Rev. Rachel’s Blog – Page 9 – Unity Spiritual Center of Anchorage

Where no one has gone before

by Rev Rachel Simpson, September 12, 2016

Last week science fiction fans around the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the iconic Star Trek.

I had seen some episodes here and there when I was younger, but recently we have been working our way through the series. It is quite interesting to me to notice the amount of social messages embedded in the show. From the very beginning a variety of races and ethnicities was intentionally represented as well as competent women in high levels of responsibility alongside men. These things are less rare now, but they were not mainstream 50 years ago.

The mission of Star Trek also is a voice of optimism: “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

This is a story of people exploring, of learning, not conquering or changing anyone. When they come across a new culture, they always offer the hand of diplomacy and friendship with a desire to learn about one another. They don’t assume they have the ‘right way’ just a way. That’s not to say that there aren’t troubles or groups that aren’t interested in friendship, but the standard is to do the least harm.

Gosh, isn’t this a great idea for us to implement in our daily lives?

What if we went out and extended the hand of friendship to the people we come across in our day to day lives? What if we quest for understanding without the assumption that our way is the only way? What if we considered it a given that having a variety of experiences and cultures represented (including Vulcans, Klingons, etc.) is natural and expected?

Culture and art play this ongoing tennis match, one leading the other and back and forth. Often art is able to portray something in our world that hasn’t yet come about, and in doing so, stretches our minds about what is the ‘norm’. Loving v. Virginia which invalidated laws barring interracial marriage was decided in 1967, Star Trek had one of the first interracial kisses on American television in 1968. How many people’s minds were stretched by the idea that in the future this would not be unusual?

Each generation has new challenges to overcome, but I feel quite optimistic and hopeful for a future like the one portrayed in Star Trek. Where the earth is united in peace, material needs are met, and the glass ceiling is broken for all races, genders, abilities, and orientations. (Yes, a primary crew person being gay is normal in the newest movie.)

What is the take away for us from this franchise? Maybe it’s as simple as asking what your favorite Captain would do. How would Kirk stand up for his friends? How would Picard stand for diplomacy and peace? How would Janeway stand for inclusion and understanding?

If you are not familiar with Star Trek, you can play too. If when you envision the future, think about what values and achievements you hope are in place. Then aim your actions towards that future.

And so, in adopting this method of bringing forth a new future, we are indeed going where no one has gone before.

Live long and prosper

Rev. Rachel

Be True

by Rev Rachel Simpson, August 25, 2016

The motto of my high school graduating class was “To thine own self be true.” This popular Shakespeare quote was a foreshadowing that I would go on to major in theatre, and then become a minister. Because really, being true to oneself, and by extension their understanding of God, is what the spiritual path is about.

This has been on my mind this week as I have had several opportunities to practice what I preach. Our social norms allow for us to behave in irrational or unhealthy ways when we are upset. Pick your poison: food, alcohol, shopping, etc. When things aren’t going well, escape is available temporarily.

I was out walking in the rain, which with the proper shoes and jacket is actually quite nice, and I was thinking about what I could do about a certain situation. I felt upset, annoyed, and frustrated, and the walking was doing part of its job to help me blow off steam. But should I do something else?

I thought about what others have done in this position, and what choices I have made in the past. Gosh sometimes it seems like it would be easier to suspend the belief that running from or drowning my feelings would fix the problem. If you’ve been around very long, you know that’s only a temporary distraction, though plenty still try it.

So then In talking about the spiritual attribute of Strength this week, I reminded our Wednesday evening group that even though we sometimes joke around as a defense to take the focus off of the real matter at hand, the deep work happens when we are brave and willing to face our monsters.

Next we acknowledge what we can and can’t do. Don’t waste your energy trying to make what is be something else. Water flows downhill, no amount of standing in the river yelling at it will make it change course.

(Though if standing in a river and yelling will help you feel better, go ahead and do it. Often physical acts that don’t harm anyone including yourself are great ways to express/release the high emotion so you can get at the root cause.)

Then consider what is really yours to do about the about the situation at hand. If you are an engineer, finding a way to get that river of water to solve your problem may indeed be your challenge to take on. But you can’t take on every river, nor would you really want to. Your energies are much more effective when they are directed.

Then of course action is required if you would like to move on from the place that you are. Action can be a number of things. If you have looked at your monster, and then realized that it’s not something you can actually do anything about, then your action is to find a way to get ok with it. Release your attachments to things being a certain way and find the grace with how things are.

Another choice is to do something about the situation. This could mean changing rivers once you realize this one isn’t going where you want to go. Or getting involved with a group that is working on the change you feel passionately about. Another way may be endeavoring to shift how you respond and support a loved one so that all parties are respected and safe.

All of this requires bravery and a commitment to be true to yourself. It is easy to numb or stuff our feelings through countless distractions, but it isn’t a healthy long-term solution.

