This week I came across a copy of Rev. Hugh Prather's ( 1938-2010) best selling book from the 1970's , "Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person." Prather and his wife Gayle were co-founders of the "Dispensable Church" in Santa Fe, NM and later moved to Arizona. The book is an honest examination and probing of himself, particularly in relationships, and circles around and around his self preoccupation, along with his drive to come to some truth in his connection with others.
Prather wrote: "I learn most about myself by observing myself in relation to others. When I examine myself by myself, I am actually examining the results of a previous encounter." Further probing brings new insight: "Perceptions are not of things but of relationships. Nothing, including me, exists by itself--this is an illusion of words. I am a relationship, ever-changing".
As we now enter the Christmas season, we enter it with both Delta and a quickly spreading Omicron--variants of Covid-19. Health authorities caution that it will take a few weeks to have the answers to the question of how this variant will impact American attempts at returning to normalcy and basically, how great a threat we face. We are advised to continue safe practices which includes of course vaccines. Meanwhile scientists, governments and health care officials across the globe are sifting through data and case reports. The sudden emergence of Omicron and the rapid response around the globe is another reminder of the interdependence of life.
You as a relationship is a startling concept that moves beyond just your personal life to the whole of being--beyond people to nature (including microbes and viruses as I have written many times) and beyond that to social structures, and beyond that to abstractions like time, space, location. Here, now, we are presented with yet another global event that can spur tremendous collective cooperation or further isolation and attack It also holds the potential for your own spiritually illuminating discovery: You are a relationship.
Prather leads us to his discovery, even though I am sure he had heard similar words by others, read powerful passages by others. After this inner insight, he could share how it finally came to him: "Love unites the part with the whole. Love unites me with the world and with myself. My life work could well be love. Love is the universe complete...Love shows me where all minds and essences unite." Perhaps today, perhaps this Christmas season of continued Pandemic, is leading you to your own unveiling. (Susan Nettleton)