Thinking Out Loud: March 2010
In the early 90s some very special friends of mine in a Robert Bly-inspired men's group blew me away with the gift of a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. It was big and it was beautiful. Three or four of us went riding on most Saturday mornings or on cool evenings.
We were to all gather at one rider's house in the country on a Saturday morning after a week of rain. There I was all duded-out in my leathers and gloves and chaps and nice, new full-face helmet. And, yes, of course, some real cool shades. As I drove into this guy's driveway I hit a slick and muddy spot and, boom, I went down. Who knows how far the bike skidded. All I know is that I was deep in the mud, on my back, and feeling like a fool. It was not a pretty picture at all.
Fortunately I was not injured and just grateful that didn't happen out on the highway at 65 miles-per-hour.
After my friends had a good laugh they helped pick up that huge bike and then said a magic word. A word I've long remembered: RESILIENCE. "When bikers fall," they said, "we practice resilience." "We check all our body parts then dust off, get up, get on and go on."
Merriam-Webster gives me this definition of resilience: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.
I always keep at hand a copy of Oriah Mountain Dreamer's The Invitation. I wish I had the space to print the entire thing here but I'll leave it to you to Google it or maybe you have your own copy. The words that stand out to me as I think of falling off my bike or anything at all where life seems to allow you to trip and fall are these:
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source our own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the moon, "Yes!" I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children. It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in empty moments. (http://skdesigns.com/
Resilience.
I have a card from Pat that sits on the personal altar above my computer. It simply says: "Love isn't in the falling . . . it's in the staying there."
Resilience.
If you have children or grandchildren or if you're a child-at-heart like I am you surely have a copy of the DVD, "The Incredibles" (2 Disc Collector's Edition). One of the bonus features is the Academy Award-Nominated Pixar Animation Studios Short Film called "Boundin." It is worth whatever that DVD costs or, of course, you can rent it. It may be the most memorable 4 minutes and 40 seconds you will ever spend. It's about a little lamb whose life is interrupted unexpectedly so that the normally happy, dancing little lamb is devastated and down in the dumps. But an unlikely hero --- a Jackalope --- comes along to teach the little lamb how to "Bound, bound and rebound." I'm telling you you must see this. Yes, yes, I'll loan you my copy if you are really interested and promise to return it-:)!!
Resilience: the ability to bound, bound and rebound.
Individuals can do this. Congregations can do this. Families can do this. Businesses can do this. You can do this. I can do this.
Let us keep alive the strong flame of resilience.
L'Chaim, my friends --- to life.
Thank you for the privilege of serving as your minister.
Nathan
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