A Riskless Life
I’m a recovering pessimist. Not that many years ago, everything was a disaster. These days, it’s more like everything could be a disaster.
One of the things I love most about how I was raised and about my life in the arts is that they’ve trained me to take risks. So while it is true that everything could be a disaster, there’s great freedom in that sentiment. If everything could be a disaster, I might as well try at something. Anything.
I’ve been reading and working through a couple of courses lately at the heart of which is a set of simple ideas: reality is unfolding before us, always creating and destroying, always recovering and rebuilding, always dissolving. If we are part of the unfolding and integration and disintegration, it follows not only that everything could be a disaster, but that everything will be a disaster and that everything has been a disaster. Everything everything everything can be/will be/is being/has been recouped and reclaimed and resurrected.
Yet I think that for this to happen, we have to participate. This weekend, my family and I made garden beds for planting. I’ve been applying to divinity schools. My department is budget planning for next year. I made an investment. I’m reading to change my mind. In all these things, part of me believes there are risks involved. The growing part of me is learning that there may not be any risks at all. This growing part invites me to be brave, to participate in the unfolding universe by using my own hands to smooth out the creases. When we do this together, maybe we are the Body.
Participate.