Hello & Goodbye

I return to this blog to complete a piece of unfinished business and to wrap up this particular chapter of my journey. First, I have re-posted below the introduction to the unfinished Faith Development section. I did intend to publish a series of posts on this material after its initial deletion, but that did not happen for the same reason I never completed the section in the first place: it just made no sense outside the classroom, and as much as I might like to take you there that is no longer my place. However, it also felt wrong to take something away and then replace it with nothing. So I restore what was deleted, trusting that it will make sense to someone else.

And with that, my work here is done. This project was necessary for a time, for my own sake if nothing else, but it is not a forever sort of thing. And that's ok, perhaps even good. I will continue to share my pilgrimage on Twitter and I invite you to follow me there. Either way, thank you for joining me on this stretch of the path.

"So now, we find ourselves at a new crossroads, you to go one way, and I another. Maybe our paths will cross again; maybe they won’t be too far apart; maybe not. And yet you will still travel with me and I with you, because in our hearts, in our spirits, we have become one. Such was the gift of this journey; such is the gift of love. So travel well my friend. Know that I am with you always. I love you."

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The ideas and lessons offered here are based upon the curriculum that I created during my ten years teaching religion in a Catholic high school. The purpose of that course was always about exploring the questions, not passing along the answers. That is a journey I still want to walk, with whoever wants to join me.

What "Faith Development" is not:

• Creating a ten point action plan to accomplish the seven steps to spiritual success.
• Having to get a graduate degree to understand what Jesus meant when he said "love one another as I have loved you."
• Tapping into the secret knowledge of the universe by unlocking some vague, obscure prophecy.
• Esoteric pseudo-mysticism and/or psycho-babble.
• Trying to figure out the loopholes in "love one another as I have loved you."
• Empowering the cosmic consciousness in order to get in touch with your inner Christ.
• Following the latest celebrity endorsed, flavor-of-the-month guru currently riding the talk show circuit promoting his/her best selling whatever.
• Refusing to ask questions because Father/Bishop/Pope knows best.
• Sending $1,000 to the televangelist who really needs it "now, right now, don't wait, you know the Holy Spirit wants you to do it."
• Other assorted spiritual crap designed by hipsters and/or the "I'm more pious than you" crowd to sell books, seminars, videos, crystals, statues, string, beads, medallions, water, etc.

What "Faith Development" is:

• Understanding and embracing something very real: love.
• Asking tough questions and struggling to come up with honest answers.
• Genuinely listening to the voice of God within yourself.
• Being real with God, oneself, and others.
• Being open to truth, wherever and however it presents itself, but most especially as paradox.

When it comes to spirituality, we seem to delight in making things more complicated than they need to be. It's similar to all those expensive gadgets we buy to make our lives easier, but that actually do just the opposite. Simple does not mean superficial. Complexity does not equal depth.

My version of faith development starts with two very basic questions:

• What do I believe?
• How will I live?

Captive Art

Summer is here! And along with it, the season of family vacations to theme parks near and far. For those of you planning a trip to one of the SeaWorld parks, I hope you will take the time to watch, or re-watch, "Blackfish" before your departure.

The documentary challenges the propriety of keeping killer whales (orcas) in captivity by examining the life of one particular orca, Tilikum, and the multiple human fatalities associated with him. It was made without the cooperation of SeaWorld, so in fairness you should also read their response. However, please do not get bogged down in the technicalities of marine science or filmmaking. For there are larger questions at stake here, as theologian Beth Haile has written about:

The film encourages us to reexamine our commitment to non-human animals and ask whether what we are committed to is the well-being of the animal itself, or the human that loves the animal … We need to stretch ourselves beyond a narrow anthropocentrism that sees all of creation existing for the purpose of humans … Orcas do not need humans to glorify God and live out the purpose of their existence. In fact, human concerns may be precisely what is standing in the way of true flourishing for orcas.

"The greatest lie, the greatest scam of our lives is that this world was created for us, for our pleasure and enjoyment, for our dominance. What stupid, arrogant animals we are. We were created for it. We are simply the audience. What would true art be without an audience? Only in this work, the artist painted us inside the canvas. We are art and audience all at the same time. We are part of the grandest work ever created, ever dreamed."

