Don’t
Worry
“Do
exactly what you would do if you felt most secure.”
Meister
Eckhart
I’ve
heard a number of people say, “I’m so nervous, the tension is unbearable.” We
are waiting for the results of Tuesday’s election while holding our collective
breath. There is massive insecurity because of not having a rational leader. Typically,
there would be an election, the votes would be counted, there might be a
recount, but in the end, we’d have a president-elect. Then we could begin the
process of accommodating that information—some of us would be happy and some
sad, but we would accept the results, and get on with life. There is nothing
typical about this time. Everyone in America knows that every single vote will
be contested by this president, he will make up conspiracy theories about how
the election is being stolen and how it has been rigged, and on and on, simply
because he may lose. We have been through a horrible year and by the looks of
things, the rest of 2020 will be equally nasty and contentious. No one can
relax because our guard is, necessarily, constantly up.
There was
a webinar last night given by Matthew Foxx and Mirabel Starr to introduce an
up-coming course they will teach on Julian of Norwich—a 13th Century
mystic who wrote a book detailing the 17 revelations she received from Christ.
What connects Julian with us is that she lived in the time of the black plague,
and in fact, had the plague herself when these revelations came to her. As soon
as she was able, she wrote them down word for word and then spent the rest of
her life exploring and writing about them. The quote that we all remember from
her was: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing
shall be well.” This was something like a mantra for her and was a direct
revelation from Jesus. The major teaching of Julian was that all that exists is
God—God is everything and in everything, and that one comes closest to God through
nature. She wrote, “The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything. God
is the ground, the substance, the teaching, the teacher, the purpose and the
reward for which every soul labors.”
Julian lived as a nun in
a cloistered convent in Norwich, England, but she almost certainly was married
in her early life and lost husband and child to the plague. She knew the
darkness of loss as do so many of us today, from our own plague—Covid-19. Julian
believed that darkness is the starting place for all compassionate action. So
did Meister Eckhart, a German mystic who lived around the same time as Julian.
He wrote: “Truly it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are
in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”
The teaching from these
two great mystics is to stay the course. Do whatever you do and trust that the
universe knows what it is doing. Matthew Foxx cited this quote from a Buddhist
teacher of his: “When your heart breaks, the whole universe flows through.”
Here is my teaching—do not be afraid. “All shall be well, and all shall be
well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Let that be your calming
mantra today.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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