Darkest Before Dawn

Most entanglements are caused by vocal cords.

(seen on the sign in front of a church)

At age 93 years young, still cutting his own firewood and still using his music to inspire humanity to more human ways of being with one another, singer-songwriter Pete Seeger was recently on the Colbert Report singing "Quite Early Morning."  

So though it's darkest before the dawn
These thoughts keep us moving on
Through all this world of joy and sorrow
We still can have singing tomorrows 

Most of us have had at least some experiences of feeling overwhelmed by sorrow. Sometimes this results from challenges in our relating with others. Next time you are confronted with interpersonal conflict, just imagine you can hear Pete singing to you.

Pete's message is everywhere, such as in the words of AA co-founder, Bill W., November 1961, in Again the Crossroads: The Language of the Heart: "In the nick of time, and by God's grace, each of us has been enabled to develop a growing sense of the meaning and purpose of his own life." 

Or in this (http://gratefulness.org) Mongolian Proverb: "A heartfelt smile gives warmth enough for three winters." 

Or from Loving Reminders, by Betty Lue Lieber: "Learn to let go. Life is too short to hand onto resentments."

This may be about what Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakenings: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have, refers to as starving the ego. He is talking about "that in us which believes we can control the world." He encourages us to let the unseeable music of being rise and carry us.

I am being very affected by the reading of a book about an injured owl. Wesley became the companion of Stacey O'Brien and for 19 years the two lived intimately. She describes how he would take his powerful beak and ever-so-gently lift up her eyelid if she was sleeping later than he preferred! The book is available in paperback, and you can see an amazing little video of Stacey and Wesley at: http://www.wesleytheowl.com/. You will see Wesley snuggled up on Stacey's chest and recognize his tenderness—not exactly what one would expect from such a powerful raptor.

Nepo truly touches my heart with his understanding of our universal needs: "If those I love can't recognize me with my soul out in the open, I will no longer retreat and show what is familiar." Stacey was able to recognize the tenderness in Wesley, in spite of what she knew about owls.

Oprah Winfrey interviewed Gary Zukav, author of Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power. That interview is available free on video (see: http://bit.ly/QbvZdE). "Authentic power is when you use your personality to serve your soul.... When the personality is in full balance you can't see where it ends and where the soul begins." (The Seat of the Soul, p. 37)

Perhaps Wesley, in spite of (or possibly because of) his permanently injured wing, was able to be with Stacey with such tenderness because of an innate capacity for love all living creatures have. And perhaps the way humans learn to be with one another with the authentic power of loving kindness is to simply starve the ego and allow this unseeable music of being rise and carry us.