By Melanie P. Moore
As we move through these first days of 2025, especially in the U.S. after the presidential inauguration and “Day One” executive orders—some frightening, some preposterous—I’ve found myself in conversations about how to live in or through this. Some helpful things include, of course, the “speaking truth to power” first sermon by Bishop Mariann Budde at the Washington National Cathedral (the whole thing, not just the end that has gone viral).
Another helpful reminder to me has been that when you give your attention to something, you give it power; take away your attention and you take away its power.
Though we are all seekers, the Abbey is a thriving community where many of us find hope, love, and truth. In a recent discussion in our Tuesday Meditation group, several of us wondered if we have what we need to stay awake to all that is happening. Someone asked if we even know what we need, or if we want to stay awake?
What do we mean by being “awake”? For me, being awake is to be present to and actively aware of what is around me in any given moment, to be awake to God’s presence everywhere—in beauty and in pain, in freedom and in oppression.
Other definitions are “a state of heightened consciousness, awareness, and connection with the world around you. It can also involve a shift in your worldview and personal transformation,” and “…our connection with other human beings, living beings, and the natural world … an intense connection … an intense empathy and compassion for others.” I would also point you to this Substack post from poet Abriel Louise Young, “catch the fire: revolutionary breath and endurance,” featuring Sonia Sanchez’s poem “Catch the Fire.”
Let’s make this an interactive post and start a discussion in the Comments section:
What do you need to stay awake to the current moment?
Do you have it?
Do you know what you need?
Do you want to stay awake?
I invite you to join our discussion by sharing your thoughts, concerns, insights, etc., in a comment, and/or responding to comments others have made here.
6 Responses
I have been doing a lot of self reflection (mostly journaling and talking to my friends, therapist and spiritual director) in recent days, work I had tried to avoid. I find it so challenging to talk about any of it without “falling asleep” into my own enraged alternative self-righteousness, a place I dislike a lot. As my spiritual director said to me: sometimes it’s helpful to see those we regard as “tormentors” as actual mentors! It has been both hard and freeing to begin to meet all that lies beneath the rage-filled arguments (even the ones I just exercise in my head)Slowly, I am discovering and
owning some deep and complicated and long-standing fears… and, as I hold them with compassion, I feel more able to be awake.
Yes, Judy, every moment mixed with both tragedy and beauty. I am also recognizing that one of my losses in all this is that I have often “entrusted” government and others with the “on the ground,” face to face work of caring for the marginalized, the poor, imprisoned, and the immigrant. For me, it is the work of following Jesus and I am owning it more as mine.
I awakened too early—-my
mind racing with unsettling, if not angry thoughts—remembering ubiquitous political noise from the day before. Try as I might, the images continued to plague my thinking. “I cannot function this day like this!” I thought. So being aware of the reality of Paradoxical Intentions, I knew I must do a work-around. I knew that music is a powerful resource. So I latched onto a couple of Spiritual songs that have lingering qualities. I let them become “Ear Worms” for the morning—-this was before my Quiet Time. It set the tone for my day, dredging out the trash—-replacing it with holy Presence. Thoughts/images are powerful. It is important to remember that you and I have control over our thoughts. That was my turning point. More importantly I realized I must refocus—- and in doing so my day was redeemed.
Reflecting on Janet’s response for the last couple of days I resonate with what she’s writing about concerning the “tormentors”. I, too, want to reframe them as parts of me that have an important message they want to give me. So against my natural inclination, I try to turn toward them and listen.
I heard an interesting quotation the other day from Simone Weil:
“Attention is the nearest thing to prayer.”
That seems to resonate for me along with Melanie’s comments about staying awake. Possibly exemplifying the idea of “praying at all times” or “praying without ceasing.”
Two more quotations, these from Krista Tippett have been rolling around in my consciousness::
“Hope is a refusal to accept the way you are told things have to be.”
And
“We need a lot of help in accompaniment to imagine something different.”
For me that’s where community comes in – community like the Abbey.
Following the initial jolt of all that has happened in such a brief time, I have, in reflection, decided to turn my attention to wonder remembering, in particular, one late fall evening when my husband, Ed, and I were, while visiting, standing on a street corner in Portland, Me. with our daughter-in-law and an old family friend we had just run into. While the three of them conversed, I was startled to witness in the dark, distant back ground a bolt of lightning, a flash of light and hear subtle thunderous sounds. Wow! I thought, look at that! No one else seemed to notice, not even when the distance rain shower descended. There I was in the midst of it all: Darkness and light, immersed in both!
In these days of confusion and uncertainty I am blessed with this and other memories of unexpected moments of wonder (gifts of grace) ever available, right here, right now. So I choose imagination and play delivered with creativity—however that comes forth at any given moment—like right here, right now writing these words to you! Judy Myers
Yes! Exactly – light and darkness, both. Right here, right now.