Monday, December 21, 2020

"Shepherd's Pipe Carol" and My Journey to Bethlehem

 In yesterday’s (12/20/20) posting, I said that I hoped to explore how tonight’s “Christmas Star” might lead us all to Bethlehem: “each in our own way; each in our own time; each with our own story.” Early this morning, I began today’s post. When I found myself writing the 4,798th word, I realized that my thoughts were too many for my usual 600-word post. That many words suggested that, at another time, I might describe in a memoir my journey into the spirituality that has evolved within me over a period of eighty-four years. For now, I’ll simply summarize.

 

In 1969, I found a book, in a Minneapolis bookstore, that contained letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke to a young poet. One piece of advice he gave resonated with the Dee Ready who’d left the convent three years before and was searching for she didn’t know what. Rilke wrote:

 

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Do not search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.

 

And the point is to live everything. 

 

Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

 

At that time, questions abounded within the dark labyrinth that was myself: Would I always be a misfit? Would I ever be loveable? Would I ever stop judging people? Was there some good I could do to justify my existence? Would I forever be needy? Was this loneliness peculiar to me or were others lonely too? And, one last question, the presence of which became like the breath I breathe, “What is the best way to love?”  

 

I began to wend my way through life. I had been raised a Roman Catholic, but as the years passed so, too, did my need for a belief in the Trinity, in the divinity of Jesus, in a personal God. Reflection on my own experience of life led me to let go of that which no longer spoke to me. Or nourished my spirit.

 

Slowly, ever so slowly, I began to live into answers. It was the beloved myth of the Christmas story that finally brought me to the spirituality that informs my life today. The “Shepherd’s Pipe Carol” by John Rutter is the Christmas carol that announced—like the dawning of a great light—the answer to my lifelong search. If you have time, please click below and listen to it.

 


Note that the carol is about a question. The shepherd boy is already “living” his way into an answer as he hurries to Bethlehem to see a baby nestled against his mother’s breast. Gathered there he will find shepherds—cold, hungry, homeless—and magi—educated, world travelers, wealthy—as well as the innkeeper and the animals who inhabit his stable.

 

The baby in that life-giving myth grew into a man. He, too, must have had questions, heartwishes. He, too, must have lived into answers. From my reading of the Christian gospels, I came to understand that he grew into a truth that envelopes us all: All that matters is inclusive love—love especially and always for the poor, the outcast, the “lowly. Moreover, if we are to give love, then we must include ourselves in the great Oneness—inclusivity—that binds us together, for time and for eternity.  

 

Love then became the theme of that man’s life. A theme born of his experience in a small Roman province called “Palestine.”

 

And that, my dear friends, became the answer to my questions also. Bethlehem for me is the answer to my deepest heartwish and my lifelong question: “How do we love best?”

 

The answer is there in the stable of each of our hearts: We love best by loving inclusively, by seeing ourselves as part of the Whole—each of us essential unto the other.

 

So simple and yet perhaps the hardest part of living: to live into the Oneness that awaits our questions. To live into the Oneness illustrated by those gathered in that stable.

 

We all have a lifelong heartwish or question; we are all on a journey to live into the answer. For me that journey, that question, that answer is the substance that is the myth of the Christmas story repeated throughout the ages. It is a necessary myth that assures me that if I am to find myself, I must live in the Holy Oneness of All Creation—all humanity and all creatures that inhabit the planet—donkeys, cows, sheep, and, oh, yes, cats! And dogs!

 

Well, I’ve now written not 600, but 827 words—a rather lengthy summary. It’s time to leave you in your own Bethlehem stable with your own questions that have become the heartwishes of your life. 

 

Peace, Merry Christmas, and Joyful Journey. 

29 comments:

  1. I am a little sad that you and I never met to sit down and talk a while. Merry Christmas, dear Dee.

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    1. Dear Inger, sitting and talking with you would be such a special treat. Peace and love.

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  2. And such a journey it is, Dee. Thank you for the song and the story.

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    1. Dear Joanne, you are welcome. And the journey continues! Peace.

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  3. I think the answer is and has always been ‘love’, Dee... to love and to be loved.... and all inclusive! It’s just another way of saying we’re all in this together...”

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    1. Dear Rian, yes, inclusively always. You've nailed it with that old expression! Peace.

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  4. I struggle with loving myself. A work in progress. Always.
    ' All that matters is inclusive love—love especially and always for the poor, the outcast, the “lowly. ' sums up my early teachings about Christianity. Teachings which I so often see self professed Christians ignore - which is part of the reason organised religion is not for me.
    Thank you so much for sharing your journey so generously with us all.

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    1. Dear Sue, I can understand what you are saying about organized religion because that's where I am also. There are, however, a number of people in each spiritual tradition who truly speak to where I am when it comes to living the Gospels. Jim Wallis, the editor and founder of the magazine "Sojourners" is one person who has tried to point out to so many Christians that in embracing President Trump they have forgotten the message of the Gospels. Peace.

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  5. I cherish your insights, and I too am feeling love surround me as I read your words. Love is definitely the answer to life's question as to what our lives are about. I wish you all good things, dear Dee, and thank you for this post.

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    1. Dear DJan, your comments are always so encouraging. Sometimes when I write these posts, I'm just not sure that I've said anything well. But I've learned to just let the "little boat" of my posting float on the river of life and disappear around the bend to who knows where. I think you do the same every Sunday with your deeply philosophical postings that touch so many of us at the deep center of our being. Peace.

