A Temporary Move!

For the time-being, I'm going to move this blog to my Beliefnet.com account:

http://community.beliefnet.com/mkbryson/blog/

I'm participating in a contest in which I write a minimum of 15 entries into my personal Beliefnet blog during the month of July.  In August, the entries will begin to go through a judging process, from which one blogger will be chosen to receive a year's contract (and pay) to be one of the official Beliefnet bloggers (think columnist)!  As part of the contest, we had to choose from a limited list of subjects to focus on and I chose "hope and inspiration."

I encourage everyone to check out Beliefnet.com.  They have something for everyone, and I really mean everyone.  It is truly interfaith and the two founders try to keep it that way.  If you ever see any political or religious advertising, they make it clear in their "about" pages that the opposing side has been given the same opportunity.  But I haven't seen anything political since I've been browsing the site.  Of course you'll find forums and groups for every possible religious or political stand point.  And all are welcome.  Mutual respect in discussion is encouraged and mediated.  (It is like someone already knew exactly what I had dreamed of creating with this blog, and saved me the trouble!)

I'll continue posting my visual journaling and photography play entries to Journal Meets World:

http://journal-meets-world.blogspot.com/

Which now has a "Followers" gadget on the left side column!

Addendum to What I Believe

Robert Henri.  National Museum of
 American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

This short essay by Robert Henri (1865-1929), artist and teacher, collected in The Art Spirit, redefines the common concept of the "pursuit of happiness."

Whatever I do with this path I'm on, I hope that I can help others do more than exist.  But Henri says this better than I:

Appreciation for life is not easy.  One says he must earn a living--but why?  Why live?  It seems as though a great many who do earn the living or have it given them do not get much out of it.  A sort of aimless racing up and down in automobiles, an aimless satisfaction in amassing money, an aimless pursuit of "pleasure," nothing personal, all external.  I have known people who have sat for years in the cafes of Bohemia, who never once tasted of that spirit which has made life in Bohemia a magnet.  These people were not in Bohemia--they were simply present.  Really bored to death although they did not know it, and poisoned too by the food and drink--being inert they were open prey to it.  They and their kind, in the various ways, are in hot pursuit of something they  are not fitted to attain.  It takes wit, and interest and energy to be happy.  The pursuit of happiness is a great activity.  One must be open and alive.  It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow.  There must be courage.  There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness.  A man must become interesting to himself and must become actually expressive before he can be happy.  I do not say that these people are devoid of the possibility of happiness, but they have not been enough interested in their real selves to have awareness of the road when they are on it.  They no doubt fall into moments of supreme pleasure, which they enjoy, whether consciously or unconsciously.  It is these moments which I am sure prevent them from suicide.  There are, however, others who do recognize their great moments, and who go after them with all their strength.

Walt Whitman seems to have found great things in the littlest things of life.

It beats all the things that wealth can give and everything else in the world to say the things one believes, to put them into form, to pass them on to anyone who may care to take them up.

There is the hope of happiness--a hope of development, that some day we may get away from these self-imposed dogmas and establish something that will make music in the world and make us natural.

Of course, if a man were to plump suddenly into the world with the gift of telling the actual truth and acting rightly, he would not fit into our uncertain state, he would certainly be very disturbing--and most probably we would send him to jail.

We haven't arrived yet, and it is foolish to believe that we have. The world is not done. Evolution is not complete.

(Henri, Robert (1923). The Art Spirit. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 139-41.)

I believe that there have been men and women who had this gift of telling the actual truth, of knowing the incredible value of our short time, and, indeed, most of them have been persecuted.  Truth is rarely pro-establishment.  Truth is deaf to agendas.

**Added 7/8/11, 7:22pm
Thank you so much, Erin!  More synchronicity!  Here is a link just posted yesterday on the Journal Fodder Junkies blog: Being Present & Being Absent.

Synchronicity

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, defined his theory of synchronicity as “simultaneous occurrence of two [or more] meaningful but not causally connected events.”  I added “[or more]”, which has sometimes been true in my experience.  Synchronicity can (also according to Jung) “appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary subjective state.”  Basically, synchronicity is a description of this phenomenon: we begin to think about something, and then the world around us, seemingly supernaturally, offers up things that we can’t help but connect to the thing on our minds.  Jung’s beliefs bordered on the supernatural, especially with his ideas of the collective unconscious, but many people can identify with this experience.  I love Jung.  

