Unity Spiritual Center of Anchorage

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Unity Spiritual Center of Anchorage
PO Box 240173
Anchorage, AK 99524

That Stinks (aka the MacGyver plan)

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Recently I was at the chiropractor and since it was Monday, he asked what he asks everyone on Monday. “How was your weekend, did you do anything fun?” I responded that sure it was good, though I work weekends, so I have off other days. He said: “oh that stinks” and I replied: “it only stinks if you think it does.”

Well that took him aback and got him thinking. It hadn’t occurred to him that having some other days of the week off could be just as satisfying, in my opinion it’s more convenient.

What of this idea though, it only stinks if you think it does? Obviously, there are some things you could make good argument that stink: sliding your car into a ditch, missing a gathering of loved ones, etc. Yes, attitude matters, yet I’m not going to tell you not to experience the feelings related to any particular situation.

However, when it comes to a longer-term situation, such as my work schedule, buying into and putting energy into it stinking is not very helpful. What if I decided I needed my weekends off because that’s what everyone else has and that’s the ‘right’ way to do it? I would feel resentment that I was required to come to church on Sundays and spend half my day engaged in church business. (which would make being a minister a poor career choice) This would cause all sorts of unhappiness for myself and those around me. All because I decided the situation stinks.

Thankfully I enjoy my work and I like having a couple weekdays off instead of the weekend. But this perspective is not new.

When I was a kid, there was a box of wood scraps in the garage that I could use for whatever projects I had in mind. In general, I had to work with what was available, wishing I had something else was not going to get me anywhere.

When I was in my 20’s I had an early shift, 5:30am, 4 mornings a week, which meant I got off work around 1pm. There could be plenty of arguments about how this was not a good schedule, but I choose to see it as a good thing. 1- My commute to and from work were during the times when the trains were not crowded. 2- I got to ease into the day by having quiet time in on the ride to work and as we got the shop set up. 3- I got done early enough that I could have meetings/appointments after work and not have to take time off (which is especially great for someone working hourly). 4- when I had rehearsal in the evening, I had plenty of time to take a solid nap beforehand.

Most importantly, I made this choice, and I am responsible for it. I know not everyone feels like they have autonomy or decent alternate choices to make. But often the biggest problem is between our ears. Like kid me with a box of pieces, we have to work with what we have.

Maybe you remember that ‘80’s TV show MacGyver. In it Mac would find himself in a tricky situation and would engineer himself and his sidekicks out of it with whatever random supplies were on hand such as gum wrappers, fire extinguishers, or the cord from a telephone. He was the master of working with what was available and having a positive attitude.

But, you might say, my life has not been scripted by a team of Hollywood writers and there’s not a spare canister of CO2 in the corner to use as a propellant. That’s true enough, but the concept is the same.

The MacGyver Change Plan:
1. Where I am is not where I want to be.
2. Believe there is a solution.
3. Take stock of what is available and the exit options.
4. Formulate a plan and activate it.

Now our friend MacGyver didn’t usually need help to formulate a plan, but he often utilized the people with him in the execution of it. We too may need help to create and activate a plan. Ask a trusted friend, they may have a perspective or know of a resource.

I have seen folks get stuck by the piece they don’t have. If you have a long-term plan, you may not need to have all the pieces yet. If you need it now you better either trust that it’s going to show up or change the plan.

What doesn’t work and won’t work is having an ‘oh this stinks so I’m stuck’ attitude.

There are always going to be things that show up that are less than desirable. It’s up to you to decide if it stinks or you’re going to work with it.

Follow the MacGyver plan.

200 hours

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I use the insight timer app to time my meditations. It keeps tracks of stats such as your average time per meditation and how much time you have meditated with the app overall. I recently passed 200 hours of meditating with the app.

Compared to some, this is a drop in the bucket, even realizing that there has been plenty of meditation that happened before I had the app. But it’s no small number either, if you meditated every day for 20 minutes, it would still take 600 days to reach this amount.

I share this with you for a number of reasons, some of which you may have heard me say before. The spiritual journey is not a destination, you will not get a certain level of enlightenment simply by ‘doing the time.’

However, doing the time is required to move along the path. I will tell you that many of those 200 hours were spent distracted, attempting to center, thinking about stuff. I hope the next 200 will be a bit quieter.

In comparison there are plenty of things I have done for much more than 200 hours, such as driving, watching TV, scrolling Facebook, or even working out. If I estimate 2 minutes of brushing my teeth every day since I had teeth, I have spent more than 200 hours brushing in my lifetime.

