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January 21, 2005
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I had lunch with a local diversity consultant last week, and we talked for quite a while on a number of topics, including books we had enjoyed. For me, one book that had significance last year was Awareness, by Anthony De Mello, a Jesuit priest from India. A theme of the book is to "wake up" - here's a passage that illustrates that notion:
The most difficult thing in the world is to listen, to see. We don't want to see. Do you think a capitalist wants to see what is good in the communist system? Do you think a rich man wants to look at poor people? We don't want to look, because if we do, we may change. We don't want to look. If you look, you lose control of the life that you are so precariously holding together. And so in order to wake up, the one thing you need the most is not energy, or strength, or youthfulness, or even great intelligence. The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new. The chances that you will wake up are directly in proportion to the amount of truth you can take without running away. How much are you ready to take? How much of everything you've held dear are you ready to have shattered, without running away? How ready are you to think of something unfamiliar?
This is a fairly small book, and could be read quite quickly I suppose, but I read it very slowly. It is one of my most dog-eared books. I spent the year with it, in bite-sized doses, and it provoked a lot of thinking. Judy shared with me that her book of last year was I Will Not Die an Unlived Life - by Dawna Markova. This author explores how people can continue to feel powerless and live habitual lives - or they can make the choice to follow their passion. Judy described reading through this book 3 times, and how it gave her something new each time. We both intend to read each other's book recommendation, and it sounds like there is some commonality in message and inspiration.
Now, I have a habit of leaving myself voicemail on things I don't want to forget - and I usually do so in a very direct manner - no fussing around to leave a message to me from me, So after lunching with Judy I left myself a message that just says "I will not die an unlived life". It is very striking to hear that message to myself on the voicemail, so I haven't erased it. The intention was to remind me to look up the book, but surely it means more. Coincidentally, I got another message over the weekend, this time from a faculty member of my diversity practitioner program. We have a website for the class where we can post messages and share resources. The posting from the weekend was the poem by Markova which begins the story of the book above:
I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing
a torch, a promise
I choose to risk significance
to live so that which came to me as a seed
goes on to the next as a blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom
goes as fruit.
Posted by Mary at January 21, 2005 09:38 AM