“Boots on the Ground”
Ever feel like happiness is this elusive holy grail that you just can’t seem to attain? You’re not alone! For most people, happiness is primarily experienced in moments, rather than days or years. But there are some tried and true practices that can help you get there and stay there more often. This week, we will discuss one often overlooked practice that can really make a difference in finding meaning, purpose and, yes, happiness too.
Speaker: Rev. Melanie Eyre
Talk only on You Tube (high-speed available)
KIDS PROGRAM ~ Sundays at 10:30am via Zoom – Contact us to register
When available, a revised transcript of this week’s talk is provided below for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Prayers, readings, and songs from this week’s service are also provided below.
Community Circles – Are you left with questions after a talk, or did an idea so resonate with you that you want to explore it further? In our Community Circles, we build relationships with others, share ideas and insights, and support each other as we apply these principles in our daily lives.
Community Circle Zoom Meeting/Discussion: Wednesday, Oct. 6.
Please join us on the Zoom link below. I look forward to seeing you!
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PRAYERS
Opening Prayer
As we begin our monthly exploration of service, we begin with an observation from that wise man who taught us all, Fred Rogers:
At the center of the universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person.
Anything we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job.
Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds.
Life is for service.
~ Fred Rogers
Community Prayer
All That We Share Is Sacred
This blessing was written in honor of two Unitarians, Martha and Waitstill Sharp, who during WWII left their two small children behind and traveled to Europe to assist escaping Jews reach safety.
As we gather together may we remember:
When you share with me what is most important to you,
That is where listening begins.
When I show you that I hear you, when I say your life matters,
That is where compassion begins.
When I open the door to greet you,
That is where hospitality begins.
When I venture out to bring you to shelter,
That is where love begins.
When I risk my comfort to ease your suffering, when I act against hatred, violence, and injustice,
That is where courage begins.
When we experience the full presence of each other
Because of our shared humanity,
Because of our differences,
That is where holy gratitude begins.
May this space be a table that is not complete until all are welcome.
May this table be a space of beauty where together we create a series of miracles, and where all that we share is sacred.
May it be so.
~ by Andrée Mol
Talk Transcript
Boots on the Ground, by Rev. Melanie Eyre
Albert Schweitzer once wrote,
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know – the only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
Today we begin our series on service, on the key spiritual practice that is service. My goal is to begin a discussion of how we step into our gifts of creativity, compassion, kindness, – how we grow from them and share them with the world.
As I was preparing this talk, I went back to one of my favorite books, Essential Spirituality, by Dr. Roger Walsh. Many of us are familiar with this book and if you are not I really recommend it to you. Dr. Walsh’s book is a result of 23 years of research in, and practice of, the world’s spiritual disciplines.
Let me tell you a bit about Dr. Walsh.
Let me tell you a bit about Dr. Walsh – I apologize to those who have heard this before.
He trained as a psychiatrist with additional training in psychology, physiology, and neuroscience. He published articles and books on the brain and on human behavior, and initially believed, he says, that whatever could not be measured with the instruments of science did not exist. He was agnostic, sure that the answers to our motivations, behavior and consciousness could be measured, verified, and replicated.
Then he started to work with patients, and his certainty all started to fade. He writes that he tried to help patients with behaviors and mental states that he frankly could not figure out, regardless of all his degrees and training. In order to learn more about the workings of the mind, he went into psychotherapy himself, certain it would be a few interesting weeks and no more.
“I discovered an unsuspecting universe within me as vast and mysterious as the external universe around me. It was literally the greatest shock of my life.”
As he explored his own mind, he wrote,
“I discovered an unsuspecting universe within me as vast and mysterious as the external universe around me. It was literally the greatest shock of my life.”
He found that this inner world was the secret to discovering more about himself – the vistas of his consciousness that were totally unreachable and unknowable if he limited his focus to his cognitive awareness.
He found, to his amazement, that his cognitive understanding was just the surface. His “inner world,” as he called it and experienced it, was the key to understanding his mind and himself.
He came to realize that his mind was really far more vast than he ever thought.
So he began to meditate. He came to realize that his mind was really far more vast than he ever thought.
But he was troubled. He was still an agnostic, firmly tied to the scientific view. He wondered why he was achieving these insights through what he thought was essentially a religious practice, what he called a relic of primitive thinking.
He spent months puzzling over this question. Then, one day he had a flash of understanding that changed his life forever. He recognized that “at their spiritual center, the great religions contain a common core of practices for training the mind.” He realized that these practices are designed to help us cultivate wisdom and love, to lead us into a broader connection with that vast universe within that was totally unknown to the science he had sworn had all the answers.
