"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared with what lies inside us."
Oliver Wendle Holmes
I grow in interacting situations.
They are the most risky and I am often sensitively cautious
– sometimes scared.
Spending time with individuals and groups who are communicating ‘Level 5’
excites me.
It’s real.
It drives me.
Mary Lou said,
‘I don’t want feelings any more’.
She was living in a YMCA and we used to talk regularly over a meal.
The Dining Room is the one place which brings people together in the some sort of Community -
to cultivate a whole range of contact –
from eye contact -
hello grins,
to real level 5 communication.
Mary Lou was riddled with feelings and beautiful with them.
An open book.
She was great at being in contact with her own feelings, which is great compared with the many who bury them deep and so turning into ulcers – or worse!
She was hopeless at managing those feelings.
That’s the big issue with feelings – having them, owning them without being controlled by them.
Was Ghandi referring to you when,
in response to the question
about his worst experience
– in the whole of his life,
he said
‘The hard hearted of the educated’.
Are you tight and controlled – not willing to share any vulnerability?
Transparency is just for your window overlooking your garden – eh?
‘The single most worthwhile thing in my life ….
Was to admit I had a problem with food,
drugs and alcohol’.
Elton John
Mary Lou knew she had problems, owned them.
She never told me intimate details of her complex relationships
– but did share the feelings.
Sometimes she stepped out of the YMCA lift with a face like a can of worms.
Tormented yet not wanting to talk – but often in the crowded noisy eating place we shared feelings together and a repertoire to own them and mange them. No miracles.
We lost contact in 1994 and I’ve not seen her since.
I just trust that the Climate of Trust in Community released her, facilitated her in her salvation which is an ongoing liberation experience.
Salvation in the bible is often associated with extreme
‘in your face’ evangelists,
who usually need a stronger mouthwash,
who talk about ‘being saved’.
BUT
It is about that personal stuff
but also about ‘Community!’
The first time that word was used in the Bible was when Moses led the people out of captivity and oppression into an experience of Freedom and Liberation in the promised land.
Salvation is about wholistic freedom,
liberation for you and me,
for our Community,
nation
and the
cosmos!.
Mary Lou – I pray for you – and I’m not going to launch into a poem.
BUT I will say::
‘A caterpillar looks nothing like a butterfly,
but we know one develops from the other’.
Mary Lou
– you left your finger prints of feelings on my soul and
I pray for you.
.
