Summer is now in its fullness. The last few weeks has been an interweaving of the shocks of change across America, as the concern of the Pandemic reappears and elections push to the forefront, crossing the threads of the Way of Spiritual Peace. Daily life continues and summer blossoms with intense heat, reminding us of global climate change. There is a pressure of coming events, a kind of bracing against a future wind, that humanity seems to carry. And then there is the Peace of the moment, the stillness of a summer afternoon, and the quiet of deep night that balances longer, erratic days.
This week, I find myself reflecting on the philosophy of Emerson: "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." How in this July 2022, can we live the "greatest number of good hours"? For Emerson, that "good" must incorporate the Good; we learn to live in a way that integrates, undulates and often alternates, the reality of our present world with our spiritually transcendent one. As he put it, we learn to live in "the mid-world". There we find all the material needed for who we are to expand and grow a larger spiritual ground. "Face life as it really is. That is forever practical." "Save on the low levels and spend on the high levels. That is forever practical".
And particularly for Sunday, "Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere. Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy...To fill the hour--that is happiness; to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval." Let your Sunday, be filled with hours of Good. (Susan Nettleton)
"Human strength is not in extremes, but in avoiding extremes."
(all quotes from "The Gospel of Emerson" by Newton Dillaway, 13th ed. Unity Books, 2nd ed. 1978)