Autumn Missed: Back on the Edge

Misty Going..... Just about three months ago I walked Froggatt edge conscious that so much was ahead of me. In these days of reflection and consolidation, it seemed right to go back. Gone!! We’ve had some lovely golden Autumn days but the sun has not been seen until around mid-afternoon. Taking a leap of faith, I decided to go out at noon – it was still gloomy but suddenly the mist started to lift. I was keen quickly ,to get back on the Edge to see the change from gloom to brightness, not wanting to miss the potential view. Returning as haze! The notion of mists lifting came home to me. I won’t say I’ve been living in the fog for the last few weeks but there have certainly been all sorts of experiences and thoughts swirling around. The significance of not always knowing (or needing to know) hasn’t been lost on me. As the mist lifted,   there were glimpses of the sun streaming onto the Derbyshire hills but then came a heat haze; a new type of mist! Today’s meditation from Richard Rohr seems pertinent. He’s talking about religion and poetry – stressing the role of metaphor and image in poetry and seeing this as a helpful way of approaching faith. This contrasts with the concrete notion where everything must be demonstrable provable, interpreted and analysed.  Poetry leaves room for ambiguity and puzzlement, metaphor and image.  Those poets who write today’s popular song lyrics feel at home with metaphor and no doubt find plenty of inspiration in the mist – no desperate chase to see  the mist-less hills for them!

The goal of great poetry is to get right to the heart of the experience so that it resonates with your own inner knowing and you can say, "Yes! That is true!" […] poetry seduces you and entices you into being a searcher for the Mystery yourself. It creates the heart leap, the gasp of breath, inspiring you to go further and deeper; you want to fill in the blanks for yourself. Poetry does this by speaking in metaphors. All religious language is metaphor by necessity. It's always pointing toward this Mystery that you don't know until you have experienced it. Without the experience, the metaphors largely remain empty. I think this has led to the ineffectiveness of much organized religion. I'm convinced this is the present impasse with so much of institutional religion: that we have for centuries "perfectly" defined, delineated, and described the Mystery. And all you have to do is believe your denomination's dogmatic definitions and you are a member in good standing. This is not working. It is not transforming people. I think poetry gives you resonance more than logical proof, and resonance is much more healing and integrating. It resounds inside of you. It evokes and calls forth a deeper self. That is the power of good poetry and why poetry can work so deeply. When religion becomes mere philosophy, accurate definitions, moralisms about others, rituals and dogmas in the head--that is the beginning of the end of religion as actual transformation. Now no one knows what to do with their pain except project it onto other people.

Richard Rohr daily meditation 1st October 2015 no-reply@cac.org via cacradicalgrace.ccsend.com  Autumn missed. A race to the top - wistfully wishing a mistless vision, clouds to part and meaning prevail. Yet mist begat mist What’s missed is misted. Mistiness opens reality - mistfulness as a state of mindfulness! Autumn missed will clear once more.

8th July

 

1st October