Inserting a Question Mark
The sacredness of questions
When we're exposed to the liveliness of holding everything up to the light of good questions—what I call "sacred questioning"—we discover that redemption is creeping into the way we think, believe, and see the world. This re-deeming (re-valuing) of what we've made of our lives, a redemption that perhaps begins with the insertion of a question mark beside whatever feels final and absolute and beyond questioning, gives our souls a bit of elbow room, a space in which to breathe and imagine again, as if for the first time.
-David Dark (The Sacredness of Questioning Everything)
There is so much that I love in these words. Smaller & Deeper is about "the liveliness of holding everything up to the light of good questions." There is always so much more going on just beneath the surface. When we take the time and space to see and ask a question and embrace the answer, unfiltered and unedited, we start to see what is going on in our hearts. Simple questions suddenly become not quite so simple. They can point us to a deeper understanding or draw us to the thing we have been avoiding, only to find when brought to the light there is a lesson, joy, and perhaps even freedom in what seemed so scary and untouchable.
"This re-deeming (re-valuing) of what we've made of our lives, a redemption that perhaps begins with the insertion of a question mark beside whatever feels final and absolute and beyond questioning, gives our souls a bit of elbow room, a space in which to breathe and imagine again, as if for the first time."
-David Dark.
Re-deeming, Re-valuing, re-imagining, re-organizing, re-alignment, "re" words are such powerful words to welcome into our vocabulary. Words matter, and there is much grace in the "re" words. My high school English teacher (Mrs. B) insisted we learn Greek and Latin roots; four years of high school vocabulary tests included taking apart words and finding the "roots." Words change and become more complex and interesting when broken down into parts. It is a process of seeing with new eyes and hearing with new ears; the parts make up the whole.
"Re" is a Latin prefix that means "again" or "again and again" or "go backwards" So reimagining, reorganizing, realignment call us to again and again and again; imagine, organize, align. These are not things we do just once; there is in the very word a call to continually and with intention redeem, revalue, reimagine.
What question mark can you insert into your own life to help you "re-value" what you have made with your life? It is easy, and all too common, to hold our lives up in comparison to everyone else around us. What would happen if we saw our life, our path, our choices in light of just. . . our life? What if we viewed our life and choices through grace? Have we made the next right choice to the best of our ability? What question can you ask to re-value the beauty, uniqueness, one-of-a-kindness of your life?
Where can you use questions to give your soul "elbow room and space in which to breathe and imagine again?" Isn't that just what we all long for; elbow space, grace, room to breath, freedom, and permission to listen to our lives, hearts, and souls to hear what they are saying.
"Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it,
listen for what it intends to do with you.
Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to,
let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent."
― Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
Listen to your life, again and again, and again. . .
Make a list of the five biggest questions that you have, they can be about your own life, your faith, your community, our nation, anything. Sometimes just writing down the questions helps us to see them with new eyes.
Reading Update:
Going There by Katie Couric
I listened to this book, and I love/hate it. The audiobook is the way to experience this book. She reads it, and they insert actual audio clips of key events in her life as a journalist, which were super fun to hear. I grew up watching Katie Couric. I was watching the Today Show when the planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. So, it was so interesting to learn what was going on behind the scenes. She has been criticized for throwing a few people under the bus in this book. Let’s just say she really “goes there” with a few people and life experiences. Would I read/listen again? Yes. Did I get a little teary? Yes. Did I laugh out loud? Yes. Did I gasp out loud? Yes.
Advent Suggestions
Advent starts on Sunday, November 28th this year. I thought I would share a few of my favorite Advent books. If you are looking for a book (or two) to journey through Advent this year, maybe these suggestions can get you started. I like to read an Advent-focused book (or two) each year during the Advent season.
My favorite that I use every year:
Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr
This is a little book but so rich in reflections, questions, and ideas.
“Wisdom is to know how to hear and see on different levels at the same time.”
-Richard Rohr
For Advent & The Christmas Season
(Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. Christmas Season is the 12 days after December 25th ending on Epiphany which is January 6, 2022, this season.)
Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J.M. Nouwen
I love Henri Nouwen, so this is one that I have revisited for several years. It includes a reading from Henri Nouwen, a reflection, prayer, and Advent Action.
“The two main enemies of the spiritual life are anger and greed.”
-Henri Nouwen
For the Christmas Season (Christmas Day through Epiphany)
The Work of Christmas The 12 Days of Christmas with Howard Thurman by Bruce Epperly
I discovered this book last year when I started to learn about Howard Thurman. Another short book packed with insights, practices, and wisdom.
“The mood of Christmas-what is it? It is the quickening of the presences of other human beings into whose lives a precious part of our own has been released. It is the memory of other days in which an angel appeared spreading a halo over an ordinary moment or a commonplace event. It is an iridescence of sheer delight that bathes one’s whole being something more wonderful than words can ever tell.”
-Howard Thurman
A Thoughtful Collection
Goodness & Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas.
This starts on November 21st and includes readings through Epiphany. It is a collection of essays from writers including Pope Francis, Maya Angelou, Kathleen Norris, Richard Rohr, Mary Oliver, and Joyce Rupp. It's such a treasure; if you are new to Advent readings, you might want to start here.
May we search for your gentleness when it is covered with harshness in another.
May we observe your generosity in every gift we receive, no matter how small it is.
May we reveal your mercy when we pardon someone for having turned against us.
May we welcome your joy in the delightful voices and happy play of children.-Joyce Rupp in Goodness & Light
I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and put them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
(I’m sharing in italics the lines that stand out to me in these passages. Maybe it’s the same, or maybe it’s different, there is much food for thought in each of these passages)
“I want very badly to challenge the ease with which we succumb to the false divide of labels, that moment in which our empathy gives out and we refuse to respond openhandedly or even curiously to see people with whom we differ. As I see it, to refuse the possibility of finding another person interesting, complex and as complicated as oneself is a form of violence. At bottom, this is a refusal of nuance, and I wish to posit that nuance is sacred. To call it sacred is to value it so highly that we find it fitting to somehow set it apart as something to which we're forever committed. Nuance refuses to envision others degradingly, denying them the content of their own experience, and talks us down tenderly from the false ledges we've put ourselves on. When we take it on as a sacred obligation, nuance also delivers us out of the deadly habit of cutting people out of our own imaginations. This opens us up to the possibility of at least occasionally finding one another beautiful, the possibility of communion. [...] It could be that there's no communion without [nuance].”
― David Dark
