Opening to the Spirit
Today’s word: Serenity
1
) My grandmother is the example of serenity for me. She raised a large family of seven during the depression, was a wonderful cook and watched her two oldest sons go off to war as teenagers. Through it all she was calm and faithful. I can picture her sitting quietly in church every Sunday, listening carefully. I have no memories of her getting angry or raising her voice even though my grandfather could be quite exasperating at times. For example, in the summer he would go out on the front porch, in only a pair of white shorts, and do calisthenics for the whole village to see. She would grimace, but kept calm.
As teenagers we had a family crisis. Our house burned down one Sunday morning three weeks before Christmas while we were at a church service. She opened her house to my Mom and Dad and us five kids for five months. We could be loud and loved to run up and down the stairs playing games. Every night we needed supper for ten, and we weren't light eaters. This might have been a difficult time, but her quiet serenity made it easier. She also had a good sense of humour. One Hallowe'en my Aunt created a haunted house in Grammie's home, and she became a witch who served us blindfolded kids human eyeballs to eat (which of course, were peeled grapes).
Her temperament came from a strong personal faith and a deep belief that whatever experiences life gives you can be endured and even celebrated. Whenever someone says the serenity prayer, I think of my Grammie.
2
) Out of the whirlwind, away from the storm. Serenity is what surrounds me as I rest in this outdoor armchair contemplating the moving landscape, travelling with my eyes the rolling hills, drifting among sheer clouds, leaves whispering beneath the conversation of birds. I find serenity usually in nature, away from whirlwind human activity. It needn't be a calm beach under the midday sun; as well a rushing stream, busy always going where it's going, or paradoxically standing on the back porch in a thunderstorm. Immersed in nature, or visiting it in memory, however I place myself in the midst of wildness, the unmade world restores me to a sense of deep peace inside. And brings me back to my center.
Serenity and peace are often paired in the same phrase. Just as peace is not merely the absence of war, serenity is not the absence of the rushing world, but rather the still point at its center. Centuries ago Lao Tse intuited what science has confirmed about this spinning planet we call home: "Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; it is the center hole that makes it useful." Like the fire at the earth's core, serenity is that around which everything spins, and we with it.
Once in turbulent times I memorized these words of T.S. Eliot poem entitled The Still Point of the Turning World: “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” Neither hope, nor love, nor faith…serenity is beyond them. In serenity we step back and tap into our own deep inner stillness at the soul's hub. We need not seek serenity, merely remember that it is always there waiting.
3
) When my kids were small we had downstairs neighbours. These neighbours were a couple in their 60’s who were into meditation. I know that they were into meditation because they often came knocking on our door to ask if the kids could stop making noise because it was their meditation time.
Maybe you know someone who could keep a two-year old and a seven-year old quiet for an hour in the early evening, but this was not going to happen in our house. They were not running wild, but they were playing with trucks and building blocks, dancing and telling stories. The neighbours gave up knocking on the door and started shouting up through the hallway “WE ARE TRYING TO MEDITATE!”.
Serenity is something we often seek outside of ourselves. Once everything is done, once everything is quiet, then I will feel at peace. It is a fool’s mission. Everything in the world around us will never be serene. If serenity is to be found anywhere, it will be found inside. It is found inside when we accept the imperfections of the world and the people around us.
Meditation, for that couple, clearly was not working. But I still highly recommend it. We accept the discomfort. We accept the boredom. We accept that our mind will never be completely still. And, somehow, through all of that acceptance, we find a place of serenity.
4
) Serenity is a state of being I wish I experienced more often. In my agenda-filled, task-oriented life, it is not something that can be conjured up at will. When I take time to ‘be’ rather than ‘do,’ I find I am more prone to be serene. But do I really need to stop all my activities?
Buddhist Satya Narayan Goenka teaches that when we are able to maintain our equanimity in the face of the trials and tribulations of life we have acquired serenity. He teaches the importance of being aware of our breathing at all times, as a tool to keep us grounded. In Christianity, Judaism and other faiths, the breath (ruach in Hebrew) can also mean spirit, indicating that it has long been somehow connected to our ability to access our spiritual nature.
Even as I sit here writing, becoming more and more aware of my breathing, I find myself becoming calmer, more thankful for my life and more centred. I
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can imagine this life-giving oxygen entering my body and bringing energy and vitality to every single part, from my toes to the top of my head. Where does this air come from? Where does it go? I take it for granted so much of the time. Yet without my ability to breathe my connection to life is broken. At each baby’s birth we wait anxiously until we hear that first breath expelled, signally that life has begun. At death we witness the last breath taken, sign that our time on earth has ended.
Our breath is intimately entwined with being, connected body and soul and reminding us, as Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, we are indeed “spiritual beings having a human experience." Why not experiment? Try paying attention to your breath all day. Experience the serenity that ensues and a door will open to your spirit.
One word, four voices - now it's your turn to reflect: How and where do you find serenity?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco is Consulting Minister to UU Estrie-unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.
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