Yet there are plenty of things that require much more time to be considered competent. To be a commercial airline pilot, you have to have 1500 hours of flight time. That’s a lot of practice, and I think we all are happy to have our pilots have that kind of experience. Buddhist monks have tens of thousands of hours under their belt (or robes) if they live into middle age.

So, while this seems like a pretty decent number to me now, I look forward to the day when it is a blip in my practice. I let this be an inspiration to continue moving forward in my commitment to my spiritual practice. While there is no hurry to reach somewhere, I feel motivated to commit more fully to my practice.

Join me on the journey!

Directions

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When I was in Paris recently, Bill and I emerged from the Metro knowing we needed to go a short walk to our destination, but not entirely sure which direction. As were we doing the familiar which street is where pivot that had become our default, there was a local woman standing nearby who said the name of one of the streets. I then realized I didn’t need to know which street as much as I needed to know which way to go. I pointed on the map to the church that was our aim, and she pointed to the street that we needed and then to the right. With a ‘Merci,’ we followed her directions and after climbing a lot of stairs arrived at Sacre Coeur Basilica.

Asking for directions is a fairly simple and effective solution when you are trying to find your way in a new town. The history of directions when it comes to the spiritual journey is much more complicated.

When I was a teenager, I remember having what I might call now a transcendent experience during the music at a Youth of Unity conference. I could have followed he path of many seekers before me and decided that I needed to be listening to that music in that environment to have further such experiences. It makes logical sense, if I go to the same place and do the same thing as last time I had a spiritual experience, it will happen again. But it doesn’t always happen, in part because we forget that we are not the same as we were the first time. We bring different concerns, different experiences, and of course we now have brought the expectation of something special.

Spiritual leaders/gurus/etc will sometimes give detailed explanations/rules on what you should do to further your spiritual path. I believe there is value in creating a consistent spiritual practice, because we are creatures of habit and it keeps us on track, but it’s not what makes the practice special or effective. Unfortunately, some folks slide into worshiping the person or location that was part of their spiritual experience as a substitute to continuing the journey.

The Buddhists warn not to mistake the hand pointing at the moon as the moon. As helpful as the lady by the Metro was, she was not the Basilica, she was the direction giver. We had to decide to follow, we decided our speed, and even if we would go all the way to the destination.

I have had many teachers on my journey, some were formally teachers, others were friends, classmates, and the occasional person who I didn’t want to be around. They have all had a part in the zig zaggy path I have trod to get where I am, as signposts pointing where I could choose to go next. However, in the end I had to determine for myself if a path or practice was right for me.

If a particular posture, music, or talisman help you get in the spiritual zone, so be it. Remember they are signposts pointing the way, and that the power to center and have a spiritual experience lies, as it always has, within you.

As always doing my best to point the way but not tell you where to go,
Rachel

Repeating History

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I read a book this week, a fictional story about young people in difficult situations in the second World War. It managed to be a love story set in the very real settings of internment camps, ghettos, and communities running out of food. The book touched my heart and as I was walking into the library, I was thinking of the quote, “those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Then I returned in my books and headed upstairs, where I saw on the end of the bookshelf, the same quote that I was thinking in the parking lot.

I have met folks on the spiritual path who like to say they have moved beyond the/their past and it doesn’t have any relevance to the present. There’s a term for this: “Spiritual Bypassing.” Briefly it’s when you claim spiritual superiority over a situation instead of facing it.

If, after causing a couple car crashes, someone declared themselves a wonderful driver through their newfound spiritual awakening, but did not also deal with the consequences of their actions, we would cry foul and demand amends and either driving lessons or removal of license. But if someone says, oh I’m spiritual now, all my misbehavior before doesn’t matter, there are some who will say, yes, ok.

Here’s why that’s a problem: If we don’t take the time to see that a behavior was a problem, see what the stimulus is, and consider what a new wholehearted response could be, we will likely find ourselves responding with the same problematic behavior to the next stimulus. (And now history has repeated itself!)

What if as a community or a country or world decide that the past atrocities can’t happen anymore because ‘we’re different now.’ In some hearts, in some places, this is true. But in many ways, we’re not that different than the generations who lived through those wars, we just have fancier technology.

Last week I blogged about the ‘other.’ The heartbreaking things we see in the world are often a descendant of forgetting that we belong to each other, that there is no one else. But remembering this is also the source of the heartwarming things we see in the news, the folks helping each other through the storms and trials of life. Are we all one family? Or Not?