Am I trying to guilt you into boycotting SeaWorld? No. I have been there in the past, and may well go back in the future. But if we do visit, let us do so with open eyes and humble hearts. Yes, we are here to admire the artwork, but none of it belongs to us. And if things had gone slightly different over the millennia, perhaps Tilikum and his kin would be the audience and we would be the pieces on display. Just how entertaining or informative would life in a cage, or a bathtub, be then?

Easter Greetings

I hope that life has treated you well during these many weeks of Lent. As for myself, it has been an interesting journey. I needed that time of silence. And now I need to start speaking again. But not because I have something to say. No, I emerge from this time of silence with a renewed sense that I am merely a messenger, a prophet if you will, who has been charged with telling someone else's story.

Do I have a plan for this new and improved version of my mission? Sure. But like the other plans from the past twelve months, it will change, and probably soon. So rather than make some big announcement for which I will feel foolish in a few weeks, I'm just going to get back to work, trusting that you are there to listen to the story.

Lenten Silence

Over the last year, I have written a few times about being drawn to sacred silence. And now finally, I have decided to really listen to those divine murmurings. I am going to take a break from blogging this Lent. I need to spend it in prayer and reflection, not the chaotic agony of composing the right sentences and paragraphs.

My plan is to resume posting on Easter Sunday; subject, of course, to someone else's plans. In the meantime, here is a little of what I will be reflecting upon:

"I am present with you always. I take many forms, but it is always me. Sometimes I come to teach, but mostly I come to simply enjoy the wonder of our creation. There is so much to revel in, but it mostly goes unappreciated. Every element is a stroke of our brush upon the canvas of life. It all has meaning and purpose. So why are you too busy to notice? Why are you so anguished? Life unfolds as it should. Stop and enjoy the process ... that is why you are here, that is why you were created.

Why do you babble so much about me? So much time and energy, for what purpose? What more is there to understand about us than love? You think too much and feel too little. You talk too much and love too little. It is the curse of your consciousness. You can see enough to open the door, but not enough to find your way through it. Close your eyes and the path will be illuminated soon enough."

May we all have a most blessed and illuminating Lent!

The High We Seek

Prompted by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, the Los Angeles Times published an article earlier this week about the "surge in heroin use" throughout the country. One particular quote, from a recovering addict, stood out to me immediately.

Bottom line, it presents your consciousness with another reality that at times is so amazing that if you have the power to visit it every day without destroying your life, you would.

I have heard such descriptions before. I know that many of our brothers and sisters rationalize drug use because the high seems so "spiritual" to them. But this is a false spirituality; one that always leads to destruction and chaos of some sort, and one that is wholly unnecessary. For the "high" we seek is ours for the taking at any moment, no intoxicants required. And it never destroys a thing, quite the opposite.

"You know it is true. You've felt it in your heart, in your soul. It's that little piece of you that gets caught up in the drama of life, the drama of nature, the drama of history. That feeling in the back of your throat that you are part of something that you can't quite grasp and yet you know is there. That just makes you want to cry because it's so big and bold and beautiful. That makes you want to scream out in joy and ecstasy, thanksgiving and praise for being a part of it."

"It feels like you're standing still and the whole world is rushing by at mach one. Your adrenaline is pumping so hard you have to scream out for joy and laugh hysterically like an insane person. It's a feeling of such intensity, that it seems like you have an orchestra in your head, building up to a grand crescendo, then crashing down like a tsunami, washing away every impurity in your soul and leaving you awestruck as if seeing for the first time."

"In that moment, in that very moment, whether it lasts a second or a lifetime, you know that you have touched the face of the divine."

"One gaze into the face of god changes your whole outlook on life; opens doors to places in this universe unimaginable before."

"A word like love can never fully contain your essence, but it will have to do, for you are warm and sublimely wonderful love. You radiate in birth and death, in moans of pleasure and cries of agony, in our happiness and our pain, in the hidden moments of beings we are too proud and stubborn to truly see. You radiate from every particle of creation; for every one of them is an act of love. I feel this every moment and it overwhelms me. It pushes me to the brink of sanity and I am not sure I want to step back. I cannot escape you, and I do not want to."

Is there anything more amazing than coming face to face with your Parent? Could any reality be more true or more wonderful than the view through their eyes? May you too be so blessed as to find yourself trapped in their embrace.