Dear Friends, 
You’ve been on my mind. Here we are in the last week of October, and the reality of living in America is heating up. How are you doing?
I wanted to be in touch before the election, before another layer of adaptation is required. However it turns out, we will be turning a new corner as a country, as a people sharing resources, land and a promise of freedom. I have limited experience with the great differences that fill our land, but at the same time, have been blessed by the human hearts that I have encountered over the years. My ground is the depth of our humanity and the Sacred Reality that sustains us.
We are, fundamentally, human beings building a life for ourselves and those we love, as we travel around the sun on this blue planet. We have different lifestyles, and certainly different opportunities, as we adapt again and again to the circumstances that come our way. 2020 has slapped us in the face with anguish and struggle. How do we possibly adapt to such challenge?
A reminder: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
These words, attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit philosopher and paleontologist, change the lens a bit. We are invited to look at our journey with less attachment to our very human needs and “requirements.” What if it was true? What if the essence-of-who-we-are chose this life to learn, to grow, to love? Teilhard de Chardin’s work is astounding, other quotes are here, he speaks to a vision of the universe, and it’s evolution, that is dependent on love.
“The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
I share this with you, friends, sitting in the comfort of a warm and safe home. As a white woman of privilege, I cannot fully grasp the influence of poverty, racism, and Covid in the world. At the same time, I am unwilling to minimize my place in the universe, or yours! We have the capacity, for “a universal love is not only psychologically possible; it is the only complete and final way in which we are able to love” and the call because we are “driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being” to participate in the transformation that is before us.
I invite you to consider Teilhard’s invitations and to ground yourself in the moments when you can choose love, justice, forgiveness and hope. Let your choices in daily life – response to a misunderstanding, an extra measure of patience, speaking truth with love – reveal your heart in the world around you. May we harness the energies of love together.
peace, Lisa
I recently received and am sharing here, information about a free Pre-Election Meditation with Sharon Salzburg and Election Survival toolkit, through a Buddhist lens. All hands, and traditions, on deck!
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