Published by Roger Flyer September 5th, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
“I was riding shotgun in my own life,” says Minnesota poet and writer Patricia Hampl.
The ego runs you through a grist mill of successes, tasks, duties, failures, comparisons, awards; all the while chastising, heckling, trash-talking, cajoling, flattering, pretending.
Being present in the ride of one’s own life is a rare and precious thing, even as it appears to be unproductive and wasteful.
The soul would ride with its head out the window, tongue hanging out, ears pinned back, eyes watering, free of pretense in the utter bliss of the moment.
Published by Roger Flyer September 5th, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
At the end of their many harrowing adventures in Lord of the Rings (1), our hero Frodo turns to his best friend Sam and says: “Sam, I’m glad you’re with me.”
Through life’s many snares, hairpin turns and narrow escapes, it is so good to have loyal steadfast friends, true companions on the journey. And I am blessed to have a small troupe of Sams.
And this is what my companions have been for me on this perilous leg of the journey; my beautiful Sams served me as I groped my way through a midlife slough of despond. They helped me face bleak disappointments and duplicitous betrayals–as well as to help me acknowledge my real failures. They stood alongside me in the dark night when I confronted monsters of power–within and without–and now they are still with me as I get back up on my feet, rub my eyes as I adjust to this new place, in this new light, and see: here is the next landscape…
My eyes now wide open and blessed with a humility of heart that could not have been birthed without suffering on the journey, I travel on wearing my unique ‘ring’. And the truth is: I could not have survived these (mis-)adventures without my Sams.
Dear Sams: I’m so glad you’re with me. May I be as good a friend to you as you are to me.
Published by Roger Flyer September 3rd, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
The ego is restless, furtive and horny. The soul rests contented at the breast…
Published by Roger Flyer September 3rd, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
Ben Myers is a brilliant Ph.D student from Australia. His blog (faith-theology.blogspot.com) is well worth checking out.
“…As a churchman, Rowan Williams (the Archbishop of Canterbury) combines an uncompromisingly rigorous commitment to the truth of doctrinal orthodoxy with an absolute refusal to grasp the truth as a possession or to wield it as an instrument of power. Indeed, the most striking thing about (his) conduct as Archbishop of Canterbury is his willingness to fail, his refusal to pursue any ideal of ecclesial ‘success’ in abstraction from the church’s spiritual identity as a community defined by weakness, fragility and self-dispossession.
“This rejection of the idolatrous notion of a ‘successful’ church, this willingness to fail, is at the same time a profoundly apocalyptic gesture: the church’s identity is not immanent within its own practices and institutions; its identity is that which exceeds it, that which comes to it as gift, that which fills its own emptiness and abasement. Williams’ approach here stands not only as a witness to the church’s proper identity, but also as a sharp critique of the tendency among some contemporary political theologies to hanker after the fleshpots of Christendom, or to envision the ecclesial polis as existing in any way other than that of discipleship and crucifixion. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer has observed, the church’s suffering is infinitely more dangerous to the world than any political power it may retain – the church’s only authentic power is its weakness…”
Published by Roger Flyer September 1st, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
from Jeremy Begbie…
“A parable: A few years ago I was part of a group that organized a large celebration event in the University Concert Hall in Cambridge. In one item we asked the whole orchestra to improvise on a given melodic shape and chord structure, in the midst of a giant chorus of praise sung by a sizable congregation. The majority of players were Christian. But some were not, among them a 14-year-old in the second violins. Later, she told others that she came to faith during this extravagant extemporization. Normally when she played in an orchestra she would play exactly the same notes as the seven others in a second violin section. Here, for the first time in her musical life, she discovered her own “voice,” but she found it through trusting, and being trusted by, others—and in the context of praise.
What was enacted for that girl through music was what the New Testament describes as koinonia, variously translated as “fellowship,” “communion,” “togetherness,” “sharing….”
Published by Roger Flyer August 31st, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
The ego wants big…bigger vistas to explore, higher mountains to climb, wider oceans to sail, just one dollar more, one more addition to the house, a sexier car, more satisfaction, and rock and roll. It can’t get no…
no, no, no. That’s what I say.
But the soul..aye the soul…wants a happy daughter, a trout in the sun, a cold glass of water, a job well done.
Published by Roger Flyer August 28th, 2008
in Songs In Eggs.
In March, after I finished about 10 gigs promoting my newly released CD, I took a job as a property manager in my hometown of Cannon Falls. It has been a very interesting and stretching time (I have also had some great cabin time this summer) as I’ve begun to rethink this next part of the journey and my ‘vocation’…
It has also help to stabilize our income while my wife Marnie finished her spiritual direction program and began to sell her paintings. If you want to find out more about her wonderful work…go to
www.songs-hidden-in-eggs.com
In the coming days, I will be posting some new thoughts on what I am learning about vocation.