Given this insight, Dr. Walsh plunged into a study of the world’s major faith traditions to identify the spiritual practices that lead us to these insights.
In Essential Spirituality, he identifies seven what he calls “perennial practices” that are common to the world’s major faith traditions.
In Essential Spirituality, he identifies seven what he calls “perennial practices” that are common to the world’s major faith traditions. Following these practices will lead us to cultivate kindness, love, joy, peace, vision, wisdom, and generosity.
In sharing these insights, Dr. Walsh’s goal is to tell us that life can be, as he says, ecstatic; that growing spiritual awareness leads us into greater joy, enlightenment, and peace. The goal of these spiritual practices is to connect with the profound joy that is at our very center.
One of the seven perennial practices is expressing spirit in action – embracing generosity and the joy of service. When I say generosity, I don’t mean only money. I mean a free and loving giving of yourself, your skills, your time, your attention, and your heart. That is what we explore this month.
. . . selfless giving with no thought of return is a profoundly joyous act.
When we think of giving and service, we don’t often connect these practices with joy. We may think of duty, obligation, expectations. However, selfless giving with no thought of return is a profoundly joyous act.
Dr. Walsh uses the example of Mother Teresa’s nuns, who live in the poorest slums in India and tend the forgotten and abandoned. They work long hours, live in the simplest circumstances, face disease and death every day as they serve the city’s poorest and most desperate. A television interviewer went to their hospital and asked why all the nuns look so happy. He said, “is it a put on?”
Mother Teresa replied it was not. She said “nothing makes you happier than when you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt.” The interviewer wrote “I have never experienced so sharp a sense of joy.”
We know from our own experience that acts of love and service need not be huge.
We know from our own experience that acts of love and service need not be huge – simple acts of service and kindness can transform us and those around us. Gifts of kindness or caring, not requested or reimbursed, and maybe not even recognized.
Why do these instances produce such joy? I believe it’s because it’s when we are in complete alignment with the divine at our essence. We came here to be kindness, compassion, and love, and when we live those principles we are truly open channels for spirit expressing. We are love in action. Mother Theresa said,
“Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.”
Joy is both a cause and a result of loving service.
When we awaken, if I can use that word, to that place of compassion and love for others, those we know, those we don’t, joy is the almost inevitable result, and service is its expression. Joy is both a cause and a result of loving service.
In his book “How Can I Help”, Ram Dass wrote that it is our nature simply to step in and help, with no thought of reward. When we see someone struggling with a heavy package, we help. An elderly person has difficulty crossing a street, we stop. Someone in a store becomes ill, we help. Why? Because when we step outside our own concerns, our own preoccupations, we feel that some deeper process is at work. In service to each other, as he writes, we experience our unity. In service, we participate in the holy, finding it in ourselves and in others.
In the Upanishads it is said: “if you want to be happy, be giving.” Humans have known this truth for thousands of years.
We have so many barriers to generosity.
However, we have so many barriers to generosity. We have so many ways to talk ourselves out of simply giving, sharing the abundance that has been given so generously to us. Sometimes giving (of our money, time, effort) feels more like a burden than a joy.
Sometimes our perception of limitation and lack gives rise to a sense of hopelessness and a conviction that nothing we do can make any difference. I’m just one small person – what can I do? We talk ourselves into not helping, saying any effort of ours in the midst of all the global misery would mean nothing. I find that especially today where every headline points to a problem that seems so insoluble.
Or, we tell ourselves that those in poverty or want are simply not deserving of our attention. Why would I give my money to that guy? He looks like he could get a job. Why should I pay for all these people who don’t want to work? Why should I give my money or time to them?
“Not everyone can learn how to fish, and we need to take care of them as well.“
Then I remember what Rev. Cliff Dawkins said:
Not everyone can learn how to fish, and we need to take care of them as well.
I also find myself wondering at the notion of money being “my money.” If we think that Spirit is the source of our abundance, when did it turn into my money? Am I not a steward of this money, the same as I am a steward of other resources gifted to me? How does that change the way I spend, save, or invest?
There is a Jewish Prayer, that gives us a perspective on stewardship.
And God saw everything that He had made, and found it very good.
And He said: This is a beautiful world that I have given you.
Take good care of it; do not ruin it.
