This creative and conversational memoir style of blogging is embellished with photographs, sprightly texts, and gentle listening features. May these entries be as cathartic to read & to hear as they have been to conceive & to share. xo
|
Hey My Loves,
God, its been a week! First week of classes and already feel like I'm spilling with inspiration and fear and excitement and then some. The next few months--years really-- are going to be significant and change me, I can feel it. Or as my new friend Christine mentioned, in the language of Richard Rohr, "Peel aways the layers of my false self to my true self". Not that my passed few years have not been impactful toward my development, but the past year or so has been more a waiting game, stagnate energy chained to a piles of passions, but no outlet -- or not the most life giving outlets at least. I've really been more and more convicted, even in the days prior to the decision of Grad School, of how I am really living out the changes I want to see. I still am not living up to many of these areas, but there are at least some changes being made... Today I have taken one step -- small as I think it might be-- to write the House Members about my hopes for HJR-3 to be denied. Gandhi would say we cannot be religious without being involved in politics, and with my gravitation to Dorothy Day, the current Pope, and reflections on MLK as of late, I see where this calling for social involvement is necessary for my own spiritual thriving. Even sharing my own stance in a public domain seems a little nerve racking for me as my natural counselor within me --going to school for mental health counseling -- wishes to stand on neutral ground, so to make anyone of any opinion have a feeling of unbiased safety in my presence. But I felt a need to stand for all my brothers and sister of this world and this issue of Civil Rights we are facing currently. Enjoy the note -- as religiously peppered as it is ;P! I will start writing more about the excitement of all the firecrackers going off in my head & heart that are crashing into one another that is my experience of CTS & its application to real life soon enough! Ok, now for poetry reading & followed by lots of reading for school, Love to you all... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . My Dear House Member, Peace to you in this time of intensity arising within our "small-town" state. I hope you are able to balance your life with all the pressures of the demands of your work and the people. As a fairly new member of the Indianapolis community, I wanted to share with you the pride I have taken in our city, and my concern for the great need there is to work towards solidarity within the residence of her home state. Within the last two years, I have witnessed and been involved with really passionate individuals and groups of people dedicated to creating a creative, sustainable, and culturally diverse city. I have lived out out in the progressive west, where such ways of life have moved from a privilege to a right for their people. Still, with such societal advancements, their neighborliness pales in comparison to our Hoosier hospitality of this land. The warmth, generosity, playfulness, and attention our people give to one another abounds when measured to the timidity of interpersonal relationship of other cities. I plead with you, to regard this familiar quality of our home base as nothing short of vital for magnetizing people to this state, keeping others here, and taking best care of those who are. At this time in our world, what people are seeking most through all of the conscious actions within ecological and expressive ways of living is attempting to nourish our core desires as humans to love and contribute something greater than our individual selves . I believe HJR-3, if passed, will only give Indiana the reputation as a hypocrite to the entire country, and if you believe, the eyes of God. While I believe all religions have this message of acceptance to learn from, if you are influenced at all by the Christian perspective, please regard the knowledge that Christ was recorded as being an advocate for the poor, the oppressed, and the outcasts of his time and of all generations as he was one himself. He believed in one human family and the rights all of us have as children of God. Christ would have been on the side of objection for a law such as this to be passed, knowing the harm induced to another, he would induce on himself. I believe if you choose to reject HJR, you will be standing on the side of the light of hope and inclusivity at the real heart of the of people in this state --and in this country--as I have come to find true --not on the side of enabling popularity for a campaign for future monetary support. Please pray about choosing what is just, as many of the great change agents of the world have done--Gandhi, King, Christ-- not what is popular or engrained within your own cultural belief system. In the spirit of St. Francis, we are on this earth and for a short time to choose to love and not hate; pardon, not injure; faith, not doubt; to hope, not despair; to contribute light, not darkness; joy, not sadness. We will not despair, those us on the side of civil rights, no matter what the vote maybe. We will continue to spread light, and continuously ask for you to join us. Look within yourself, and extend to all your humanly brothers and sisters-- of all race, religion, sexuality, and social status-- the love and respect you would wish to have given to you and to those you love. I cannot imagine what stresses you all are going through in your attempts of making the decisions you are and within seeking fairness for all in a pool of so many differing stances of citizens, but know we are praying for you and for equality we all deserve. My sincerest peace to you all, Bre A. Domescik Concerned Global Citizen Happy Snow Day Everyone!!! Getting crazy over here in Indy! Hoping you all are warm and safe! Hope the Christmas & New Years season has been slow and lovely too! In my slow moments of the last few weeks I have been thinking a bit about my own not so lovely times where there has been some coldness of my heart... I was watching a brief commentary on “A Christmas Carol” one evening last week, and when listening to the themes of the tail I could not help but to think of the own belief system and how I would or would not live up to the expectations of ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
