When All the Leaves Are Gone“In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.” ― Cynthia Rylant
"Q" is for Questing
Posted by Patricia Adams Farmer on October 7, 2020
"We are more alive when we are actively involved with questing and questions. Keep moving. Keep crossing inner and outer borders. Keep asking."
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy
Over the years, Q, that once innocent letter of the alphabet, has been cruelly besmirched. Back in the 1980s, Star Trek began featuring a dastardly extra-dimensional being, Q, who could manipulate reality on a whim. Recently, Q has been co-opted by an unsavory conspiracy-theory group, QAnon, whose greatest accomplishment is illustrating the downfall of rational thinking in the U.S. To see Q continually fall to the dark side is disturbing beyond words, and so I feel the urgent need to restore Q's good name.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Six High Ideals
Posted by Jay McDaniel on September 20, 2020
"Rosh Ha-Shanah is a time for us to contemplate our highest ideals and our actual behavior. We make amends to ourselves, to one another, and to God for the gap." So writes Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson in Open Horizons.
This Rosh Ha-Shanah has a special meaning for me, becomes it brings with it the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020). For many of us she symbolizes what it is like to live up to high ideals. We are also challenged to ask ourselves two questions: What are my ideals? And how well do I live up to them?
"Y" is for You
Posted by Patricia Adams Farmer on July 31, 2020
"And who do you
think you are sauntering along
five feet up in the air, the ocean a blue fire
around your ankles, the sun
on your face on your shoulders its golden mouth whispering
(so it seems) you! you! you!"
— Mary Oliver, "On Thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate (Psalm 145)"
You Are Amazing
You are a world of amazement — a universe of jaw-dropping, eye-popping, breathless awe. It doesn't matter what you look like or what you accomplish in this world or who you know or how much you have. You are an original work of art. You are loved. You are accepted. You were created for joy.
"K" is for Kindness
Posted by Patricia Adams Farmer on July 7, 2020
"As we move around this world and as we act with kindness . . . or with indifference or with hostility toward the people we meet, we are setting the great spider web atremble. "
— Frederick Buechner
The world is like a great spider web — minus the spider. Or rather, including the spider, as even the tiniest of creatures are card-carrying members of our silky, web-like world. This lacy, cosmic extravagance in which we all find ourselves can be explained with elaborate cosmological or scientific models, but the spider web is all we really need to stir our imagination.
As a theologian, I believe the spider web is the perfect image . . .
Loyalty to Collective Breathing: A Yoga of World Solidarity
Posted by Jay McDaniel on June 12, 2020
I feel fairly certain — as certain as I can feel — that when George Floyd couldn’t breathe, God couldn’t breathe either. What I mean is that George Floyd’s gasping for air was shared by an eternal companion to the universe who, in the words of process theologians, feels the feelings of all living beings. I’m sure Christians can understand. God must have felt George’s gasping not unlike the way God felt the nails as they tore into Jesus’ flesh on the cross. Of course, God feels the nails of hatred as they tear into anyone’s flesh. And the nails may be knees rather than nails.
And yet I also hope that there’s a side of God that kept breathing . . .
Fear: Not My Favorite Spiritual Companion
Posted by Patricia Adams Farmer on March 20, 2020
Fear. If you're feeling it, you're normal. You're paying attention. The coronavirus is an invader that has come upon us with great speed and virulence. Like a bull in a china closet, this new invader blithely wrecks our most precious plans, blocks our ability to congregate, and stomps out normal touching and hugging. If that's not enough, it turns to decimating our economy. This bull is on the loose. We would be crazy not to stand back and tremble.
A Practice for Perfectionists
Posted by Patricia Adams Farmer on January 6, 2020
Perfectionism is both a curse and a blessing. Mainly a curse, in my experience. But there is that inescapable reality that perfectionists grace our human landscape for a reason. It is my fervent hope that my accountant, my dentist, and any future surgeon who chooses to traverse the intricacies of my insides are all dyed-in-the-wool perfectionists. But even these folks whose work demands the utmost precision and who demand much of themselves as well as others — even these folks eventually need to come home, kick off their shoes, and quit being perfect.
Without a practice to smooth the sharp edges of the perfectionist . . .
The Spiritual Alphabet in China
Posted by Jay McDaniel on December 20, 2019
I have spent a lot of time in mainland China over the years, teaching process philosophy to students young and old. The youngest are in kindergarten and the oldest are in their late eighties. I’ve been thirteen times in thirteen years.
"W" is for Wonder
Posted by Patricia Adams Farmer on December 12, 2019
"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories . . . and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time."
— Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie
In "The Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy," W is for Wonder. And, for many of us, Christmas is the Season of Wonder: pageants and angels and stars and potluck dinners and knitted scarves fresh off the needles. Mesmerized by twinkling lights and Advent candles piercing the darkness, it would seem that wonder just happens, descending like the Angel Gabriel, announcing good tidings.
But hold on. For the introvert, Christmas heralds a nightmare of multiple social events . . .
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About This Blog
Welcome to Process Musings for the spiritually curious, the creative, and the open-hearted. We, Jay McDaniel and Patricia Adams Farmer, are two bloggers from the world of process thought, inspired by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. This multi-faith blog features articles, essays, stories, videos, and poetry which invite you to discover fresh possibilities for wholeness, creativity, and joy. Read more.