THE THIRD WAY...SPACIOUS BUT HIDDEN

Well, now. As I have written, talked, nattered about for a while now, I am experiencing changes...inner changes that appear for all my world to see. They are neither bad nor good just different for me...all of a varying spiritual nature.  I've named them "the 80s," because they seem to have begun around my 80th birthday.  

This morning, as I'm preparing to write my blog, my file opens to the following earlier post of mine:

"6/28/16 THIS MAY BE THE EXPLANATION FOR MY 'INVOLUNTARY CHANGES' THAT I SEEM TO BE EXPERIENCING NOW:" Then I had a quote from Fr Richard's Daily Meditation of that day.

Rohr's quote was of interest then, but what is of interest to me today is the fact that I was experiencing "involuntary changes" back in 2016...seven years ago!...and they were important enough for me to make note of. I had not recalled that fact till I reread about it.

I love that so much it hurts. 

That tells me...or gives a very broad hint...that whatever is going on within us/without us is of  God...maybe not driven by, but for sure preapproved. Face it, we say that every day in various ways, but what we say and what we believe can be two very different things. It is not lying, we just do not realize the new truth as we speak.

 

This is a wonderful example. If asked, I would have sworn my today's inner changes are new, never happened to me before, only came when, or because, I turned 80.

Here's the meat of Fr Richard's quote:  The contemplative stance is the Third Way. We stand in the middle, neither taking the world on from another power position nor denying it for fear of the pain it will bring. We hold the dark side of reality and the pain of the world until it transforms us, knowing that we are both complicit in the evil and can participate in wholeness and holiness. Once we can stand in that third spacious way, neither directly fighting nor denying and fleeing, we are in the place of grace out of which genuine newness can come. This is where creativity and new forms of life and healing emerge. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, June 28, 2016

Now I see, now I know the gift for me today:  ...we are in the place of grace out of which genuine newness can come. This is where creativity and new forms of life and healing emerge.

Thank you.