I have experienced synchronicity many, many times in my life.  Most recently, with undertaking a whole new life path, I’ve stepped into one that supports my decisions.  

Of course, by now, you’ve read the paragraph at the top of the blog that explains the source of the term “the greening.”  

Last week I realized that a friend from my old workplace, and a fellow seeker, is currently using Julia Cameron’s workbook, The Artist’s Way, to structure her transition from 7:30-3:30 teaching to full-time artist.  She has been very inspirational for me.  Just the fact that I’m not alone and can name someone else who is taking personal risks to live a life of her choosing is important for me.  She doesn’t have to do a thing to be a great source of support!  

Two other important things happened last week.  After a couple of weeks of panic and sleepless nights about money and debt, coupled with this new path I’m embarking on, I finally hit a wall and came to a realization.  When it occurred, I actually felt my whole body, mind, and spirit settle and breathe easier.  I realized that I needed to embrace the situation fully, which would require major changes, changes that would make everything work.  I re-committed myself to my budget, to not purchasing books, to not purchasing any clothing at full price-tag value, to live simply, to enjoy simple pleasures.  

I also made the decision to stay where I’m at, instead of moving into housing on campus this fall.  It is more cost-effective for my needs, even if it does mean that I am forced to tell everyone that, yes, I’m 34 and living with my parents.  This decision led to unpacking and re-arranging my bedroom for a more long-term situation.  I unpacked all of my books and discovered my own copy of The Artist’s Way in the bottom of the last box.  

I set it aside.  That night, sitting in my private space with its new arrangements, I opened the book for the first time in at least five years.  I found that I’d agreed to the steps of the workbook twice previously: once in 2000 and again in 2002.  I added a new date: 4 July 2011.  The same day that I had set for the beginning of the 365 photo project!

In the first two pages of the Introduction to the book, I found that Cameron’s description of creativity is intertwined with the concept of a creative force, a “spiritual electricity”, coming from a “Great Creator”, which she calls “God” throughout her book (although she invites the reader to use the term that most fits their beliefs).  This definition of the “creative flow” is exactly what “the greening” is!  This is what I had been feeling and needing to reconnect with in a more intimate and permanent way.  I want to live creatively and spiritually.  I agree with Cameron that the two are connected.  A breath, one an inhale, the other an exhale.  

Cameron peppers her book with inspirational quotes.  Here are some that fit the connection of something divine with creativity:

“The primary imagination I hold to be the Living Power.”  --Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“the force that through the green fuse drives the flower”  --Dylan Thomas

“God must become an activity in our consciousness.”  --Joel E. Goldsmith

I LOVE the concept of God as a verb.  Why would God have stopped creating once he began?  If our experience of the satisfaction and delight in creating is akin to what a force or entity must have experienced, then he/she/it couldn’t have stopped!  

Then on page two of the first chapter, Cameron posits that you can look at it one of two ways or both:  “creativity leading to spirituality or spirituality leading to creativity.”  And she introduces synchronicity into the mix on this page, too!  

I have managed to hold onto this book for 11 years.  It has taken that long for me to actually understand and pursue the creative life that it offers to anyone willing to love themselves enough.  The coincidence (synchronicity, if you will) of unearthing The Artist’s Way with my state of mind following a stressful week and with the day I’d already set for the beginning of another creative project left me with a refreshed sense of beginning this journey.  I feel renewed and recommitted, with new tools to help me remain on my path, where ever it may take me.  

I also found a bit of my younger self, reassuring me that I’ve been hungering for something else, something deviant from the status quo, for a long time.

On a piece of paper found inside The Artist’s Way I found a poem that I’d written long ago.  When I flipped over the paper, I found that it had been written a recycled sheet from a printer, dated 08/17/1999.  I would have been working at my first professional job, as a project editor.  Here’s the poem, with no changes, no editing, no improvement (which is driving my inner editor crazy!):

untitled
Paper cuts and carpel-tunnel

40 hour days and life’s flooding the funnel

my glass wall, tempered weatherproofed and tinted,

doesn’t blind me to season’s changes,

life and existence at odds, hurt hinted

philosophy clogs my brain

semantics, metaphysics, even religion

striving to occupy the brain while the body is on the clock.

