Pater Noster
 
I’ve forgotten how I knew it was the night,
but approaching footsteps followed by a knock
told us he’d come, who turning left, then right,
would instruct our souls that could not fly, in flight.
 
The Pater Noster that we’d memorized,
he brought in a book to my brother’s bed,
and sitting on the wide rail that ran beside,
with each sentence he filled his head,
until the words took meaning in their tide.
 
And I was next who’d heard the broken prayer,
though I kept myself hidden from his point of view,
with maybe just a look or two
across to my brother and his sayer
who held in thought what I was now to do.
 
When the prayer was over and the text was closed,
from my walled in bed he rose,
ascended the stairs and shut the door,
more alone than ever before.

~ Bob Elmendorf

Tree Stock photos by Vecteezy

When I first heard the news of who had won the election in 2016, I remember what felt like an audible gasp of horror at who and what we were facing for the next four years.  It turned out to be almost a decade of gasps.  One after another in what seemed like a fire hose of change.  

As a nation we have come to accept less:   Less civility, less resiliency, and even less hope.  I know my cynicism reached new heights in the last 8 years. And yet I know that the words in Ecclesiastes 3:1 is correct "everything has its season and a purpose under heaven."  Even in my darkest moments when I think things can't get any worse I notice that things can turn in an instant.  That I have no control is both a source of worry and hope. Things can go in the right direction.  Not everything is gravitating toward entropy.   Humans can, and do, make good choices. 

Regeneration (to create new), Renewal (the repair of something worn out) and Reinvention (take up a new way of life) seem to be the future we are living into.  Many signs point to this.  One example I found quite funny was that people are tired of "reality TV" and that viewing is down 57%.   It reminds me of that John Lennon song "Gimme Some Truth."   "I'm sick of short sighted hypocrites, just gimme some truth now." 

At every turn in US history we seemed to have had the chance to go darker or go deeper.  The civil war brought us to a deeper understanding of our own declaration of independence.  It was either expand slavery or expand freedom.  Maybe we are the precipice of another political and social renewal.  Are we ready as a nation and individual people to create anew, repair that which is worn out and take up a new way of life?   The old methods had their time, but they are now bankrupt.  

We need sustainability, fairness and work-ability  in every sphere of our political and economic life, 

The Quaker way of simplicity can lead us in this new direction.   We have only to look to nature to find tremendous productivity and frugality.  A tree is so economical.  One has only to observe a tree for a short period of time (as in Goethean scientific observation) to discover how delightfully efficient a tree is. It can produce wood and shade at the same time.  It can nourish a squirrel and a billion microbes in the earth at the same time.  It can talk to us in the whisper of its leaves and communicate to 100 other trees through an underground network of roots and mycelium.  How fantastical!! 

My queries this day are: 

• What can I simplify to live more in alignment with others and the earth? 
• What in my life is in need of renewal -- or -- what has become stale and of no use anymore? 
• What can I make new?  Does everything have to be done the same old way?  Are there better ways? 
  
• What needs fixing that I've been ignoring for too long? 

~ Joseph Olejak