What’s the take away from all this? We don’t have to dwell in the past, but we need to understand what has happened, both personally and globally, to be able make the changes we wish to see.

Knowing history, we can change the future.

I behold the Christ in you (yes, even you)

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A couple weeks ago as I was ‘in the zone’ typing away on a blog post while at the coffeeshop, I noticed myself becoming annoyed. Many of you know I spend 3+ hours at the coffeeshop most weeks, and when someone does this, you tend to see some of the same people. The person who was ‘causing’ my annoyance is someone who is consistently at the shop more often even than the baristas. Let’s call him Mitch, because I don’t want to call him ‘that guy.’

Mitch was talking to someone less than 10 feet from me, and even though I had my headphones on, I heard bits of his conversation. It’s a coffeeshop not a library, I don’t have an expectation of quiet, but a combo of content, volume, and proximity was getting on my nerves. Even though Mitch is almost always around, and I have seen him strike up a conversation with many folks, I’ve never paid much attention to him other than to know he was there.

But on that day, I was very much noticing Mitch and I wanted him to go away, I wanted to call him names, or make him wrong for the volume and/or content of his conversation. (and really, on the topic of conversations that push my buttons, this was a 3 maybe on a scale of 1-10)

To recap: Mitch was annoying me, I was aware of my annoyance and even the scripts of making him wrong that I was playing, and that it wasn’t his fault.

Then I over hear: ‘Yeah, I want to get all my books published by my 50th birthday that is coming up on October 18th.”

At which point I had a big laugh at myself because Mitch and I share our birthday.

Even though I knew I was being unfair to Mitch before that, it was that moment when I was reminded with big neon lights that Mitch and I have something in common.

Not that being born on October 18th makes you instantly awesome, I do know some amazing folks who share that birthday, but we also share it with Lee Harvey Oswald (and it’s Alaska Day). I didn’t think I needed to be instant friends with Mitch, but it was funny to me (in that oops I now have more awareness way) to have that humanizing moment. I know something about Mitch now, and I even have it in common with him, he is less the Other.

‘The Other’ is a term that has exploded recently in articles and thought pieces in the wake of the heightened awareness of the constant stream of assaults to human and civil rights.

I first came across the term when I was in college in a theatre class about staging gender. The other, or othering is seeing/labeling someone as different or opposite from you and thereby classifying them as less than or on the margins of society.

This is a social construct that has been ingrained in our world, and so is something we have all done either consciously or unconsciously. But it is also something that we get to call out for healing and transcending. Because when I decide that Mitch is an inconsiderate flake who doesn’t know how to behave properly, I have made him an adversary. I am aware enough to know what was happening as it was happening and not escalate to saying anything to Mitch.

But what if I wasn’t? What if I didn’t know that he and I had something in common beyond a tendency to hang out at Kaladi’s Coffee? What if I got myself all steamed up and then said something nasty? What if I went on a tirade and got all my friends riled up about what a so-and-so Mitch and people like him are?

It would be rather silly to do that over a non-encounter at the coffeeshop right? But othering shows up in big and little ways. The little ones create a fertile field for the big ones to take hold. The big issues we face as a community, nation, and world (many that end in ism or phobia) come back to the willingness as a community or individual to put someone else in the ‘other’ category making them not as worthy of acceptance, love, resources, and safety.

What if we all decided everyone was worthy and entitled to a safe home, enough food, adequate health care, and freedom from persecution for being who they are? What if all the barriers that we have constructed to ‘protect’ ourselves and keep others out came down and we realized that we are all sisters and brothers, more alike than we will ever be different? We saw this happen for a moment in Houston, where folks from all walks helped folks from all walks. This happens pretty much every time there is some kind of disaster, and yet we forget.

I come back to the lyrcs written by Frank Whitney first editor of Daily Word:

I behold the Christ in you,
Here the life of God I see;

This is the antidote of othering, to the isims and phobias, it is simply to see and know that you are an expression of God just as you are, and so is everyone else. Simple in concept, more difficult in practice.

Practice we must, become more aware we must. Do more beholding the Christ/God/Spirit in others and less seeing them as other. Make a decision to not allow prejudice safe harbor in your heart and mind, and then keep making the decision.

I will continue to explore these themes in blogs, sermons, and activities. In the meantime, do what you can and then do some more. Practice, practice, practice.

I behold the Christ in YOU (and Mitch)

Rachel

PS Yes, I know there are plenty of more things I could have covered, but this is already long enough. The conversation is far from over.