Is This a Good Time?

Sometimes, our friends say things that come across a little too harsh. A family member comments that our home smells like pet odor. We get annoyed and want to tell her to mind her own business or better yet tell her that she has no clue how to take care of her animals. Things quickly get out of control. When is it a good time to sit down with your soul mate, colleague or friend and have a candid conversation about things that really irk you?

Jesus was outraged when the moneychangers were milking the folks to pay the Temple tax. For him, it was the gouging, the exorbitant rates, the fleecing of the pilgrims that got to him. It was the holiest of places yet! The Temple had become a veritable mall of ATM’s, a circus of noise and transactions. Jesus was merely acting in the ways of the prophets of old. Prophetic anger is what Jesus was showing, outrage at what should be not, but was, God’s honor and God’s people should not be treated like that.

This incident tells us something about Jesus, and something about ourselves. I believe people are measured by what angers them. True, anger can be dangerous. But anger that leads to reform, transformation and making ourselves into the best version of who we can be be is a respectable and desirable emotion.

We are judged by what angers us and what does not. Anger can become the Lenten energy that motivates us and forms the basis of reflective questions for this season. Such as: We get angry if we get stalled behind a slow moving vehicle and miss the first episode of our favorite TV show. But are we angry over our unemployed neighbors, or our young people not getting subsidies to help with college? The massacre in Libya, the massive greed of corporate executives and our leaders in government.

Are we angry that our seniors will not get a cost-of-living increase this year? Over the graphic violence and lack of respect for women in the media, the corruption of sports, the growing chasm between the very rich and very poor?

Are we just merely disgusted, a feeling that stays within us, but really angry, that moves us into action? Are we angry over our own buying into the culture’s norm of success: high consumption, low reflection, fierce competition, and tepid cooperation? Are we angry over our selfishness and petty jealousies, our picayune lying and cheating, our lack of a generous spirit, our failure to develop a truly spiritual life?

I don’ t know if you ever looked at it this way before, but Lent might be the season to get angry enough to overturn old tables and set up new ones. Which new ones might we set up? Here’s a sample of my Monday's night's Lenten Penance Service Lenten reflection.

Love the things that are worth loving. Some things are not worth loving, like SUVs, trucks, celebrities, or our addiction to the “screen” meaning our computers, cell phones and plasmas, or flirting with a temptation that comes in all shapes and sizes, colors and prints. The things worth loving are family, faith, God, Jesus, friend, neglected kitties, dogs and horses.

Strive for integrity of character, meaning I will not do anything to compromise my integrity. I will not yell and scream at anyone, always have it my way or the highway, engage in self-destructive behavior like drinking, drugs, gambling and overusing my prescription medicines. I won’t cheat on exams or my income taxes. I won’t do anything to get ahead or gain the whole world at the expense of my soul.

Immanuel watches over us as we reflect: "Trust in him at all times; pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that you help surrender the anger that blinds us from your patient and understanding love. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those you trespass against us and give us the insight to humbly turn ourselves over to you.

Mycorrhizae

Mycorrhizae are fungi. What is truly amazing is that these fungi help trees to grow healthy and strong. Think of mycorrhizae as tiny fibers that actually grow into the roots of trees. The tree roots and fungi become one. These fungi act as special assistants that creep into the soil particles and help the roots of the trees to absorb more water and nutrients.

On the other hand, fungi cannot make their own protein, but since the leaves of the trees are making sugars from photosynthesis, the sugars travel throughout the tree to its roots and the fungi get their protein. The fungus receives carbohydrates and vitamins from the tree and they reciprocate by breaking down the proteins in organic material that can be absorbed and utilized by the trees. The network of mycorrhizae in the soil vastly increases the potential surface area for absorption over and above the root’s own root hairs, so mycorrhizae are important in poor soils where mineral nutrients are hard to come by. So this Spring as you are planning to plant any trees into your garden, you can improve the health and growth of your plants by adding some mycorrhizae.

Our souls and personality are greatly enriched when we are connected to people that act like mycorrhizae who help us to grow in God’s love. Staying connected helps our spiritual roots to grow healthier and stronger. So who are the people in your life that help you spiritual roots grow in patience, generosity and forgiveness?

Staying connected to our older family members help us to appreciate our ancestral roots whose faith helped build our churches and schools in the past. Staying connected to family members who have endured great pain and struggles teach us to trust in God and persevere despite the crosses of life.

Our spiritual roots grow stronger if we stay connected with a faith community that worships and rallies together to reach out to families to bring hope and comfort to those who have lost their homes in foreclosure, lost a child to suicide or lost their faith because they no longer feel accepted by a faith community.

Staying connected to our spiritual mentors who teach us from our pulpits or monasteries a message of Jesus’ love that penetrates our stubborn hearts and helps our roots of faith renew themselves with the spirit of God’s love and forgiveness.

I am grateful to my social mentors who have enriched my life by sharing their gifts and talents with this apprentice priest. To my master floral designer, Michael; to my first photography teacher, Owen; to my fellow photo enthusiasts, Brandon, Glen and John, to my photo marketing team Ed, Bill, Lara, Lisa; to my horse trainers Judy in Vermont, Heather, Alto and to my bread baker, Chet.

The secret of a healthy spiritual garden is obvious, stay connected to people in our life who teach us how to pray humbly, walk joyfully and work diligently to bring God’s mercy and peace. Our roots will be energized and grow stronger this Lenten Season.Immanuel watches over us as we reflect: "They will be like a tree planted by the water that spends out roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:8).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that you help us remember with gratitude the family, friends and neighbors who have helped our spiritual roots to grow healthy and strong. May we never take their gifts for granted. Bless them for their generosity, wisdom and support during our most difficult moments and many thanks for being present in our desperate hour.

