A Prison of Our Making: When Will We Let Go?

 

 

Midiba on his 94th anniversary.  

 

The crime of living in the world is being stuck in a place that is forbidding and terrifying.  When one has visions of being lost, stuck, having no place that is safe and sound this burden stymies all ability for a person to see that we everyone has a place here, a place to come in and get warm, to lie down and rest, to put aside the unquiet mind and feel free.

These dark recesses inhibit our ability to be happy, to be well, to enjoy life, to live with a sense of beauty and serenity in our hearts.  The sorrow is that many people live looking through prison bars of their own creation.  They cling to perceptions that prevent them from running and jumping like a gazelle.  What are we to do with these limits, these fears, anxiety and perceived failures?  We must release them, dispel them, no matter how much we cling to the burden.

How often do we utter that we cannot go toward the light but must live in a cave, as the story of Plato describes in the Republic?  We always seem to be caught in the grasp of a sentinel that does not watch over us but makes us feel powerless.

Nelson Mandela shared with us a means for overcoming the obstacles and flying beyond the bars of the prison on Robin Island.  Many more have described that none can keep us from our divinity’ none can limit us in our ability to live with grace; none can contain the elan that we feel to rise and fly on.

This day and every one that follows let us give thanks, and proclaim that our life has been harsh but that we are at peace; that nothing is going to harm us anymore.  Let us come to understand as we have always come to see that our lives are connected and that we are responsible and can go on, no matter what.

Let us within forgive and live in peace; in the world let us forgive praising whatever we meet along the way.

 

Observations of President Nelson Mandela

World  -  From the New York Times

Mandela Fades Amid Battles Over Who Will Claim Legacy By LYDIA POLGREEN “As Nelson Mandela, 94, grows more fragile, the struggle in South Africa over how he will be remembered, and what he has to pass on, has become increasingly acrimonious.”

 

Nelson Mandela: 

• A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

• After climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb.

• Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.

•  Being free isn’t a matter of casting off one’s chains; it means embracing the freedom of others.
  

• If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. 

• It always seems impossible until its done.

• “Let freedom ring,” The sun never set on such a glorious human achievement.

• A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

• After climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb.

• Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

• Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

• There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

• There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

• There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you have changed.

• Two ways exist to overcome adversity forgiveness and reconciliation.  The path to justice begins with both.

 

Nelson Mandela in His Inauguration Speech in 1994 Quotes Marianne Williamson Course of Miracles

*These Words Ring True for Us All:  We Are a Course in Miracles:  We are Shining  Stars

FROM MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Last evening We were gathered in the church basement speaking together about common values.  A young child asked,

“What was the scariest moment that you faced when you were homeless?  What disturbed you more than at any time when you were on the streets?”

Before I answer this precise and articulate question we must remind ourselves that all of us are special even when we refuse to accept this mantle.  All life is a precious, irreplaceable gift.  We are all angels given to all the world to sing in “perfect harmony.”  Despite our frailties and diminished state of life we are grateful eternally for the gift of life. I am more grateful for the girl’s provocative question stirring deep chords in the web of the inner consciousness of my being.

“i was in a coma. I had lost my sense of touch, of awareness, of consciousness for a week.  I was intubated. I was in Intensive Care.  I was in a separate space where people who knew me walked in and I was oblivious to their existence.  I completely forgot everything. I lost those days completely.  It was not the only time because I had practiced several times trying to end my life.  I was found in my one room a number 105 at 1205 Washington St by a man who had been homeless and worked for the Denver Voice Newspaper, Laray.  He persuaded them to force entry to the room.  There I was in a pool of my almost lifeless body. 

I had lost all sense of purpose and reason. I had lost all hope.  I had lost all courage to prevail. My life had been forfeited by a lack of spiritual sustenance.  I had forgotten from where I had come and who I was.  I had lost touch with my ancestors. I had forgotten who I am.”

“These lost hopes and prayers, these lost dreams and aspirations confusing and terrorizing every atom of my being was the worst, most difficult and complete “Darkest Night of the Soul,” that could be and was ever uttered. For to forget, to lose one’s way, to give up and to throw away a life is unforgivable.  I was leaving behind children, two beautiful daughters and a beautiful son.  I was forgetting the family and the wishes that others would share that I keep faith and watch over them.  Turning in in this way was a far more deep and painful blow than any that could have been possible by simply being without a safe place to live.”

The crucible of life is that we live fully and that we forgive our transgressions as we at the same time forgive those who have transgressed against us. The crucible is that we live with despair as a living witness to the waters of life that run through us and overcome the doubt with the miracle of being given this gift of life.  There is no turning around. We will die, just not now, not here, but when we are ready and when we have breathed the last breath.  

I cursed Laray and the paramedics and the people who watched over me. I wanted to die.  I practiced dying, trying to escape.  I gave up believing in this world and the opportunities that I have been given.  Now 3000 people’s lives were forfeited without the slightest opportunity  for them to live in September 11, 2001.  Yes, this was the day after I was released from the hospital and all I could do is ask why?  

Why have I been spared and these innocent lives were taken? Why, what is the course of miracles?  It is to forgive oneself for the agony, the misery, the loss, to rise, to walk on with dignity and grace, to realize that we all belong, that we all are powerful beyond measure and that our lives are here for a purpose, never to give up, never to cling to doubt and uncertainty, that we belong here.