Photo Courtesy of Craig Brandt
A good many years ago:
At our new home in Western Massachusetts, the morning’s view of a full red maple against a pure blue sky invigorates me in my work on our home, while by four I’m affected by the softer smudges of a yellow maple’s leaves and a sky that has begun to fade. Following my pattern, I begin to unwind and slow down. We are undertaking a major renovation of our new home in our carefully chosen neighborhood that has excellent school opportunities for our daughters.
One morning, as I am coming downstairs, I see the carpenter about to come up. He is working on the second floor bathroom today. As he approaches, I say good morning. But instead of hearing his “good morning,” I hear, “There goes a woman with a mission.” He surprises me, and I’m suddenly pleased, as this sounds like praise … but I won’t understand what will become its true meaning for years.
Fourteen years later:
I’m a newcomer at A Course in Miracles.* Now single, determined, I’m here to discover what I need to learn about the relationship of men and women (I’ve experienced the same failure of co-dependency in both my marriage and a following friendship). Already I have completed a year and a half in two preparatory groups as part of my intent to change. I have written a poem.
1991
THE WAY THE DAY BEGINS
In that moment between
when dark lifts like the spirit
from its grave
and pewter banks
the winter trees—
scabbed, deformed, their green
taffeta stored;
when breathing is as quiet
as distant galaxies and no hand
heats your sagging thigh,
faith seeded months ago
blooms in the thin, cold air.
Your eyes are open flowers
determined to see the new day
on the small, square face
of the clock.*
Based on my actions already accomplished—the renovation of my home and later the remaking of my values—in reflection, I realize that my life’s pathway fits one definition of a mission: that is, an “assignment.”
The present:
As returning readers know, my journey also fits a different definition of mission—that of having a “calling” or a summoning, as I understand I have been called by Meher Baba to His home in India. Having had this kind of life-changing experience has led me to become more aware of others who also have responded to their “mission.” One such person is Marshall B. Rosenberg, author of Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life.* He has dedicated his life to finding and sharing the answers to the following two questions that began their early formation in his childhood.
What happens to disconnect us from our compassionate nature,
leading us to behave violently and exploitatively?
And conversely, what allows some people to stay connected to their
compassionate nature under even the most trying circumstances?*
In my next blog, I write of what Rosenberg discovers about communication that leads him to his own mission: the creation of a kinder and more illuminating way to speak with one another that he aptly refers to as “nonviolent communication.”
My realization is, “What we think of as an assignment, which may also be called a mission, may have an underlying, subtle truth that becomes a calling, originating from beyond our consciousness.”
* A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a unique spiritual self-study program designed to awaken us to the truth of our oneness with God and Love.
* Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2003).
* Prema Jasmine Camp, A Flower for God (to be published in 2019).
* Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication, 1.