Form, frame, for long stares at the screen--

digital and I no longer look to my fingers

interactive and I no long look to my skin

virtual and I no longer read a book

fast and I no longer have to use my legs

winter’s passing only marked by low humidity, dry skin, and dark fashion colors.


_____
I re-faced a basic, cheap composition book with this collage for writing my "morning pages", one of the tools that Cameron encourages.  It is similar to letting your brain flush itself of all the convoluted stuff so you can get a better start to the day.

What I Believe

I have been asked what my plans are, why am I considering a Masters of Divinity as opposed to a Masters of Arts of Religion or Philosophy (or, well, anything else).  I think these questions relate to my core beliefs.  In addition, I am making drastic changes in my life to better take care of myself, body and mind.  So what exactly do I believe?

I believe that yoga, not only the asanas (poses), but also pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation, Yama and Niyama (basics of living a good life) (see this basic intro to the first two of the “Eight Limbs of Yoga” or the Yoga Sutras), has been an important part of my personal recovery from a very difficult couple of years.  

Yoga is not a religious path, contrary to some assumptions.  It is a tradition of practices that dates back to at least 200 B.C, when historians say that a guy named Pantanjali first put already established and developing ideas into writing as the Yoga Sutras.  The purpose of the practices is to bring the individual closer to a realized connection with something far greater than themselves.  For yogis this has usually been the divine nature of everything, including ourselves.  Yoga today is truly an interfaith practice, helping individuals at any level of belief to explore themselves and their beliefs more intimately.  Even if you are a strict realist, a good long session of asanas and the almost-meditative state of the final pose, Savasana (corpse pose), can serve to clean the mind and body by forcing one’s focus to intimate realization of where each (the body and the mind) goes while exploring a pose.  It can be incredibly effective for relieving stress!

I believe I need to continue and deepen my yoga practice to continue a healthy life and to make healthful decisions for myself.  

Once I accept that as an important decision and one which I’m willing to embrace with necessary life changes, then I must examine other aspects of my life that may undermine this decision if neglected.

One area that I believe requires nurturing to further improve the health and balance of my mind/body health is my spiritual beliefs.  My spiritual beliefs are both simple and wonderfully wide-open.  

I believe in something greater than myself.  I do not believe that any text written by humans captures what this “greatness” is because humans are inherently limited in what we can know, understand, and communicate.  (Scientific discoveries prove that time and time again.) I do believe that Jesus provided the best example (for me) of how to lead one’s life and that God intended for him to be an attainable example.  Meaning: Jesus provided steps on a path to honoring, protecting, and celebrating the created world and all life in it...steps that each of us can follow.  I believe that most Christians, for centuries!, have not and do not follow Jesus’s role model because it requires major life changes that are not conducive with the dominant social status quo. 

Am I Christian?  Yes.  But I will not “look” like many other Christians my reader may know.  I do not believe in, nor do I subscribe, to the Christianity of the so-called mainstream Christian Church.  So, perhaps “Christian” is a misnomer for them or me.  

Is that confusing?  I don’t think so.  I believe that our feet were meant to be walked on.  And thus our brain and its amazing faculties for logic and reason were meant to also be used.  I believe more of us should read, research, explore, show respect and open minds to discover how others believe they exist in our shared world.  You can learn about others, learn about our differences, with no need to be defensive of your own beliefs.  Education and research is not the same as mind control or brain washing, contrary to many religious people (of any faith).  

Mutual respect is a basic human condition that I honor (unfortunately not a universal condition) and I hope that other Americans would honor, considering that Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Adams, Madison, and others helped craft our nation to engender some level mutual respect.  They sought to protect non-puritan protestant denominations from persecution.  

Did you know that American Baptists in colonial Virginia were killed and persecuted for their beliefs and were staunch church/state separatists?  Did you know that the “founding fathers” had originally envisioned the First Amendment as only applying to the Federal Government?  They didn’t know we’d eventually have public education that might be touched by federal law.  They left local communities to create their own (or not) faith-based organizations without Federal interference.  

Too many of us, including our text book writers, put the “founding fathers” on pedestals and neglect to delve into how (the dreaded p-word) politics forced some of the decisions they made to get the results they wanted, either for their personal careers and agendas, or for the crafting of the Constitution and the First Amendment.  They were simple men(yes, incredibly smart and thoughtful men) and politicians.  Yes...the same politicians we curse in our living rooms.  Yes...there were new Americans who cursed them, too.

