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How do we now here at this moment in this place live and act in a contemplative, Godly way? There are two stories, one from the Sufi masters and one from the monastics of the desert that tell us most, I think, about what it means to live an illuminated, a contemplative life
in hard times. In the first, the Sufi tell about a spiritual elder who asked the disciples to name what was the most important thing in life, wisdom or action. And the disciples were unanimous in their opinions. “Well, it’s action, of course,” they said. “After all, of what use is wisdom that does not show itself in action?” And the master said, “Well, perhaps. But of what use is action that proceeds from an unenlightened heart?”

In the second story from the desert monastics, Abba Pullman says of Abba John that he had prayed to God to take his passions away from
him so that he might become free from care. And in fact, Abba John reported to him, “I now find myself in total peace without an enemy.”
But Abba Pullman said to Abba John, “Really? Well, in that case, go and beg God to stir up warfare within you again, for it is by warfare that the soul makes progress.” And after that, when warfare came, Abba John no longer prayed that it might be taken away. Now he simply prayed, “Lord, give me the strength for the fight.”
--Joan Chittister

Jewish spirituality… is a matter of seeing the holy in the everyday, and invites us to wake up and open our eyes to the holy things happening all around us every day. A lot of them are so obvious they are taken for granted unless, God forbid, you are struck with illness or have
experienced misfortune. When we wake up and see the morning light, that's a spiritual moment according to Judaism. When we taste food and are nourished. When we learn from others and grow wise. When we embrace people we love and receive their love in return. When we help
those around us and feel good. All these and more are there for us every day, but you have to open your eyes to see them. Otherwise, you miss it. Remember the famous phrase from Genesis when Jacob wakes up from his dream? "God was in this place, and I did not know it."
--from Rabbi Micah Greenstein,
"How to Lead a Spiritual Life: A Jewish Perspective"

At some point, we, as human beings, become aware of this gap between our beliefs and our experience and begin to wrestle with our questions about how to live authentically. The desire to enter those questions, and as the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, to "live into the answers,"
usually occurs in mid to later life--though not always. God created us in such a remarkable way that we are actually wired for growth that leads us closer and closer to communion with God--to knowledge of God, not merely about God, a knowing of the heart, not just the head. Evidence of this wiring (our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee, according to St. Augustine) is found in what most of us experience around mid-life. We get this yearning to live with more authenticity, and if we respond to that yearning (instead of shoving it back down again), it can be an unsettling enterprise, not only to ourselves, but also to those in our relational orbit.

We yearn to say what we mean, to be boldly who we really are..., to live each day with growing integrity, to connect with the true self (where, by the way, we meet God)--or to put it in the familiar language of the Velveteen Rabbit, one of our childhood heroes: to be REAL.

I realize that phrases like "getting real" and "finding out who we are" may have become hackneyed in the past few years. Our bookstores are literally bulging with books telling us how to do this ad nauseum. But no matter how many books we read, how much information we soak up, no one can do it for us; the individual journey becomes uniquely our own. Secondhand information may inspire and entertain, even guide us, but in the final analysis, it is still secondhand.
From Linda Douty, “Getting from Sunday to Monday”

The pane of glass freshly cleaned opens us to the world beyond. The dust has been cleared away so that what was a blur can be seen with definition. This is an image of the authentic life. When we have cleaned the pane of our life in order to be authentic, we find we become a window for others to the world beyond. This authenticity is grounded in being the best we can be without sham, excuse or apology. It is to love our 'self' into what it can become. It's so seductive in our culture to be other than what we are--to be like someone else, to hide our inner being, to be what people want or expect us to be--rather than dwelling in the truth of our own unique, yet universal, being. A lack of authenticity drives us far away from our own beating heart, fills us with anxiety and stress, and ends up destroying inner beauty, because it is the living of a lie. Facing who we are, no matter how inadequate we have come to believe ourselves to be, is the beginning of living an authentic, real, honest and beautiful life. And, it's the only way to truly make a difference in the lives of others.
--Renee Miller