You heard my voice
I came out of the woods by choice.....Left a clouded mind and a heavy heart.
I will call you by name I will share your road....
But hold me fast, Hold me fast Cuz I'm a hopeless wanderer
And I will learn, I will learn to love the skies I'm under
(Hopeless Wanderer. Mumford & Sons)
"One cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie."(CARL JUNG, THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE PSYCHE)
“To be literate is not to be free, it is to be present and active in the struggle for reclaiming one's voice, history, and future." (Henry Giroux)
"But don't you see?" Kazadi had said, averting his eyes from mine. "The children die" . The words had pricked me, and I had averted my eyes too.
Yes, the children die. In all my years prior to going to Africa, I attended a total of four funerals. In two years in Kalambayi I attended, at least briefly, close to two hundred. Three-quarters of them were for children. I estimated that one third of all the sons and daughters in the area died before the age of five. Some farmers I worked with had lost five or six kids.
Still, nothing brought this ghastly reality home to me more than Miteo's condition. I needed him and cared for him, and now he was dying. Watching his body wither away, I understood as I never had before the deep fear shared by parents in Kalambayi. There were many reasons why parents refused to limit family sizes, but the biggest was the fear that death would do it for them."
(MikeTidwell. The Ponds of Kalambayi. Pg 174)
"But don't you see?" Kazadi had said, averting his eyes from mine. "The children die."
The words had pricked me, and I had averted my eyes too.
Yes, the children die. In all my years prior to going to Africa, I attended a total of four funerals. In two years in Kalambayi I attended, at least briefly, close to two hundred. Three-quarters of them were for children. I estimated that one third of all the sons and daughters in the area died before the age of five. Some farmers I worked with had lost five or six kidsStill, nothing brought this ghastly reality home to me more than Miteo's condition. I needed him and cared for him, and now he was dying. Watching his body wither away, I understood I never had before the deep fear shared by parents in Kalambayi. There were many reasons why parents refused to limit family sizes, but the biggest was the fear that death would do it for them."
(Mike Tidwell. The Ponds of Kalambayi. Pg 174)
"If change and growth are not program- med into your spirituality, if there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status quo and protecting your present ego position and personal advantage—as if it were God!"
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
"There is a certain real loneliness if you say yes and all your old friends are saying no. So be prepared when your old groups, friendships, and even churches no longer fully speak to you the way they used to. But I promise you that those confusing feelings are far outdistanced by a new ability to be alone—and to be happy alone. One of the great surprises at this point is that you find that the cure for your loneliness is actually solitude!"
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
"Your persona is what most people want from you and reward you for, and what you choose to identify with, for some reason. As you do your inner work, you will begin to know that your self-image is nothing more than just that, and not worth protecting, promoting, or denying."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
"Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For another union, a deeper communion"
—T. S. ELIOT, "EAST COKER"
"You will see that this pattern is rather universal. Instead of our "Don't leave home without it" mentality, the spiritual greats motto seems to be "Leave home to find it!"
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
"So the church is both my greatest intellectual and moral problem and my most consoling home. She is both pathetic whore and frequent bride. There is still a marvelous marriage with such a bride, and many whores do occasionally become brides too. In a certain but real sense, the church itself is the first cross that Jesus is crucified on, as we limit, mangle, and try to control the always too big message. All the churches seem to crucify Jesus again and again by their inability to receive his whole body, but they often resurrect him too. I am without doubt a microcosm of this universal church."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
"I nor the churches themselves really live much of the real Gospel—at least enough to actually change our present lifestyles! It is just too big a message."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward.)
"There is no practical or compelling reason to leave one's present comfort zone in life. Why should you or would you? Frankly, none of us do unless and until we have to.
The invitation probably has to be unexpected and unsought. If we seek spiritual heroism ourselves, the old ego is just back in control under a new name. There would not really be any change at all, but only disguise. Just bogus "self-improvement" on our own terms."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
"Jesus is never upset at sinners (check it out!); he is only upset with people who do not think they are sinners!"
This is such a reality of working in the bush in Africa, or Asia."Yes even as my village friendships improved, made by the hunt and other experiences, the lonely times in Kalambayi never left me. There were a lot of them, times when I felt utterly by myself and close to bursting from the pressure off uncommunicated feelings."(Mike Tidwell. The Ponds of Kalambayi, pg162)
"As a priest of forty years, I find that much of the spiritual and pastoral work of churches is often ineffective at the levels of real transformation, and calls forth immense passivity and even many passive-aggressive responses. As a preacher, I find that I am forced to dumb down the material in order to interest a Sunday crowd that does not expect or even want any real challenge; nor does it exhibit much spiritual or intellectual curiosity.
"Just repeat what I expect to hear, Father, and maybe a joke or two!" As a spiritual director, I find that most people facing the important transformative issues of social
injustice, divorce, failure, gender identity, an inner life of prayer, or any radical reading of the Gospel are usually bored and limited by the typical Sunday church agenda. And these are good people! But they keep on doing their own kind of survival dance, because no one has told them about their sacred dance. Of course, clergy cannot talk about a further journey if they have not gone on it themselves."
"We do not "make" or "create our souls; we just "grow" them up."
(Richard Rohr. Falling Upward)
”Most of us are never told that we can set out from the known and the familiar to take on a further journey"
"Mature people are not either-or' thinkers, but they bathe in the ocean of 'both-and'."
Richard Rohr
"The world is more magical, less predictable, more autonomous, less controllable, more varied, less simple, more infinite, less knowable, more wonderfully troubling than we could have imagined being able to tolerate when we were young.