It is said: Before the world was created, the Holy One kept
creating worlds and destroying them. Finally, He created this one,
and was satisfied. He said to Adam: This is the last world I
shall make. I place it in your hands: hold it in trust.
The attitude of service and compassion . . . leads you to new places.
The attitude of service and compassion is a game-changer, and it leads you to new places, for sure. I’m not sure of all the answers, but each step on our path requires us to live the questions.
I also think it helps to remember and practice what we teach our kids – to share, to be generous and helpful to others. We teach them these values because we know that’s how we are supposed to live. Why do we teach these wonderful values to our kids, and then so often leave them at home when we head out the door? Sometimes we need our kids to remind us.
These virtues are so simple. My wife had a business associate in town a couple of years ago, when she became ill and had to have emergency surgery while she was here in Atlanta. When she got out of the hospital she was planning on getting on a plane and heading home. “No no,” my wife said; “you have to come and stay with us for a few days until you can travel.”
Our kids know we all belong to each other. It is in acts of service that we remember this truth.
We told Nick, my son with Down’s Syndrome, that this lady was coming to stay. You who know Nick also know he is a wonderfully loving and giving young man. He thought about this for a minute and asked, “she ours now?” We said she’s not ours for always, but she is staying here for a few days. Nick said, “we care for her good.”
Our kids know we all belong to each other. It is in acts of service that we remember this truth.
Each act we do changes our global consciousness, adding to it wisdom, awareness and love. This energy continues to ripple out and has effects that are boundless. This is how our human consciousness changes, turns away from fear, greed, and violence toward hope, compassion, community. The change begins with each of us.
“To be fully alive is to act.“
In his book “The Active Life,” Parker Palmer writes:
“To be fully alive is to act. Action is more than movement; it is movement that involves expression, discovery, the formation of ourselves and our world. . . . As we act, we not only express what is in us and help give shape to the world; we also receive what is outside us, and we reshape our inner selves. When we act, the world acts back, and we and the world are co-created.”
As the energy goes out from us, it also works a change in us. When you open your heart and give to another, your heart opens first. The first recipient of the gift of this joy is you – you can only give that which you already have: joy begins with you.
We are called to be fully alive, to participate, to listen to each other, to be unafraid . . .
We are called to be fully alive, to participate, to listen to each other, to be unafraid as we bring all our gifts to bear, with joy. We are daily given the opportunity to leave it all on the field.
A couple of years ago I read a book by an Australian author named Bronnie Ware, called “The Top Five Regrets Of The Dying.” Ms. Ware cared for those making their transitions, and as she sat with them and cared for them she noticed that many of their final thoughts and regrets were similar.
The first top regret of those facing imminent transition was “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Others were: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard; I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings; I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends; and I wish I had let myself be happier.
We spend so much time doing what other people expect of us . . . we miss the opportunities to find joy and happiness and meaning in our lives.
What do these sound like to me? They sound like the wishes of people who walked by the opportunity to be true to themselves, to listen to the voice of love and joy inside and just go where it led them. We spend so much time doing what other people expect of us –– or even worse, doing what we think other people expect of us without even checking with them –– that we miss the opportunities to find joy and happiness and meaning in our lives. We think we have more time, that time won’t run out. We are wrong, and too often we lose the opportunity to bring our special gifts to bear.
We lose the opportunity to connect, to lift up, to share joy with others. The acts we take don’t have to be huge – even a small act makes a big difference. You know this in your own life: remember when you did one thing that made a difference to someone else – helped a stranger, paid for groceries for the stressed out mother with kids in the line behind you, said a kind word to someone in need? You felt different all day, I’m guessing, as did they. You can remind people that joy and hope remain possibilities in this world.
I’d like to end with that well-known quote from Bengali writer, musician and poet Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote:
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
He slept, he awoke, he acted. It wasn’t until he acted that he realized that the joy of life was in service.
Thank you.
About Rev. Melanie Eyre
Rev. Melanie Eyre is an ordained Interspiritual Minister and long-time student of the world’s many diverse faith traditions. She has served as One World’s Spiritual Director since 2015 and is the founder of the North Fulton Interfaith Alliance here in Georgia. Outside of One World, Rev. Melanie has a beautiful family and enjoys officiating traditional and non-traditional rituals and other special ceremonies that mark important life transitions – weddings, baby blessings, and celebrations of life.
For more about Rev. Melanie and her practice, visit her website: Memorable Services with Heart.
MUSIC
One written by Asha Lightbearer
Let’s Work Together written by Wilbert Harrison
This service aired on October 3, 2021
