Yes, And... Daily Meditations

I love parallel reading, that is, reading the same thing along with other people and entering the world of that book as a group. In school I guess I took that collaborative reading experience for granted and now later in life I get something of that experience with the book club I belong to, The Soul Crushers. For the last couple years K and I have tried out our own reading project where we read a little of some text every day on our own. The original idea was to share material that has some spiritual dimension and gives us a touchpoint that we might reference during the day. I find the exercise especially sweet because in a sense every day there is a point where we are literally on the same page.

Early in 2019 we picked up A Year with Rilke, which is a collection of single-page poems and excerpts curated by two Rilke scholars. I only have passing knowledge of Rilke but fell in love with his darkness and dramatic approach to existence. In 2020 we followed with a similar kind of book, Yes, And... Daily Meditations a collection of excerpts by Richard Rohr -- the Franciscan contemplative -- self-curated from his large collection of writings and speeches. We just finished the Rohr read-through last week.

I suppose the book presents a look at the contemplative life, which apparently means more than just being a generally thoughtful person -- it's more about silence, alone-ness and meditation or prayer that suggests a transcendent, embracing attitude. We read one page -- usually a paragraph or two -- every day and I spent time thinking about the reading for a bit as well. Some of the passages seemed sweet or obvious, some seemed to address the challenge of being attached to a large Catholic tradition that didn't align well with some of Rohr's open postures, but quite a few readings I found very beautiful. I underlined where I had some kind of emotional reaction and marked the most helpful passages with a "+" or even a "++" if they really really resonated with me.

Here are some quotes from five plus or double-plus pages that jumped out at me now:

"Spirituality creates willing people who let go of their need to be first, to be right, to be saved, to be superior, and who define themselves as better than other people." --Fundamentalism Misses The Fundamental, p. 13

"Substance addictions are merely the most visible form of addiction, but actually we are all addicted to our own habitual way of doing anything, our own defenses, and most especially our patterned way of thinking -- how we process our reality. By definition, we can never see or handle that to which we are addicted. It is always hidden and disguised as something else."           --Evil Depends Upon Disguise, p. 178

"I would define suffering very simply as whenever we are not in control." --The Sacred Wound, p. 257

"The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling or changing or dying. The ego is the part of us that loves the status quo, even when it is not working." --Beyond Boy Scout Spirituality, p. 318

"Much that is called thinking is simply the ego's stating of what it prefers and likes -- and its resisting of what is does not like. Narcissistic reactions to the moment are not worthy of being called thinking, yet that is much of our public and private discourse." --The Narrow Road, p. 391

As much as I appreciate Rohr I found that I struggled to keep him in my head. It was almost like this kind of thinking just slipped back out and evaporated almost as soon as it went in. Maybe I need more practice? Or maybe his words got assimilated so quickly that they disappeared into me? I don't know. One test of his impact on me I suppose is if I read any more of his work.