Reflections

A few years ago researchers at Stanford investigated how college students multitasked. They assumed they did it much more effectively than older adults. The researchers expected to find highly tuned cognitive abilities that allowed effective multitasking. What they actually found was that the more people multitasked, the worse at it they were.

They were worse at identifying relevant information, more distractable, and more disorganized. They even became worse at what multitasking is supposed to help with: switching tasks seamlessly. Multitasking, they concluded, impairs one’s ability to think reflectively. Such reflection is about thinking long enough on a topic to weigh a number of ideas. That can’t be done in 30-second bytes while also updating a Facebook page, changing the playlist on an iPod, or watching the latest cute cat video on YouTube.

As we thaw from a brutal winter, I am designing my garden. It requires some thought on what native plants I want to blossom for floral designs in the future. As different varieties of plants blossom at different seasons of the year, we need to reflect on how we want to blossom this Lent.

I think we suffer, if not from multitasking itself, certainly from the spirit of multitasking. Like Martha in Luke 10:41-42a (“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part.”), we become so distracted by the busyness of our lives that we do not make the time to think reflectively and prayerfully on our life and actions. It is not that we do not have the time. Of course we do. It is that we often lack the courage to live into such a prayerful and reflective relationship with God.

A traditional Lenten practice that we often neglect due to our multitasked, blackberried, and instant-messaged culture is reflection. As a gardener and floral designer who wants to use these blossoms to make beautiful bouquets, I need to reflect quietly on what I want to plant and grow. This morning take time to reflect on this Spring image of ice thawing in a creek and spent a quiet moment to reflecting on how God wants you to grow in the spirit of love this season.

We need to step back, gain perspective, listen to others, and spend time in solitude so we can think reflectively and prayerfully. Such reflective time is a necessary precursor to making our lives blossom. We must be able to think and see clearly before we can lead and act faithfully. In Mark 8:23-25, we read, “Jesus laid hands on the blind man and asked: ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”

When we do not make the time for solitude so we can think reflectively and prayerfully, we often end up seeing “trees walking” and not the people, things, and circumstances of our lives that truly matter. Like with the blind man in the gospel, we need more time for Jesus to work on us, for the needed time to listen to the Holy Spirit in our daily prayers and in the prayers of our community.

Immanuel watches over us as we reflect: “For now we see only as a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that during this Season of Lent we make time to reflect and come to know your will so that all our daily tasks may truly reflect your wisdom and love.

Blossoming

What does it mean to blossom? For a plant, a tree, or a vegeatable, it’s the point at which a flower forms. What we sometimes forget in our love for flowers is that it is really just a stage of growth that leads to pollination, and thus bearing fruit.

Blossoming could be compared to that part of our youth when we found our soul mates and produce our fruits and thus our little seeds (children!). But more often it seems as if there should be many blossoming moments in our lives, when the conditions are right for us to burst from our tight buds and become our most beautiful best selves.

Too often, we find ourselves consumed by petty irritations, conflicts, frustrations, and angers. Each of these might be small in itself but, cumulatively, they take the sunshine and delight out of our lives, like mosquitoes spoiling a picnic. Instead of feeling grateful, gracious, and magnanimous, we feel paranoid, fearful, and irritable and we end up acting out of a cold, irritated, paranoid part of ourselves rather than out of our real selves.

Why do we do that? Because we are asleep (a long, brutal winter does this to people) to who and what we really are, and we are asleep in two ways.When St. Luke describes Jesus’ agony in the garden, he tells us that after Jesus had undergone a powerful drama, sweating blood so as to give his life over in love, he turned to his disciples (who were supposed to be watching and praying with him) and found them asleep. However he uses a curious expression to describe why they were asleep. They were asleep, he says, not because they were tired and it was late, but they were asleep “out of sheer sorrow”.

That says a couple of things: First, that the disciples are asleep out of depression. Depression is what is preventing them from seeing straight. But they are also asleep to what is deepest inside of them, namely, that they carry the image and likeness of God. Jesus was not asleep to that and, because of this awareness, was able precisely to be big of heart.

As a people of God we believe that what ultimately defines us and gives us our dignity is the image and likeness of God inside us. This is our deepest identity, our real self. Inside each of us there is a piece of divinity, a god or goddess, a person who carries an inviolable dignity, with a heart as big as God’s.

And so it is in a garden. Think about it: What are the conditions we humans need to blossom? Just like plants, we need good nutrition, clean water and tender are. We need sunshine and darkness (good rest). We need to be planted in the right place to optimize our happiness. And once we do blossom, we need the pollinators and the people to enjoy and appreciate our beauty.

In our spiritual garden we need to awake to our great dignity, the Imago Dei inside each of us, is meant to be a center from which we can draw vision, grace, and strength to act in a way that, ironically, precisely helps us to swallow our pride and blossom.

Immanuel watches over us as we reflect: “The desert and the parched land will be glad or Western New York version (The snow covered streets and frozen earth will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus,” (Isaiah 35:1).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that during this Season of Lent we feel ourselves about to blossom, knowing that something is happening inside of us because we are in touch that we “come from God and going back to God.” It’s like spiritual pollination, bringing joy, understanding, forgiveness and love, beyond wound, irritation, and the knowledge that’s it’s good to be alive because the spirit of the divine dwells within me.