, but I do have some experience with the process. No matter where we go, or what we may become, the spirit of the Quest is the same.
The possibility of initiation is being offered to each of us.
Will you ask to be shown the way?
It will take courage. You’ll have to choose in every moment. And you do not get to know the way. It is a step of trust … of courage … into the Unknown.
It may not be for the faint of heart …
But some of you are ready.
I can feel it.’
♥
Good Friday
In Jerusalem yesterday, a priest peers from the door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe Jesus was buried. Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP
Father Richard Rohr, Center for Action & Contemplation:
‘It is true that you are going to die, and yet “I am certain of this, neither death nor life, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, not any height nor depth, nor any created thing can ever come between us and the love of God” (Romans 8:38-39).
On Good Friday, we lament Jesus’ death while living in hope that death does not have the last word on our destiny. We are born with a longing, desire, and deep hope that this thing called life could somehow last forever. It is a premonition from something eternal that is already within us. Some would call it the soul. Christians would call it the indwelling presence of God. It is God within us that makes us desire and seek God.
Yes, we are going to die, but we have already been given a kind of inner guarantee and promise right now that death is not final—and it takes the form of love. Deep in the heart and psyche, love, both human and divine, connotes something eternal and gratuitous, and it does so in a deeply mysterious and compelling way. We are seeing this now in simple acts of love in this time of crisis, such as people volunteering to make masks and deliver food, or people cheering hospital workers arriving for their shift. Isn’t it amazing how a small act of love or gratitude can imprint a deeper knowing on our soul?
The crucifixion of Jesus is the preeminent example of God’s love reaching out to us. It is at the same moment the worst and best thing in human history. The Franciscans, led by John Duns Scotus (1266-1308), even claimed that instead of a “necessary sacrifice,” the cross was a freely chosen revelation of Total Love on God’s part.
In so doing, they reversed the engines of almost all world religion up to that point, which assumed that we had to spill blood to get to a distant and demanding God.
On the cross, the Franciscans believed, God was “spilling blood” to reach out to us! This is a sea change in consciousness. The cross, instead of being a transaction, was seen as a dramatic demonstration of God’s outpouring love, meant to utterly shock the heart and turn it back toward trust and love of the Creator.
I believe that the cross is an image for our own time, and every time: we are invited to gaze upon the image of the crucified Jesus to soften our hearts toward all suffering.
Amidst the devastating spread of COVID-19, the cross beckons us to what we would call “grief work,” holding the mystery of pain, looking right at it, and learning from it. With softened hearts, God leads us to an uncanny and newfound compassion and understanding.’
Bluer skies.
‘I love this — taken by Brooke Williams at Dartmouth’ -Terry Tempest Williams
Remember: You are alive, and a better world is possible.
by Eric Holthaus/The Correspondent
‘Warm weather is back, and at least here in Minnesota, we are remembering we are still alive.
Last weekend, my preschoolers and I couldn’t help but spend all day enjoying the weather. Although the morning was still chilly, with frost on the newly green grass, the temperature quickly warmed up to more than 20C (68F) in the afternoon, the best days of spring here so far.
The whole time we were outside, I was keenly aware of the profound luxury that fresh air and freedom in nature are these days, but the thing that struck me most was the sky.
Looking straight up, the sky here was a remarkable shade of dark blue, almost Pantone ultraviolet.
In my best meteorological opinion, this breathtaking colour was due to a combination of a high pressure system overhead on a sunny spring day mixed with the effects of this pandemic: fewer clouds due to a 90% reduction of airplanes in the sky and a sharp drop in air pollution from the shuttering of factories and freeways. As I researched a little further, my suspicion was confirmed: bluer skies aren’t just happening here in Minnesota, they’re happening all around the world.
Airplane contrails create temporary high-level cirrus clouds, which on balance sharply warm the planet by allowing sunlight through to the Earth’s surface, but blocking heat from escaping back out into space. It’s a much greater warming effect than the greenhouse gases airplanes emit from burning jet fuel. And right now, these clouds are almost entirely absent.
But probably the biggest factor is the sharp drop-off in air pollution, which creates a palpably thick omnipresent haze in almost every major city worldwide. Air pollution is one of the leading causes of death in nearly every country, and in low-income countries, it’s the world’s leading killer. These blue skies are literally life-saving.
Still, we shouldn’t be cheering this pandemic, even if it’s giving us cleaner skies. Wishing for one form of death to save us from another form of death is a false choice, and we don’t have to make it. Instead, we should take this moment to remember that our lives are a gift, and that a better world is possible.’
Ketchum, Idaho – April 9th, 2020