This past week I have been meditating with a book by Jan Phillips[1] and one of the daily readings was on creativity and the Cosmos a chapter that touched me deeply as I read it. Someone once asked her “what is dying to be born?” and I realized that I have been asking that question of myself and the universe for many years. If I think about birth and death in the Cosmos then I have to remember that every time a star dies many more are born in its place. Our Sun came from the death of one such star and we are the children of that star. Every element in our body once resided inside the burning birth chamber of a star. When our sun dies it will spread all of the elements we now carry out into the universe to be born again in another star and planet and maybe another life. How’s that for immortality.
I have been pondering various forms of the question ‘what is dying to be born’ for a long time now. It is a good question no matter how it is framed. It is important to recognize that we are dying and being reborn each day, in every moment of each day. Who I am now is the product of what died to give me life in this moment. In recent years I have given a great deal of my meditation time to what wants to be born in me and what has to be ejected before that happens. I am slowly coming to understand some of what and who I am. For the first time in 67 years I feel a sense of purpose that has come from my own efforts instead of letting outside forces change me. Taking the time to be in prayer has helped form new paths that I would never have explored otherwise. So today I present a quest for each of you, and if you choose to accept it you might, just might, discover your own new paths.
The quest I am presenting to you this day is to focus for 15 minutes each day on what within you is dying to be born. To open your heart and mind to the universe and let the sounds of new born stars and newborn babies inspire you to new paths of exploration. To bless you on your journey I offer the following prayer written by Jan Phillips calls on the connection we have with all creation:
Our Father, Holy Mother
Creator of the Cosmos, Source of Life
You are in my mind, in my garden,
in my cup of wine and loaf of bread.
Blessed be your names:
Mother, Allah, Goddess, Beloved, Father,
Radiant One, Yahweh, HaShem, Sophia
Your presence has come, your will is done
on earth as it is in the cosmos.
May we give each other strength, mercy,
tenderness, and joy
and forgive each other’s failures,
silence, pettiness, and forgetfulness
as we ask to be forgiven
by those we’ve hurt.
Lead us home
to ourselves, to You,
to clarity, to oneness
and deliver us from the darkness
of our ignorance and fear.
So we pray and so we receive. Amen
— Jan Phillips, No Ordinary Time, pg. 63
Ruth Jewell, ©July 8, 2014
[1] Phillips, No Ordinary Time, Published by the LivingKindness Foundation, San Diego, CA, 2011
A Quiet Walk 