I have no “agenda” in discussing the “founding fathers”, except to encourage my reader to read, research, question, open their mind and heart to the possibility that aggression and rudeness is not the best way to approach difference in our world.  Jesus showed that sitting and dining with “sinners” won’t kill us.  He practiced the non-violence he preached.  He left judgment, far out of his hands, to God.  Would he have killed or persecuted a gay person, an abortionist, the Religious-right politicians that get caught committing adultery, the so-called Christians that kill in his name?  Nope.  I believe he would have spoke to them.  The same way he spoke to any other “sinner”...that is, any of us.

That’s what I believe.

Now, as to why I’m pursuing a Masters of Divinity.  That will be my next post!

Quakers

I've discovered that there are several Quaker Friends Meetings in my area (none within convenient driving distance, of course...and I hear NC just increased the state tax on gas...) and I've been reading about Quakerism.  Not all Quakers are Christian, but many (possibly most) are, and most are at least deist (obviously, I'm generalizing here).  They (generally) believe there is a divine force that is at work in our world, probably the single God of Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam), but, as you can see in the blog post I link to below, this God may not require the belief in Christ Jesus as the Savior. 

This post, "Quakers and the New Covenant", questions how Quakers (a discussion from one Quaker to other Quakers) build their theology around the idea of God's New Covenant, that which Christians believe took effect with the coming of Jesus (as Christ or not).  

When you check out this post, I hope you notice one of the wonderful things that I've found almost ubiquitous in anything related to Quakers and Quakerism.  That is: a respect for discussion, thoughtful questioning, and utmost mutual respect for the input and opinions of others.  And a lack of knee-jerk anger, defensiveness, or judgment.  This quality is what has attracted me to Quakerism over and over again.  (Again, I understand I am generalizing and do not have much experience in Friends Meetings, but, well, I've found in my reading that I'm not the only one to see and be attracted to these qualities, even if they aren't present in all Meetings.)

"Quakers and the New Covenant", from Susanne's Quaker Musings.

http://quakersusanne.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/quakers-and-the-new-covenant/

More Than a Blog

Check out the tabs at the top of the page, below the explanation of the blog's name.  I have two web pages attached, so far: "Expanding Minds" and "About this Blog."

"Expanding Minds" has links to a wealth of online information and, hopefully, items to help us all call our assumptions and stereotypes into question. I can only speak for myself, so these are items that have certainly made me stop and think more carefully.  

I'd like to have a discussion page, but I'm still working on how to manage that from the technology side.  I'd like to keep that side of the blog free, which means I have to do more by hand, in terms of HTML.  And I'm a tad rusty...

Right Now

I'm leaving a secure career as a school librarian to go back to school for another bachelor's degree.  My first was in English.  This one is Religion and Philosophy.  In addition, I'll be dedicating time to regular yoga practice.  I can tell you that this is what I'll be doing for at least the next year and approximately six months more.  Beyond that, I cannot see. 

My goals for these upcoming months is a serious personal investment in studying why / how / what humans do and think about what is underlying our existence; in exploring my own personal existence and beliefs as I enrich myself with more knowledge and experiences, hopefully drawing me closer to understanding our shared humanity more; and to create a constructive, nurturing, and sustainable lifestyle for myself based upon what I learn and explore. 

Now, some may scoff and call these ridiculously noble and high goals, even say they're the luxury of a middle class white girl...but these folks wouldn't say that:

• the Dalai Lama (who preaches compassion and seeks inter-faith and religious harmony, despite death threats and murders of his fans and followers)
• members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (who just wish people wouldn't try to kill them or shut them up in America because they are atheists, agnostics, humanists, deists, or simply don't want evangelicals interrupting their day by trespassing with pamphlets)
• American Christians who are slowly realizing that separation of church and state also protects them from being ruled by Muslim Sharia Law (despite no solid proof that such a threat is close to being realized, the fear certainly helps lots of people suddenly understand the whole logic behind the separation and why America's founding fathers thunk it up in the first place)
• the 23% of Americans who are not Christian and still think the Constitution applies to them, too

...well, these people don't think such goals of understanding philosophy and religion better are ridiculous or luxuries.

Personally, I feel that the only life worth living is the examined one.  I think Socrates muttered something about that once upon a time.