[Oe List ...] "In my house..."

[Sharon Fisher]

Thank you, Del for your astute and honest reflection. 'Ain't life grand?!

Love to you and Justin,
Sharon Fisher

On Thu, Jun 4, 2020, 7:41 AM Ellie Stock via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> Thanks, Del for sharing--well said--and for sharing the Mary Oliver poem,
> too.
>
> Ellie :)
> elliestock at aol.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Del Morrill via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> To: Order Ecumenical <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> Cc: Del Morrill <delhmor at wamail.net>
> Sent: Wed, Jun 3, 2020 4:50 pm
> Subject: [Oe List ...] "In my house..."
>
> Dear Doris, Marsha, Shelley, Pat, Scott and the rest of the family and
> mutual friends around the world.
> During the service for Charles I was struck by the New Testament line, “*In
> my house are many mansions,” *a favorite of mine and, if I understood
> correctly, of Charles’*.  *At the time, I quickly jotted down just a few
> words, thinking to reflect upon them at a later time.  In the wee hours of
> this morning, when I could not sleep, I looked at those few words and asked
> myself why, when I reject so much of religious language, do these words
> particularly strike me? And why might Charles have chosen them?
> I realized that, most of my life. I have been bothered whenever others
> have been left out by language, style or action because their language,
> style or action doesn’t “fit”. This concern, no doubt, arises from my own
> struggle to belong. Somehow, as I was growing up, and even as an adult, I
> just did not fit in the way it was expected and either shunned or, more
> often, pressed to fit in. Many times in my journey I experienced the pain
> and loneliness of that. This, and my difficult health journey, affected,
> ultimately, my choice of career in later years and how I viewed those who
> came to me – wounded perhaps, but still accepted by the same creative
> force, and courageous for having come this far.  As a counselor, in order
> for healing to take place, it was necessary to be receptive to the views
> of others, trying to use their eyes to understand what’s behind their way
> of knowing, doing and being.
> It has been a long journey in learning from others’ views, their
> religions, their cultures, their processing of the world.  It was late in
> my life that I finally was able to shed the judgmentalism that so pervaded
> my being. I no longer feel that I must argue my point against another’s. I
> am more likely to perceive the “other” as traveling the earth in whatever
> way creation has taken them; and unless they are doing harm to themselves
> or others in a way that allows me to interfere positively and safely, I
> will not quarrel with the path they have chosen. The knowing, doing and
> being of each person on this earth creates an amazing patchwork quilt of
> existence in which is joined different scraps of color and design in odd
> shapes which, through patience, fit together perfectly to create something
> that is strangely beautiful in its wild design.
> In no way assuming that someone had the same journey as I, and realizing
> that no one is fully known by another, this is the Charles I think of ,
> choosing this section of the bible. As I listened to the remembrances of
> others, I realized that the quotation reflected his life  – a man who
> believed that all are accepted at the table; receptive to the views of
> others, therefore not prone to argument, the quiet listener, a man of
> practical solution, responding only when he felt it necessary and, most of
> all, allowing whomever he met to be part of the quilt.
>
> Thank you, again, for finding a way that would allow so many of us across
> the world to celebrate his life, and for giving me an opportunity to
> reflect upon my own.
>
> Del
> We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
> (George Bernard Shaw)
>
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