Having been broken and remade / many times, I think we have to
love our way through trouble / and keep softening into clarity.
~“Otherwise,” Mark Nepo. The Half-Life of Angels
October leaves once green and thriving now layer the autumn land. How do we live when the green is gone, when personal and societal distresses layer our emotional and mental lives? How do we “love our way through trouble” and “keep softening into clarity,” the kind that guides us to a more peaceful and loving manner of living?
I’ve recently found direction and hope through several resources. In Lili Taylor’s Turning to Birds she writes: “The chief horticulturist…had made sure that all the leaves were left. He’s part of a growing environmental movement. Leave the Leaves. Not only do leaves provide nutrients to the microorganisms that are the life of the soil, but they also provide habitat for wildlife and insects…. All the leaves that are raked, bagged, and dumped in landfills amount to thirty-three-million tons a year. Because there is oxygen to break them down, the organic matter is released as methane, one of the major contributors to climate change.”
Okay, so a lawn drenched with brown leaves may not look beautiful or tidy. Neither is personal transformation and significant change. Taylor’s suggestion reminds me to not push my way into hasty solutions or try to sweep troubles away. I do what I can. Then I am patient, trusting, and pray (a lot). I watch the troubles slowly break apart. I trust that what happens through wretched and disruptive situations when all seems dead and worthless will have a turning point, will gradually move into new and beneficial growth.
Friends of Silence newsletter also reminded me of a central way to love our way through troubles with a quote from philosopher, Aldous Huxley: “It’s a little embarrassing that after forty-five years of research and study, the best advice I can give is to be a little kinder to each other.” Yes, to love our way, not to negatively project our way onto others (accuse, seek revenge, blame, rage, hate, call despicable names…)
Following this discovery, the wisdom of Narayan Helen Liebenson surfaced in The Magnanimous Heart: “In the presence of sadness and fear, I encourage you to look for kindness and love. I don’t mean trying to make ourselves feel loving but recognizing that, in the midst of the pain, love is also present. This is because love is always present. If we focus on fear and become overwhelmed by it, all we see is more fear; fear has center stage. If we deliberately look for love, love is discovered. …We are not concocting anything with these investigations. We are just seeing more clearly what is in fact already there. Because love is our true nature, we will experience love if we open to the presence of love. Maybe it’s just a drop of love, not necessarily angels trumpeting, but a drop. That drop is enough to shift perspective.”
And so it is that I move into this month with its reminder that we do not get to have spring without going through autumn and winter, at least not here in the Midwest. Wherever we reside, may we choose to love our way through personal and societal troubles.
abundant peace,
Joyce Rupp
