Felicia Murrell acknowledges that our first homes are not always safe:
In the 1978 movie The Wiz, the iconic Diana Ross sings, “When I think of home, I think of a place where there’s love overflowing.” [1]
What rises in your body when you think of home? Is home synonymous with love and affection? Is home a place you long to return to?
For some, home is terror, a place to flee with no desire to return or revisit. This is important to name and acknowledge because too many are aimlessly wandering, feeling insignificant—unseen, unknown.
When home is not a place of comfort, and there is no sense of knowing or nurture, it leaves the body in flight-or-fight mode. We see this in Dorothy’s companions, the scarecrow and the cowardly lion. One runs to isolation, invisibility, and separation, choosing to hide. The other blusters to cover a lack of courage … with a body that remains on full alert, suspicious and defensive. Whether self-protecting or hiding, one thing is true: Neither posture offers the soul any type of rest. Neither is home.
Often, when we think of home, we think only of an external place, out there, a fixed place—the place where we live and grow, create fond memories, establish familial bonds; the place we leave when we come of age and where we return when things are hard.
The evolution of Dorothy’s journey on the yellow brick road expands home beyond the narrow confines of a fixed place to a vast inward sea. “I’ve learned,” she says, “that we must look inside our hearts to find a world full of love … like home.” [2]
For Murrell, home offers unconditional love.
Love is home.
Home is both an external dwelling and an internal abode. Home is the place where we belong, our place of acceptance and welcome. There, in this shame and judgment-free embryonic cocoon of love, we practice unconditional acceptance; we learn to relate to ourselves and the world around us.
And home is a soft place for the body to land, a safe place for the soul to fully disrobe. Home is the place where our failures don’t kill, our sins can’t crush, and even when we are at our worst, we’re safe. Home is a place where we are free to take our deepest, fullest, least encumbered breath.
At home, there’s no need to guess whether we’re in or out, welcomed or not. Home always prepares a place with us in mind.
How are you preparing a home of unconditional acceptance for yourself? How do you welcome your body, make room for your mind? In what ways are you engaging your soul with intentionality? How are you reclaiming the safety of home for yourself?
“Home,” says Glinda the Good, “is a place we all must find, child. It’s not just a place where you eat or sleep. Home is knowing. Knowing your mind, knowing your heart, knowing your courage. If we know ourselves, we’re always home, anywhere.” [3]
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5 for Friday John Chaffee
1.
“Never confuse the person, formed in the image of God, with the evil that is in him, because evil is but a chance misfortune, illness, a devilish reverie. But the very essence of the person is the image of God, and this remains in him despite every disfigurement.”
- St. John of Kronstadt, Russian Orthodox Priest
One of the aspects of conventional Christianity that fell apart for me was the idea that to be human is intrinsically evil, that at our most foundational level, we are distorted, broken, and/or corrupt.
There are many reasons why someone would hold to that thought, and I am fairly certain it is an opinion based upon a later theological concept that requires it, or else it would fall apart… the idea that Jesus came only to fix everything.
The Early Church, however, believed that the Incarnation would have happened even if evil/sin didn’t enter the world.
Why?
Because the Incarnation is first and foremost about relationship, belonging, and community, human beings were created in God’s image. Therefore, the Incarnation is much like a parent wanting to spend time with their children who are in their “image.”
The deepest truth and reality is not that we are unwell, the deepest truth and reality is that we are loved.
2.
“God is at the same moment the most judicious and the least judgmental person in the cosmos.”
- From The Wonderstanding of Father Simeon
This is just a thought that has passed through my mind over the last 7 days. I flesh it further out in the book linked above.
3.
“In my early professional years, I was asking the question: How can I treat, cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”
- Carl R. Rogers, American Psychologist
For YEARS, I have loved the figures of Rafiki, Yoda, Gandalf, Mr. Miyagi, Mr. John Keating, Master Oogway, and others. The archetype of a mentor is something that I can’t help but think we are losing or at least do not appreciate in the West.
We love our scholars and specialists, but we deep down want mentors.
Carl Rogers’ writings are causing me to expand my understanding of the role of a mentor. A mentor does not only offer wisdom, they also offer a relationship that fosters and allows the mentee to finally do the necessary self-work to grow into their next phase of life.
All we can ever be is a loving and hospitable environment for those around us to grow.
I cannot say that I achieve this with regularity but at least it is a conscious goal of mine.
4.
“Even in a world that is being shipwrecked, remain brave and strong.”
- Hildegard of Bingen, German Nun, Composer, and Writer
Despair is the easy way out. It is the antithesis of Hope.
Hope is stronger than Despair, it’s just that Despair has a better PR department.
5.
“When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.
Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain.”
- Exodus 24:15-18
At the end of the day, we cannot send another person as a proxy to go and investigate God for us. At some point, we must be willing to make the courageous decision to step into the potentially dangerous unknown and seek to experience the Divine on the Divine’s terms away from the crowds.
I wonder how many spiritual leaders we have in the world who love to be on the mountaintop, in full view of the community who look up to them but never actually leave the adoration of the community to venture into God alone.
All this reminds me of Karl Rahner’s quote, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or they will not exist at all.”
