Plenty and Then Some
This blog post, and the excerpts of a sermon on which this blog post is based, are both inspired by a song, “Help Somebody,” by Susan Werner.
“I got plenty and then some….what do I do?” I can not get this song out of my head, once it’s in there…and because of this refrain, I don’t mind that at all. I love the question and the reframe that this song poses when it pops up yet again in my mind, even—especially—in the midst of running around feeling overly busy, this song reminds me: “I got plenty and then some / what do I do?”
The messages, mantras, and recurring thoughts that we get stuck in our head are, I believe, far more impactful than we realize. They matter. Remember last week when the media was obsessing about Ebola, three cases of Ebola in the United States? I’m as impressionable as anyone and a little too much Ebola coverage in my face and I was obsessing about washing my hands even more than I already do and not sneezing on anybody. Which is, you know, courteous, but as far as Ebola in our town goes, it’s not a rational response. It would be far more productive and useful to send a check to the Red Cross, which has groups actively engaged right now in education and disease prevention efforts in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.
…I’ve actually just learned that there is now a new disease that has been identified and defined—have you heard about this? It was reported on by CNN starting last Tuesday, and it’s spreading rapidly throughout the United States. It’s defined as “an airborne disease that spreads through conversation, entering your brain through your ears. It’s called Fearbola. Fearbola is so contagious that some victims have contracted it simply by seeing images and videos about Ebola.”
In all seriousness, our spirits are often irrational. We can overreact to anything both positively and negatively, generously and fearfully. I believe that we each and all hold the potential for heaven and hell within us, that all our congregations, communities, cities, institutions and countries have the potential to create either heaven or hell for one another on any given day. You have seen heaven created in the ways that families are held in love and tender communal celebration during a wedding or upon the birth of a new baby; you have seen hell created in the lives of children and their families at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
I’ve heard Susan Werner sing her song in a way that says “I think I’m in heaven—right now, I’m in heaven; what do I do? I go out and help somebody get to heaven, too.” What if heaven is to love and be loved, to have enough of what we most need in the way of food and shelter, access to books and walking trails through woods with golden-leaf-covered pathways? Would you know if you were already in heaven, right now, in this world? If you focused all your energy, all your attention, all of your heart and mind on all that you have plenty of in your life, on being amazed that you have been this blessed, lived this long, loved and been loved this much, known this many amazing and unique people, had that many filling and wonderful meals—how would that reframe lift your spirit into a place of marveling, celebrating, of wonderment, of, quite possibly, enlightenment?
And then, once the vast majority of us appreciate the plenty that our lives have been blessed with, then what? Plenty and then…what?
We each have something to offer, but it’s so easy to forget that. As a congregant quoted by Rev. Rebecca Parker shared so eloquently, “I am a person who has something to give. I am a person who has received abundantly from life. I am a person whose presence matters in the world, and I am a person whose life has meaning because I am connected to and care about many things larger than myself.” Our perspective on whether or not we have enough impacts everything else that we experience, perceive, think, and feel.
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Sometimes I feel like the need for perspective is what feeds our interest in the news and that in turn encourages the news to be so hyperbolic. We all know that if we want to be reminded that “it could be worse, for someone, somewhere,” we just have to turn on or look to the news! Our minds are naturally competitive, always comparing and contrasting with others. Our hearts long for perspective, hunger for the message that who and what we are is enough. Our spirits rally and resound with the teaching that what we have and experience in our lives is tremendous. What shall we do with all this beauty?
We have plenty and then…some.
We have plenty and then…what?
The Dalai Lama teaches that “the very purpose of religion is to control yourself. He guides us to ask ourselves, each day, as individuals and as a society: what are we doing about our anger? About our attachment, our hatred, our pride, our jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life.” This is the purpose of spiritual practice. In Unitarian Universalist terms, I would say that this is cultivating the practice of self-awareness. Or we could call it: inquiry. What is our outlook on the world on any given day? What is the refrain that is running through your mind? Writer Byron Katie teaches an incredibly simple and powerful practice of questioning our own thoughts, asking ourselves “is that true?” about each thought that we find repeating itself over-and-over in our minds. “Is that true?”–what I’m thinking about myself or another person, the thought that is driving feelings of anger or frustration, sadness or desperation, reaction or judgment. Is that thought I’m thinking actually true? And what if the opposite were true, can I really imagine and inhabit that possibility? Is it really true that there’s not enough time or not enough money or that it’s all his or her fault or that he or she would never agree to something we want to do? Is that true? If I question that thought, if I maybe even let it go, what happens then? Katie teaches that heaven is when we are thinking: “This is wonderful. I could stay here forever.” And just like that, with the opposite thought of “this is not quite perfect,” we can find ourselves in the quagmire of hell, and lose all perspective on the plenty with which we have been blessed.
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What do you, what do we, not even realize that we have an abundance of in our lives? How might we look around and within ourselves and take one more step forward into this world with a greater sense of splendor, of plenty, overflowing in our hearts? What do we do with all this beauty?
Let us commit, and recommit, each day, to being self-aware, to questioning our own thoughts, to asking ourselves, “really? is that true?” to deliberately choosing what stories we tell and re-tell. Let us keep fresh before [us] the moments of [our] High Resolve, that in good times or in tempests, [we] may not forget that to which [our lives are] committed.” Let us find ways to calm our fearful human natures and reach out in love. Let us resolve to let our lights of hope and kindness shine brightly. Let us turn towards one another, open to new possibilities, new ideas, new ways of being together celebrating the plenty we have found in our lives. May it be so.
- Plenty and Then Some - October 27, 2014
- Who Do You Listen To? - October 13, 2014
- Recipe - September 15, 2014