The beauty about stories is we can weave ourselves into the people on the screen or in the pages, even some of the most shadowy of characters. Growing a little older, not only the little girl simply spectating Christmas specials all December long, I see the greater necessity of linking ourselves firstly with those darker characters as they show us the character defects within ourselves-- the areas I would rather not show to the world or believe to be true about myself, the parts I do not even recognize. The Sufi Mystic Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee speaks on necessity of inner work – practicing the of balancing our goodness, love, light, and divine nature with our more feeble nature gravitating towards anger, jealousy, greed, etc... and how the balanced life can only be done through psychological practices and deeply facing our dark side. “That is the groundwork of spiritual life”. Being that little girl watching the Scrooge infused Christmas specials, I remember being very inspired by the morals of those movies, realizing I did not want to be the one haunted like Ebenezer and rather learning by his example of what not to do. Quite a few Christmas down the road, and billions of unimpressive, hollow, and self-seeking moments since—I even had a many over this year’s Christmas trip too--but I see where the ways of a one Mr. Scoorge are no different than the ways of my own. Greed, no matter what its fear based manifestation, is always identical at the root. The greed within the hearts of the people at the top one percent of financial wealth is the same greed of my own. For me, my particularities in food, well stalked savings account, and a surplus packing job for things like Christmas trips --all this chaotic preparedness-- does not always point towards a trust in a power greater than myself to provide. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; and they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Christian Scripture, Matthew 25-27) Do your best, and all will be provided for is what I see again and again in holy messages and what resonates to be true in my spirit and my experiences. Because truly, our fears and their fruits --those shadowy actions of our deeper darknesses-- condenses to the even greater spiritual offense of distrust in the powers of God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Peter Maurin, assured his co-founder of The Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day, when in question of their fiscal ability to publish their newspaper and support their communities of hospitality that, "Capital is raised by prayer. God sends you what you need when you need it. You will be able to pay the printer. Just read the lives of the saints." May we continue the difficult journey of trusting that we are cosmically cared for, the journey of parsing through our own darknesses, and acknowledging the light within all. You never know when a Scrooge will see his ghosts, or maybe we will be given the opportunity as a living spirit of perspective to one of them, or our Ebenezer within… Stay warm boos, xo Hey Loved Ones, Happy Holidays! Hope you are staying warm and enjoying whatever fluff and slush and frost you might be getting! Epiphany! I have cracked the secret of the magic of winter weather!!! The snow, SHE IS SO SLOW! She is so gentle! Watching her in motion reminds me how much prettier life is when I also function at that same pace. And she has been asking me to slow down in many forms.. Practically speaking, it took me an hour for a typical 1/2 hour travel yestrday, Internally speaking, the bell tolls, "contemplation needed". There is a lot of irony in that realization for me presently, because my measured approach to life has fervently picked up speed by receiving some early celestial Christmas presents... This girl unexpectedly got a full timer! I assist a teacher (& maybe potentially instruct art?) at a Montessori School in a town north. My grown up opportunity is probably only going to be short lived, as cosmic gift #2 arrived in the mail just after Thanksgiving. I received an 80% scholarship from Christian Theological Seminary for Mental Health Counseling, meaning Grad School in the spring! Christmas Miracles right?!? As invigorating as these new adventures are, getting to--yet again--gain new skills in an area of intrigue & start on an academic path which is creeping me closer to my vocation, I have been feeling a little overwhelmed, intimidated, and disappointed in someways by the illusions of this "adult-life" as I pretty much expected. I have been surprised how much I thought getting a full time position would assist with feeling a greater sense of stability in life, and while there is some truth in that, the figurative board I balance on shakes still... Before I was willing on good faith and the trusty savings for extra support, and now with having focal of a very specific income, everything I go to purchase or invest in converts into that calculation, "Now how many work hours does this take to pay for?". I know, I know, adult stuff, Bre -- its called a budget. Maybe I am feeling a little idealistic--go figure-- but I would imagine if I am working within a place I feel destined to in the long term, that "time=money" equation would convert into the more essential fact that "time=opportunity to chose love" and how I do or do not embodied that. While I know I have my own ideas in motion for contributing meaningfully to my part of the world, seeing people who do decide to live a life of unabashedly giving their time, talents, attention to those most in need (like this guys) make me wonder if I am going to regret choosing a life of side jobs, random full-timers, and classrooms occupation to support a way of life & some unconventional ideals. The Charity of the Christmas season only seems to reinforce these questions and my pull towards working with those forgotten... All the talk of the Pope in the news, with his passions against capitalism and responsibility for helping all,
especially those most lonely and neglected; there, there I find one of those great fires within me, summoning me to the kind of life where I would choose to share myself wholly for and with others, and recognize I have not been living in such a way. The search for meaning in my places of work sink me again into those feelings of renunciation which I have mentioned emerge frequently. Still, I don't quite feel the assertion to take on a sister's habit or a monk's baldness, or Gandhi's waistline, Or to abandon my roommates and heirlooms, but I am dedicated to my own discernment process, and Mother Teresa's commission to find my own Calcutta, before I go running a stranger to a third world country, or a monastery, or another/ my own seminary for the full seminarian training. Here's to finding the meaning & blessings in the work which is presented to me now & in continuing to formulate that vocation out of my passions, as I understand them at this time: art, contemplation, the poor in spirit, and the excluded; in my current first world country, state, community, family, (which needs for love and attention is greatly needed here in their own ways) ,while taking some master's courses too :] Be patient as the snow is patient, I hear... Love you all! Merry Christmas! Fall is for the artist and the art lovers, I've decided :} So, pretty much for everyone. I wish I had more pictures right now, |
This creative and conversational memoir style of blogging is embellished with photographs, sprightly texts, and gentle listening features. May these entries be as cathartic to read & to hear as they have been to conceive & to share. |
Bre A. Domescik, LLC © 2021