Walking Together: I and Thou
I love walking. I guess I got that from my mother. My mother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 70, when she was 80 we didn’t know where she was.
I walk to clear my head, ease tension, get away from the computer and get outside. I walk as my physical and spiritual exercise.
I walk regularly with a friend. We walk and talk. Each of us takes a turn speaking of what’s going on in our lives. We listen. We honor each other and reveal what’s deepest and dearest. Our walks are a relationship practice. My friend and I affirm and promote each other’s inherent worth and dignity. That’s the first of our Unitarian Universalist principles.
I have to admit sometimes I like long walks when they are taken by somebody who annoys me. How do we affirm and promote the worth and dignity of somebody when we want to say “take a hike, buddy.”
Sometimes someone may seem particularly unworthy and undignified, and it is not always just ourselves we’re thinking about. The affirmation of worth and dignity is like a North Star to guide us. It’s something we reach for. A constant yearning. We long to see our own and others’ goodness.
Constant yearning brings many of us to church. There’s something we want, some feeling of being at home in ourselves, in kinship with others. We want to feel aligned with what is deepest and dearest, with God, with the Spirit of Life. We want to increase the times of feeling one with all that is.
Last Sunday members Susan, Donna, Hoa, and Jan shared from their life journeys. They told coming out stories, times of coming out to themselves and to others. They spoke openly, honestly. Such exquisite sharing. Being true to yourself is a religious act. An act reverence, of self-respect.
Being true to who others are or can be is another fundamental religious act. We want to see the divine in each other. We want to call forth each other’s best selves. We want our being together to encourage each other’s worth and dignity.
You may have heard of a Thai temple’s enormous Buddha. Not a particularly beautiful Buddha, but big, really big. A clay Buddha, 500 years old. One day monks noticed a crack. Looking inside the crack, they see a flash of gold. Inside this plain old statue, is one of the world’s largest golden Buddhas.
In earlier times, warfare led the Thai people to cover the Buddha in clay to protect it.
Most of us have known warfare, conflict, fatigue, wounds, defenses. We’ve covered ourselves in protective layers.
Our life’s work is to recognize the armor and reveal our original goodness. Look for and find it in one another.
It requires courage to chip away at your own protective layers—your fears, your grandiosity, your shame, cruelty, selfishness, stubbornness, your blinders.
If you remove protective covering, you have to say “Ouch!” when something hurts. When someone’s hurtful words and tone sting or kill your spirit, you have to stand strong and ask for what you want openly and clearly. Without defense, without attack. That’s not easy to do. We’ve all chosen silence, sometimes in the name of tolerance or niceness. We’ve lacked the courage to stand up for our worth or the worth of others or of the whole community. Saying “Ouch” is scary. This is risky. This takes practice. We can learn.
I recently heard someone simply say, “I’m not sure what’s going on right now, but this hurts. I need or us to stop and be still.”
In interactions, without even knowing it, people can reveal to one another their internalized judge or victim or boss. Sometimes I hear in my voice a judgment of my mother’s. Sometimes I hear myself as a hurt, little child. I sometimes hear, “this is the way this should be done.” From where did that bossy voice come?
The glory is that is also possible for people to reveal to one another the Thou. The Hindu greeting of “Namaste” comes with a reverent bow. Namaste means the divine in me can see the divine in you, can appreciate, recognize, affirm the divine in you. I see your depth, your dearest longings, your compassion.”
What was found recently in the church’s coat room is not exactly a big clay Buddha revealed as golden, but a surprise was uncovered. Last Saturday at a work party here at the church, people tended the grounds and building. People planted a tree, pulled weeds, cleaned closets, cleared old posters and clutter out of the coat room.
A plain looking, locked cabinet resides in the coat room. Facilities Manager Don Wollwage and Bill stood before the cabinet. Don turned the key in the lock, then opened the doors. To their surprise, the cabinet contains guitar cases with guitars in them. As Bill tells it, “The guitars are not in the greatest of shape, but they call out, ‘Thank you! We’ve been closed up, locked away for what seems like a lifetime. We are yearning to be played.’ I don’t know what they will sound like. Cracks and warps may say, ‘not any more unless you don’t care for perfection in music.’ But these instruments long to be held, to be strummed and picked, to play music.”
So much waits to be released and shared. In you and me. Picture a golden light, sparkling, shimmering, like a river of gold.
Clear out. Unlock the cabinets. Open the doors. Chip off the protective layers. Free golden energy, power, potential and spirit. Release music.
When Unitarian Universalists have shown up in mass at community rallies in our golden Standing on the Side of Love T-shirts, we’ve been described as a river of gold.
I want all of us to create a river of gold next Saturday.
Saturday morning is the Greater Richmond Interfaith Harmony Walk to End Hunger. Ending hunger is a North Star we reach for. Interfaith harmony is what we reach for and what we embody as we walk with Catholics, Sikhs, Humanists, Jews, Muslims. We walk or roll from the Richmond Civic Plaza through the neighborhoods to the GRIP shelter and its cleverly named “souper center.”
Participating says we’re all in this together--everybody. Too many are not making it and are being left behind. Most of us are a paycheck or two away from needing a home or a meal. Participating says no one in this great country should have to live on the streets. No one should go hungry. No one.
Participating says to the people dedicating their lives to the offering a meal, a roof, counsel, we are with you. Participating says, “We show up. We care. Our fates are interconnected. We support our neighbor’s well-being.” Participating is a way to stand for economic justice. By
Participating, we are saying our greater Richmond community is a community of compassion.
A long-time GRIP lunch volunteer server says, “Many of the interactions across the counter - from those of us who serve, to those who receive, are truly ‘I-Thou’ interactions,. The lines between giving and receiving melt away. Many say ‘God bless’ as they are handed a sandwich. The heartfelt goodness is almost tangible.”
“As economic times have worsened,” she says, “I have seen more and more families with young children. The kids’ eyes light up when they see fresh fruit being put on their trays, or when they get to choose a sweet dessert. Fresh strawberries, grapes, brownies, cookies. It's a small thing, but maybe not to them. I can take for granted my refrigerator and oven,” she says, “but I wonder when was the last time some of these parents were able to give their children such treats.”
The spiritual journey is in relationship with others. People of diverse beliefs can come together for the common good and walk together. We can experience this on Saturday as we walk through the streets of Richmond.
If you’re there, and I hope you will be, walk with strangers as if you really knew how
Interconnected we all are. Let your presence be like a reverent “Namaste” like a blessing, like a prayer.
If you can’t walk or roll, you can give 5 or 50 dollars to sponsor our UUCB team. Shift a world divided between the poor and the rich to more sharing of the wealth. Compassionate community thrives on generosity. Help create a river of gold on Saturday.
Getting up and getting out is good for the soul. Moving with others prevents depression, improves sleep, lowers stress, lengthens the life span, and I read this so it must be so, reduces risk of gallstone surgery.
If you can come, gather a little before 9:00 under the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley banner. We will cheer and bless one another.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel participated in the Civil Rights Movement with the Rev. Dr. and many, many more people. He said, “When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying.”
Saturday come walk with me. Come pray with me.
And if you can’t be there, send your thoughts out, walking with me and with us.
In this community, may you be seen for your original goodness and encouraged in your golden promise. May your presence and participation here, unfold this community’s full potential.
Love shine among us and through us. Amen.
Copyright © 2011, Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway. All Rights Reserved.
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