Renew Your Glitter

Quite some time ago I came to be entrusted as the owner of Baltasar Graician’s Manual ~ A Truthtelling Manual & the Art of Worldly Wisdom.  Writing number eighty-one says:

Know how to renew your glitter.  It is the birthright of the Phoenix: even the

best goes stale and so its fame, for familiarity kills admiration, wherefore

something fresh even though mediocre comes to outshine the greater virtue,

grown old.  Bring about, therefore your rebirth, in courage, in spirit, in fortune,

in everything.  Clothe yourself anew in shining armor and rise again like the sun…

While the writings reflect the language of the 1600s, I must confess the idea of “know how to renew your glitter” immediately captured my attention. As I took in these words and allowed then to stir in me, I wondered “How might I bring about a personal rebirth that is courageous in all ways”?  We are, some say, experiencing a time of recalibrating, re-evaluating, renewing our glitter perhaps, and choosing how we shall be as individuals.  Many have shared the depth of spiritual growth and transformation during the days of sheltering in place. Many have been demanded by circumstances to pause, become still and examine a life of external stimuli that is without ceasing.  Many have shared they are devoting time to pausing the doing and focusing on the practice of being. I observe many who are structuring life to a slower pace that affords time for morning and evening walks in the neighborhood.  I have observed entire multigenerational family units strolling the sidewalks at dusk.  I have watched parents and children playing tag and riding swings in their front yards on weekend mornings.  I decline the thought of nostalgia and step forward into the idea of a new way of being that is a conscious rebirth courageously chosen.

Like the mythological Phoenix whose birthright is to rise into a new life from the ashes of its former self, I receive this time as an opportunity to rise again, to renew my glitter in meaningful ways that contribute to the expansion of my personal consciousness and the intentional betterment of the world. 

The significance of the Covid 19 pandemic that sent people across the globe into the shelter of their homes (if they are fortunate enough to have a space to call home, but that’s a topic for another day) is meaningful.  I believe that it is not accidental that many were confined to home and poised to bear witness to a man breathing his final breath that stirred a nation into action.  I believe that it was not coincidence that after weeks of going within, we, as a people, were called to move into action in new ways to call for the equality of all people. The timing is impeccable. The players in this dramatic experience are important to be certain.  Of enormous importance is the outcry that calls us all to look upon one another with the eyes of equality.  We are also called to look honestly and with vulnerably as we ask the question “Where are my conscious and unconscious biases and how do they show up?”.  Notice that I didn’t ask if I have biases, instead I function from a space of believing that in my human experience I hold biases known and unknown. The issues of racism have been brewing just beneath the surface all across the world, yet the issues have been played out intimately in the daily lives of our brothers and sisters of color for eons.  We have recently witnessed a country that has reached the point of no return.  People of all genders, all faiths, all nations, and all ages are standing to the chant of change.  We are poised to renew our glitter invoking courage, spirit, and fortune as we rise to a new way of seeing.  We dare ourselves to see the inequality as painful as it feels.   We dare ourselves to speak for a new way of being a society of inclusion of all.  We dare ourselves to expand.

I believe that it is not coincidental that in the final moments of his life, the man who served as the catalyst that catapulted humanity into a new expression of itself called out to his mother.  By doing so, he invoked the spirit of his mother who had transitioned from this human realm several years ago.  In calling out for Mama, he invoked the divine feminine.  Many believe that is the feminine energy that has the capacity to nurture and invite healing the deep wounds of racial inequity to be healed from the inside out. 

I also believe that the role of our law enforcement officials is purposeful and meaningful.  The people that we turn to for protection and for safety play a vital role in drawing our attention to   our attention.  Perhaps it was necessary to visually assault our human eyes to fully wake us from the slumber of complacency toward racial inequity. Perhaps it was necessary for the world to see the actions and the inactions and to be thrust into what is an unfamiliar reality for ourselves yet a reality that is all too familiar for many people of color. 

I hold the possibility that we are all teachers of one another and we are each calling ourselves and one another to new and unlimited possibilities.  We are all called to an evolution of existence that we have not known in this lifetime.  I hold the possibility that we are on the apex of knowing and living the true purpose of our existence. 

Like the Phoenix, life fizzles to ashes and from the ashes a new heaven and a new earth emerge.  I challenge myself to not wither into mediocrity, rather to rise from the ashes of what was and can no longer be to a brilliant being that sparkles with renewed glitter.  Let us rise together like the sun.

Know that I am here for you.  Know that I am here with you.

 

Rev. Karen