As an aside, there are a few times when being totally real and connected to your feelings all the time can be too much, and I speak of the process of grief. Grief takes time to heal, giving yourself permission to be distracted sometimes is necessary to functioning. Go to the amusement park, watch a movie, play a game, let yourself not be always focused on the loss. But choose wisely how you distract yourself that it doesn’t become the new normal. Let the tears flow, this is how you can be honest and allow the healing to happen.

The next time you are upset about something, take a moment to breathe, ask yourself what action can I take that’s healthy to move me forward, that is true to who I really am. Be brave and be the best you can be.

Silt and Serenity

by Rev Rachel Simpson, August 18, 2016

We went on a look at scenery adventure to Girdwood/Alyeska this week. As we were enjoying the drive, Bill mentioned how even though the water we were looking at seemed so dirty and murky, and we think of tropical waters as pristine and full of life, we actually have it backwards. This got my inner science nerd curious and I discovered that temperate and colder waters have much more life, microorganisms, plankton, nutrients coming in from the rivers, and more oxygen and carbon dioxide than tropical waters. All this gives fertile ground (water?) for plants and animals to thrive. Tropical waters have much less ‘stuff’ floating around in them and that ‘stuff’ equals food.

I think this is an excellent metaphor for life. Many of us have probably at some point thought wouldn’t it be great to be so and so, they have had such a smooth ride and everything falls into place for them. I would argue though, that either they have missed a great deal of fun and progress by not having a life of risks, failures, and successes, or you are only seeing the cleaned up for public viewing side of them. (it’s probably the latter)

What if though, we stopped hoping for the sanitized, glossy magazine version of our lives? What if we could see that the things that make life complicated are also what make it interesting? That they are the nutrients that our next steps feed on. When we try to present ourselves as a pristine white sand beach, we are washing out the struggles and triumphs that have made us who we are.

Let us embrace the rivers of experience that bring food for our best wisdom. Let us embrace the sea life that has to work hard and travel far, and thus are strong and resilient. Let us embrace our complicated and sometimes seemingly aimless selves as rich with potential.

Yes, we often want the way forward to be crystal clear, but do we want that decision to be based in a nutrient rich or poor environment? The way to clarity is not to deny or exclude our experience, but to allow them to become the background. To take time away regularly in meditation and silence while life and experience swirls around us is a much more realistic journey. To think that my life (or my thoughts) will be as peaceful and quiet as an idyllic vacation brochure is absurd, and realistically doesn’t sound like much fun. I can find the peace and wisdom amongst the messy, all it takes is practice.

So I will start right now, because that is always the best place to start.

Rainy days and mushrooms

by Rev Rachel Simpson, August 11, 2016

We’ve had a lot of rain in Anchorage the last few weeks. Alongside trails, and in any open spot, mushrooms have popped up seemingly from nowhere. My yard became home to 4-5 different types of mushrooms and it is pretty impressive how quickly they emerge. A quick google search confirms that the mushroom fungi have been there all along, growing, waiting for an inciting incident, such as rain, to bring them above the surface.

These mushrooms I think are a lovely metaphor for our thoughts. We may be cruising down life’s highway thinking we’ve got all our ‘stuff’ handled and the path ahead is as smooth as a golf course. Then some inciting incident happens, and all of a sudden thoughts, feelings, and behaviors you thought were long gone have popped out of nowhere.

Wait no! I don’t want it to be like this! So you scurry around cutting down and covering over all the offending ideas.

BUT just like the mushrooms in my yard, it’s only going to take another inciting incident to bring them back. You’ve only ‘fixed’ the outer part. Something still lives within.

What to do, what to do. You probably don’t like having your thoughts and reactions hijacked by a previous version of yourself. You want to do better. It just seems like so and so can always push your buttons.
There are numerous tools that we could engage to uninstall the button and clear out the remaining bits unhelpful beliefs. Denials and affirmations, the Q process (the Art and Practice of no one and nothing is against you), and Bryon Katie’s ‘the Work’ all come to mind. Today though, I want to focus briefly on just one, something ancient and powerful: forgiveness.

Forgiving is an act of love. We talked about the divine attribute of love this week, and one of the elements of love is harmony, love is bringing together the universe in harmony. Forgiveness brings about more harmony not only in our lives, but also in our world. Forgiveness routs out the buried hurts, resentments, and injustices and replaces them with compassion, understanding, and love.

I know, I know, sometimes really yucky things have happened. You don’t want to condone an action, or let someone off the ‘hook’. Forgiving doesn’t mean you can’t have healthy boundaries. Forgiving means you are letting go of harboring ill-will, judgements, and anger. You can choose to not interact with a person again, and just let it be without all the drama and emotion that’s part of the story of why you choose to not see them. This is one end of the spectrum, for many of us there are also much smaller infractions that pop up and meddle in our life.

