Satsang Meeting 11th May 2013 - Breathing Under Water

Breathing Under Water

Saturday 11th May :- 1.30 - 4.30 p.m.

Friends Meeting House

Summerfield Road

Wolverhampton

Preview

Our next meeting in May has the intriguing  title Breathing Under Water. So this short post sets it in a context:

Sheila Cassidy and Carol Bialock's poem

Many may remember the  tragic events in Chile in the 1970's and 80's and the part Doctor Sheila Cassidy played in bringing it to the attention of the world.

In 1975, Sheila Cassidy was  a Doctor in Chile . During the time of the Pinochet regime. She gave medical care to a political opponent of the Pinochet  and was arrested,severely tortured  and brutally treated . This lead to many in the UK joining the anti-Pinochet movement . Eventually se was released and told her story in  a book Audacity to Believe.

She went on to become a Catholic Nun , then disagreed with Rome and retired to devote her life to the Hospice Movement.  In her book ' Sharing the Darkness'    she reflects on an important poem by the Sacred Heart Sister - Carol Bialock  ( see below )  and records the following :

The sea is  an image of the presence of God - the way  God takes over our lives. When I showed it to a monk friend, however, he saw the slow advance of the sea as the gradual encroachment of the agony of the world upon one's consciousness. It is only now, ten years on, that I begin to understand what he meant when he said that the great mystery is that the two are really the same.

Extract from Sheila Cassidy  ( Sharing the Darkness)

 House by the Sea

From the Poetry of   Carol Bialock rscj

I built my house by the sea.
Not on sand, mind you.
Not on the shifting sand.
And I built it of rock.
A strong house.
By a strong sea.

And we got well-acquainted, the sea and I.
Good neighbours.
Not that we spoke much.
We met in silences.
Respectful, keeping our distance,
but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand.
Always, the fence of sand our barrier;
always the sand between.

And then one day
(I still don't know how it happened),
but the sea came.
Without warning.
Without welcome, even.
Not sudden and swift, but sifting across the sand like wine.
Less like the flow of water than the flow of blood.

Slow, but coming.
Slow, but flowing like an open wound.
And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning

 and I thought of death.
And while I thought the sea crept higher,
till it reached my door.

I knew, then, there was neither flight nor death nor drowning.
That when the sea comes calling you stop
being good neighbours,
Well-acquainted, friendly-from-a-distance neighbours.
And you give your house for a coral castle,
And you learn to breathe under water.

The above poem will set the scene for our next Meeting  with a video clip; from Richard Rohr a Franciscan Priest,   One of his many quotes, which I like is 

“There is nothing to prove and nothing to protect. I am who I am and it's enough.”  Richard Rohr

Hope to see you at our meeting and a review will appear in a future Blog