It is not about being perfect. It is about love.

I recently read a line from Richard Rohr which has stayed with me as it says it all for me in facing life's challenges of the past week.   It goes like this:
What matters in life is not about being perfect for it is really about love.
The point is that God does not love us because we are perfect but so that we can change (or maybe more so that we can grow).

For someone brought up on an education that had perfection as one of its keystones, this is a powerful statement, even many years after leaving school.  Perfection stays with me even if I know it does not work.  Love is what matters.  Wow!  Follow that instead of aiming for perfection.

As I face issues in my work and ministry, I find this insight empowering.  Why?  Simply it tells me not to focus so much on what goes wrong and then trying to right it.  Nothing and no one, including me, is perfect.  Imperfection is part of life.  I know this but that 'perfection principle' keeps hitting me from the gut, as they say.

This goes along with another line of late that stays with me.  A movie producer was asked how he was able to face the major task of working on his film so as to scrub out one disgraced, lead actor and put in another. His line was simple.
I do not want people telling me about all the problems.  I just want to focus on what can be done to move ahead. 

So what is the power of the message?  Love allows us to make mistakes.  We just learn and grow and keep on moving on and keep on loving - self as much others.

For this entry, I will follow my own learning and not strive for perfection.  This means no picture this time.  Happy Holy Week!

St Joseph

St Joseph 

Monday was the feast of St Joseph and our boss here is Bishop Joseph Pibul.  So it was his feast day.  With his being at the office that day, we naturally  celebrated his feast day.  As we acknowledged his feast day, I saw how fatherly he was in dealing with the staff and how well he did it.  It wasn't just what he said but how he said it and with a pleased smile. 

As I talked with him on that day about issues at play, I appreciated his level of understanding of the local scene and his calmness in approach, both of which I can easily lack.  I learnt from him even more about here and even after 12 years here.   One does ever learn. 

He told me how his observation was that in a discussion or a disagreement, westerners feel the need to speak out, while here they stand back, take it in and keep quiet.  Any response may happen later or just happen.  Of course, I responded quickly with - "When there is an issue of right or wrong, one has to speak".  Do we?  For ones from here, obviously not.  Or more importantly, is that the best strategy?  Sometimes not. 

He also talked about how issues are faced in our work here.  We as church leaders see justice, while the others only see hierarchy and act according to their place in the hierarchy.   I could reflect that the latter point is sad but it is true enough as I am aware that so few, even when working for the church on justice, have any great knowledge or appreciation of social justice.  There again, that is not only here.  It just is that here is where I am. 

Wisdom from the east?  Or wisdom from the heart? 

Thai Elephant Day

This week saw the annual Thai Elephant Day being celebrated.  From what I can see from a distance, it was good fun.  There should be more of it, I say, as there is not enough fun in our world.

Elephants have a revered status here.  When an elephant is injured by an old landmine from the days of the Vietnam War, it makes front page news.  The people are sad.  They even have an elephant hospital. 

I remember being at a meeting of the Thai and Myanmar churches.  One Myanmar bishop got word that his diocesan elephant died.  The man was distraught and prayed for his elephant at mass.  Even though there may have been a question of theological correctness, I was touched. 

Yet the sad side is that the very animal they revere can also be abused for the sake of tourism and commercial gain.  Such is our world.  Such is the way of humanity.  We can be so cruel, and even, or especially, towards the very ones we proclaim we love.

The way to go is to celebrate life and all that we love in it.  Let there more of it.  It is so refreshing and life giving just to see happy faces and people enjoying themselves and their elephants.   

Happy Thai Elephant Day!   

Irish Stew

There are friends from Dublin in town on one of their regular visits.  They are husband and wife, married 45 years.  He is Irish and she is Thai, or I guess by now she is Irish too.  Yes, I would support that judgement as she makes a great Irish stew which I tasted last Friday when Om and I went to their apartment for dinner.  Om was so impressed that he got the recipe. 

Well, this week, Om did his first ever Irish stew.  It was yummie.  It just was that it was Irish stew without the beef.  The mashed potato and the gravy with the vegetables were great.  What happened to the beef?  We had it there but it was Thai beef and too tough.  So out it went to be gently cooked for a few more hours later on and
to be used at another meal later in the week.  So is Irish stew Thai style. 

This is a great country for loving their food and for imitating.  Here was an enjoyable case of the two coming together and then seeing the outcome.  The outcome was not the same both both meals were enjoyable. 

So what am I sharing here around a simple story of my week? 

Cultures do come together but not to be the same.  They come together because people meet and enjoy each other and want to learn from the other and try something new that they like.  The result can be their own style but it still is the coming together of peoples in everyday reality.  Om knows it is Irish stew but more importnatly he knows it comes from our Irish friends.  This is a way we build bridges. 

Your anger will not rule me

Desert outside Jerusalem  

I am finding being in the desert a good and healthy spiritual place to be.  Not being a dualist but strongly holding to the whole of our humanity - body and soul together as one - I can see the positive effects in my living.

At work this week, I dealt with an issue of justice that was also most sensitive.  This invited opposition from within the workplace which I understand.  As the opposition from one party heated up, I sat there listening, determined not to respond in anger.  My one response was to say -
"I know you are angry but I will not let your anger rule me."

This was one of the few inspired moments in my life when I acted without thought and on the spot to opposition in a good and healthy way.  It happened naturally.  It does not happen that often as I more tend to react to people's opposition which is never really very helpful.

I give credit for my inspirational response to my being in the desert and so taking life more calmly or more subdued, taking a wider perspective or a kinder perspective in my everyday reality.  It is good for me to be here.  

The Unplanned

The best things in life are unplanned.  How true I find that to be.  My unplanned, and unwanted, journey with the flu continues, even if more gently.  I am finding it a journey full of learning and humbling experiences. 

Yes, I could talk about my attending a conference in the Vatican on modern day slavery and I could talk about how the Pope so strongly supports this effort and how he met us.  It was all a great experience. I could talk about the train trip up into Germany, just taking in the alpine scenery along the way. 

What stays with me is this unplanned journey, the journey that has taken me into my desert.  It is a special place to be and life giving as I stand back in life and look at it with gentler eyes. 

Both journeys have been an opportunity and both have had their blessings and gifts.  The journey within remains with me and is the much stronger

Guess where I have been?

Well partly, at least. 

I went to Rome for meetings - one was with Caritas International on migration and the other was a conference on anti-human trafficking which was held in the Vatican with the support of the Pope.  So guess whom we met?  He truly is a simple and humble man who keeps focused on the message of human dignity and of humanity being ever compassionate and siding with the most vulnerable of our day.

Yes, being on such a mission for good was part of my last two weeks.  It all sounds so ultruistic but really my travels became much more caught up with the nitty gritty of my life with the onslaught of a devastating flu which meant that the dominant journey became my interior journey as I dealt with an overpowering sense of unwellness and vulnerability. 

While this journey was unplanned, it became the dominant journey.  It was my desert experience that led me to an early retreat home.  This journey has been powerful and humbling.  It has taught me about myself and how I need people.  It is amazng where life can take us, even on the other side of the world on a well planned sojourn. 

I just wanted to share why I have been away and where I have been.  It has been a most impactful journey.