Pitch Perfect

Yesterday the Paris Community Choir performed our spring concert.  I have so enjoyed singing in a choir once again.  There are some really good singers in this choir, far better than I.  There are a few scattered among our alto section who have near perfect pitch.  I try to stand by one of those.  I have often stated, “I’m not always on the right pitch, but at least I know when I’m off.”  When I know I’m off tune I start lip singing until I find the right note and rejoin the choir.

It seems to me this idea of perfect pitch also applies to personal integrity.  As with singing, I may not always be “right on,” but I usually know when I’m off and usually have the same response: I hunker down, shut up and try to find the right key once again. 

Like now.  I’m off and I know I’m off.  I feel confused, disturbed, out of sorts--not quite in tune.  I don’t feel entirely comfortable in my own skin and suspect I am projecting out there something other than is true in here.

Nothing, in my experience, feels better than authentically and confidently standing tall in my own boots, let the devil take the hindmost!  But, alas, it can’t be faked!  Faking integrity is an oxymoron; it just won’t preach.

So recently I’ve been going through the motions, hitting a few wrong notes, trying to find my way.  Fortunately, this is not my first rodeo!  I know I’ll find a newer, truer path (to mix metaphors), a new song that expresses who I am becoming.  In the meantime, you might want to cover your ears.

Church

My true work, both within myself and with others, is based upon my belief and experience that each of us is “gifted” from God with an inherent, intrinsic wisdom that can be trusted.  Call it the Holy Spirit or deep intuition or the Voice of Loving Kindness or the Inner Teacher.  I don’t much care what you call it. What matters is that we find it, access it, consult it and trust it

The practice of meditation or contemplation is a gateway, an entry point to inner wisdom.  Art, nature, dreams, yoga, guided meditations, walking alone can also be invitations to revelation.  So can honest, truthful conversation with another person.

I am saddened by the thought that millions live their entire lives looking for clues “out there,” not realizing there is a pool of love and wisdom “in here.”  It isn’t my pool or your pool; it is our pool.  It is not hidden but must be discovered.  For most of us, someone had to point it out to us.  Jesus repeatedly pointed the way; the kingdom of heaven is within. So many other teachers have as well from various religions, traditions and spiritualties.

Finding this inner knowing is merely the beginning; learning to trust it is a never ending journey.  How to describe the tremendous resistance that confronts us once we have dipped our toe in the pool? Thus the need for companions.

Fortunately, I am blessed with two sisters who can and often do remind me to return to my Source, to look within and wait.  My husband as well is a consistent voice for remembering and reminding me of the reliability of the truth within.  Other companions chime in at various times and from sundry places.

Any 2 or 3 people gathered for the purpose of accessing and sharing loving wisdom is a church.  Any gathering of people, large or small, who will not accept pat answers, outdated revelations, unloving commandments or dictates, no matter how revered the source, are a church.  With this understanding, I love to go to church; I love to invite church into my home, lunch with church, take walks with church.  I often get to lie in bed with church.  Texting church is helpful as is discovering church on Facebook.

If you know or even merely suspect that within you and every human resides an unbreakable connection to a loving source that is wiser and more loving than you can imagine…let’s meet for church.

Jesus

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  No, no.

Jesus loves me this I know.  End of sentence.