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  6. Not a carol I know but liked it anyway
    Love is many things for different people for me it is family

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    1. Dear Jo-Anne, I'm glad you liked the carol. It was written, I think, some time in the 1960's. I heard it in the 1980s when I got an audio cassette of James Galway's flute playing. And yes, love differs for us all. My hope is always that love is life-giving. Peace.

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  7. That was beautiful, Dee. The Rilke quote is one that has always resonated with me as well, the necessity of living the questions before we are ready for the answers. I am slowly reading a book in my morning meditation time, a chapter a day, Mary Magdalene Revealed, and it keeps striking me how the Universe provides the teacher just when I need her and am ready. I think your question, How do we best love, is the perfect question to be asking at Christmas and especially as we are perched on the edge of a brand new year. Thanks for reminding us!

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    1. Dear Cynthia, I'll look for that book. Thanks for providing the title. And yes, a b brand new year in which I hope that I'll start writing again. I've missed it so. Peace.

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  8. This was a beautiful post Dee and perfect for this week. The world needs reminding that the born in that stable at Bethlehem is what Christmas should be all about but, in these secular times, so often isn't. Lovely carol that I'd never heard before. I wish you peace at Christmas and on your continuing life journey. Most of all I wish for you, and for all of us, love, which, as you say, is what it's all about.

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    1. Dear Molly, I'm so glad you enjoyed the carol. It was written by an English composer--John Rutter--back in the 1960s. In the 1980s, I heard it on two audio cassettes I bought as a Christmas gift for myself: one is a Christmas with James Galway and the other was a Christmas in Salisbury with the choir there.

      Thank you for your good wishes. I hope that within all of us that love will settle into a peace of acceptance. Peace.

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  9. We all have questions for which we each seek answers in our own way. I, too, think love is the answer. Wishing for you and all, love and peace during this trying year and the one to come.

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    1. Dear Joared, yes, I think all of us have questions that lead to other questions as we journey along the highway of our life. Questions that help us find the love within us. Have a lovely Christmas. Peace.

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  10. Precious ,sweet and amazing dear Dee
    your writing seems like a fragrant garden full of delicate colorful flowers that i never want to leave ,but i will surely return to complete my wander within and share my thoughts about it

    for now i here want to wish you a Happy ,serene ,beautiful Christmas my lovely friend !!!!
    sending you hugs and blessings!
    in my thoughts and prayers you stay always!

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    1. Dear Baili, thank you so much for the Christmas greeting. I did have a lovely Christmas. The three cats and I celebrated with holiday food --they got a can of more expensive cat food and I got fruit cake, which is one of my most favorite things to eat! Peace.

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  11. how blessed i am to not forget what treasure i left behind when i first visited this post dearest Dee
    i am feeling serene and full after reading this sharing ,tears floating within my eyes are desperate to pay tribute to your one the most beautiful,meaningful post ,and i let them fall on my typing hands :)
    i share your query and your loneliness as well ,for years and years but now i feel i have started to live in my answers may be not all of them but many of them ! so i feel a deep down peace within me now and since i have realized that i am a really really really tiny part of "whole or oneness " i am also feeling uttermost contentment and connection with all within this universe ,a feeling that is undefinable yet absolutely FULFILLING !
    thank you soooooooooooo much for being here with us precious friend! it is deep pleasure to have you as friend!
    Merry Christmas ,wishing you all the happiness in this world and joy and peace each breath!amen!

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    1. Dear Baili, thank you for this lovely comment. Like you, I am finding as I age that life is fulfilling. The word I use is "contentment." I've come to discover that contentment is longer lasting and more fulfilling than mere happiness. Peace.

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  12. LOVE IS. I AM, YOU ARE, WE ARE...LOVE. I am so glad I found you when I did. Dulcy reached out and touched my heart. I was ready and the teacher appeared. Thank you, Dee. I love you. Peace, Edi

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  13. Dear Edi, I am so glad that Dulcy's story touched you. She was a great gift to me and taught me so much about how to live in serenity. Thank you for your kind words. Take care and be gracious to yourself. Peace.

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  14. How to love best, that is a beautiful thought. For me, my nondenominational church is my home in my journey following Jesus. The New Testament is so full of love. I enjoy being your blog friend.

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    1. Dear Terra, at the deep center of ourselves where Oneness dwells (that is the word that I use, and I trust you have your own beloved word for centeredness) is, I believe, a great wellspring of love that connects to all creation. Thank you for you final sentence. I, too, enjoy being your blog friend and Tuesday I finally visited your blog and left a comment. Peace.

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  15. Dee, This past Christmas. I heard a hymn for the first time. At first, I thought it was the one you shared here, by John Ritter. The one that I heard (and it must not be well known, took a while to find it) is The Shepherd's Carol by Bob Chillcott. It is lovely!The words abd the music! I heard it on The Festival of Lessons and Carols from Kings College. If you don't know it, make sure to listen out for it next year. You will thank me. Let me know what you think of this shepherd's hymn!Peace!

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  16. Dear Kay, thanks so much for taking the time to share this good news. I'll look for Bob Chillcott's carol on YouTube. Hope I can find it there. I'll let you know. Peace.

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    1. Dear Kay, found it on youtube! So lovely. I often have a hard time hearing the lyrics of a choir and so I missed many words but then I went to Google and found the poem. I'm so grateful that you shared it with me. Thank you. Peace.

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