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

[Doris Hahn]

Del, thank you for sharing your reflections--always helpful!
Peace,
Doris

On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 6:50 PM Sharon Fisher via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> 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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