Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom Talk, "The Way of Renewal":
The Way of Retrieval. This topic actually came to me when I was sorting through a section of books that I've been trying to downsize for years. I was flipping through Larry Morris' booklet "Glimpses of Grace", a thin stapled book of aphorisms, little ideas or, glimpses that came to him over time...I was flipping through it and my eyes settled on "Clear path, way of retrieval". That Intrigued me. Over the years, I have looked at aspects of the spiritual life from many angles and traditions, so it seems natural to look at the way of retrieval. Definition of retrieve leads us to the prefix re--which means again or describes something that is being repeated, but it also means back, getting it back; you have to go back to an object or a prior state. The trieve part as a verb is "catching, acquiring, accessing or fetch". The noun is treasure or bounty, or a goal, a mission. So the Way of getting something back, or going back to get something, bring something back, or recalling, getting something back from memory.
Then there's this phrase, "clear path". Why is it a clear path? Because retrieval implies the known, a prior state or condition as opposed to the unknown. There are layers to that in human experience and there are values that underlie the pull to retrieve. Retrieval is a response to loss or misplaced or out of reach; it carries the appeal of the familiar, the comfort and stability that familiarity brings. That seems especially significant in times of uncertainty or when traumatic events have disturbed and disrupted our "place", our safety, our belonging. The familiar brings less wear and tear, unless of course it is riddled with conflict. Much of the role of religion in the life of people and cultures is to give us a framework for dealing with loss and the disruption of life, by provide meaning, structure and community. Retrieval can re-establish order. The one photograph or notebook or old letters salvaged from fire or flood is external and yet internal material for re-establishing order and stability; it's like a stake for a tent, or setting a beam to support a structure. Trauma often means those emblems of stability fly off with the shattering experience, but some can be retrieved. So retrieval has roots in the known and our attachments, which weave our earliest sense of stability, control and resiliency. What we treasure as individuals, what is worth retrieval, varies.
In Spiritual retrieval as an individual, we have the idea of various forms of healing, redemption, return, sometimes experienced through our own insight, or pain, or just getting lost in the duties of regular life. We may realize we've misplaced or lost focus on our spiritual life and practice The thread of the spiritual is always available. Our willingness to find it again and again and again is an opening process. The significant thing is the decision to retrieve it. Pick up a practice again. Find the corner of time or space for prayer or meditation. Intention and action. (Susan Nettleton)
follow the link for Robert Bly's poem on retrieval, "People Like Us" https://mypoetryparty.blogspot.com/.../people-like-us-by...