Let’s suppose I see that some of my friends have gotten together and I wasn’t invited. I might feel bummed, mad, or resentful. However, it’s likely that if it really is bothering me, there is something deeper going on. Maybe there have been other times where I have felt left out, or maybe I feel guilty for times I have accidentally or on purpose left someone else out. Maybe sometime when I was young I didn’t feel ‘good enough’ to hang out with the cool kids and so this incident is really a call back to all the other incidents. That’s how we end up with mushrooms all over the yard.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really enjoy falling back into old non-life-giving ways of thinking and being. I don’t want to feel resentful, or jealous, or vengeful. I don’t want to be stuck in a story about what happened, because it’s over.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus was asked by Peter how many times he should forgive his brother, suggesting 7 times. Jesus replied 70 times 7.

That’s a lot of times. I’m guessing you will lose count before you get there, which is the point. 7 symbolizes completeness, so you forgive until you are complete.

When you determine you are willing to forgive and heal a situation, I think it is helpful to consider the world ‘willing’. This means that I am open and ready to have this take place, not that it is final, but that I am ready. When you are willing to forgive it is done completely. If you have reservations, excuses, or maybes, then you have more work to do. Maybe it’s time to be willing to be willing.

Once you have declared yourself willing to forgive, you may still have leanings towards telling the story or injustice or getting agitated over the situation. When this happens, simply say: “thank you for sharing, we’ve already forgiven this person, so we’re moving on.” How many times might you need to do this? 70 x 7, or as many times as necessary.

So when the inciting incident rain falls, and you find yourself with unwelcome idea mushrooms appearing, don’t just whack at them, heal them. Bring more love and harmony to the universe and to your life.

With love,

Rev. Rachel

Bikes and spiritual practice

by Rev Rachel Simpson, August 4, 2016

Whoosh

That’s the sound of me zooming down a hill on my bicycle. I have always enjoyed biking, but actually getting out on my bike has been spotty. This last month or so I’ve been getting more into it, I now have a rearview mirror and took a roadside maintenance class from REI. I’m getting out several times a week.

As I was whooshing down a hill then working my way up the next I was considering how bike riding is like the spiritual path.

Earlier this summer, right before his 6^th birthday, Cougar declared that his goal for the summer was to ride his bike without training wheels. Bike riding for a kid means freedom, to move about, to go fast, and to join in with others. This is similar to consciously taking a spiritual path, it is exciting, there is more freedom to move about, and new people to meet.

There came a time in my young life, when the red bike with a strawberry shortcake basket that I had when I was Cougar’s age no longer fit. I got a new bike that was shiny blue with a banana seat that had multi-colored daisies on it. Even though it was 30 years ago, I remember clearly that the sales person was incredulous that I wanted the blue bike not the pink one. This was an early lesson that my path will not always make sense to other people. When we’re on the path of our life, at some point we realize that all of us have our own trail to ride. Some of ours will be similar and cross often with friends, and others are quite different. That doesn’t mean your path is wrong, or that the pink bike would have not been perfectly functional, just that it’s not a match for me.

I have now had 3 adult sized bikes with gears, and they have propelled me through various adventures.

When I was living in Chicago, I rode regularly as part of my transportation trifecta of walking, public transit, and bicycling. Riding continued to be a core as I didn’t buy a car the first 7 months I lived in Missouri. But then, as often happens, I didn’t ride as much, and then it wasn’t as much fun because those muscles weren’t in regular use.

When I fall out of the habit of a spiritual practice, whether it’s regular meditation, spiritual study, prayer group, or attending services, the spiritual ‘muscles’ feel creaky because they have not been in use. When I consider getting back in the habit, I can come up with endless excuses, I have, after all, been doing OK without it.

But I think that’s a lie we tell ourselves, just as the excuses I used to tell myself for not going out even for a short ride.

Because, when I’m honest, even a 10 minute ride is fun. I feel accomplished for making it up a hill on pedal power. I feel euphoria whooshing back down. After a while, I find that I can go farther in the same time, I can explore my neighborhood and town, and I can get places I need to go without driving. The seat which used to feel uncomfortable isn’t bothering me much anymore. Now that I have learned more on basic maintenance, I’m ready for even more distance, knowing I’m able to take care of myself.

This building up of my biking ability is the same kind of process as when entering or re-entering spiritual practice. Sometimes we get frustrated because we’re not able to sit still and meditate for an hour like the gurus, or respond Zen-like to things that irritate us, or get that bliss feeling from a moment of prayer.

If sitting for an hour in meditation is a goal, do you think you’re going to get there by not practicing? Take a 5 minute ride. For me, it is not only a challenge of slowing the mind; it is also training the body to sit comfortably and still. And so I have slowly worked up my time from 5 to 20-30 minutes in a sitting.

Anything that is done well by a master, was at one time done unskillfully by them as an apprentice. What differentiates them is practice and consistency.

Just as a kid with their first bike, our spiritual practice can take us far; there is freedom, movement, and community just around the corner.

But only if you remember to take it out of the garage.

Happy riding