Daunting circumstances, can feel like a tomb. And then Hope breaks through with three little words, *tomb or womb?
If we invite the words to shift our emotions, we begin dreaming again. Imagine the Spirit of Infinite Love holding us not in the belly of the whale, that seems separate from, but rather in her womb.
A dark night of the soul is nothing to romanticize, yet it offers lasting gifts. In the bleakness we may realize our wounded-ness, or a gap between persona and True Self. As we allow authenticity, we make fresh commitments to forgiveness and joy that have little to do with outer circumstances.
Sometimes we feel betrayed by people or principles, on which we formerly relied. Inside the womb, Grace invites us to the more mysterious ways of trusting. When we release the need to control outcomes, and find gratitude in the way things are unfolding, we are better able to hold life’s paradoxes.
Then we begin seeing blessings differently, like noticing everyday things as the miracles they are. We move away from our sharp divisions to allowing Discernment to show us truth through people we once thought as unlikely messengers.
In the waters of the womb, we experience waves of oneness that nudge us toward unity with other people. If we continue behaving as adolescents; however, rather than interdependent adults, we will likely miss knowing ourselves.
How deeply can we know the Holy without knowing ourselves? Most of the work is internal.
The womb takes us from what we know and initiates us into a larger life-giving community. Somewhere in process of unknowing, we drop our outer crutch-like measurements to give Discernment room show us truth.
Less and less do we have to convince other people, or ourselves, of who we are or what we believe. Our lives tell the story.
Tomb or womb? Why not pause during Thanksgiving, to consider the picture of Spirit embracing and forming you into a more loving presence for this world.
Sacred Ruminations*
*Valerie Kaur a Sikh woman preached in a church at watch night service this year. You may have seen it on Youtube. She spoke about the darkness and difficulty that is surrounding us these days. She spoke specifically about the difficulty raising a brown boy in our country. As part of her thoughts she asked, “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if this is our transition to something new.”
Cynthia Good, Pastor at Calvary Church in Arlington, MA