06 23 11 Serenity


I started this blog about three weeks ago thinking about how living in our bioshelter home is a spiritual experience. Since then I had a two-part encounter with a friend that has caused me to think further about living our lives as spiritual experiences. The first encounter was a comment my friend made. She said that she was jealous of all that the uniqueness of our home allows Cindee and me to live in a way that others cannot—she believed that we can live toward demonstrating a different, and more sustainable future, where others in more conventional homes cannot. The second encounter was a first-ever visit to her home.


Although my friendship with John and Mary Charlotte has been slowly growing over the years, most of our encounters were professionally related, until recently. As a result we had met in a variety of settings but never in their home. When I arrived there, it was a marvelous place.


The house is, indeed a rather conventional home. As she had said, it did not possess many special bioshelter amenities. It did have an amazing solarium, which included growing plants, a wonderful sitting area, and even a small fountain.


Outside, the yard/garden was even more amazing. Garden boxes with fertile soil were burgeoning with this year’s young crop pushing out of the soil. The world’s largest batch of rhubarb (yes, I exaggerate) was growing in all its fecundity, with three stalks going to seed and filled with the neighbor’s honey bees. A creek ran behind the fence, exhibiting a lush green belt ecology right in the middle of anchorage. Perennial berries and other plants abounded. It was a paradise in the middle of the city.


When I asked John and Mary Charlotte about it, they said that most of it was there when they bought the place, but yes, the solarium and the garden had been major selling points in buying the house. They wanted a piece of property that they could live in as they believed humans should live, whether urban or rural.


Others I have visited have also talked about living where they are as they believe humans should be living for a better future. Some have built garden boxes to grow vegetables, even though they have small plots of land (one actually plowed up her small lawn and transformed it into a vegetable garden). Others have been involved in changing community zoning rules to encourage more neighborhood community-building. People everywhere have the opportunity to live their own life as a spiritual experience in which they are participating in what the Holy Spirit is doing now to build a better future.


On the other hand, I have heard others say that working for a better future is a waste of time. The inertia behind our current lifestyle and the power of short-term economic greed are impossible giants, and too big to overcome.


I have to admit that I also find myself wondering such things. For me, participating with others is essential. It encourages me and helps me to continue forward rather than giving up. I also find that writing this blog is helpful. I believe that each of us needs to understand the unfolding story of our lives as a spiritual experience—a unique story each of us experiences, but a story connected to each other individual’s unique spiritual experience. I cannot affect the whole world, but I can take joy in what I can do in my own little arena (The old bloom where you are planted theory).


The practical theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr once wrote a prayer, a part of which has become famous. I find that it fits here and helps me keep perspective:


God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things that I can,

And the wisdom to accept the difference.

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