Dear Rod

In your column yesterday 17 January 2023 you encouraged your readers to write something beautiful. 

I did not write this. My daughter, Kate, did years ago when she was a teenager. She wrote me a letter on Mothers’ Day. 

This excerpt is taken from that letter.

“ In King Lear, Cordelia, the king’s daughter, remained silent while her sisters lied as they flattered their father, just to get land and power out of him.

When he asked how much she loved him ( and she was his favourite ) she didn’t say a word as she felt she could not heave her heart into her mouth. This is exactly how I feel about you. I’m just giving you this gift as a token of my appreciation for all that you’ve ever done for me and continue to do, and hope with all my heart that you can understand how much I love you.”

I read this letter annually before I tuck it into the front of my new diary. It lifts my soul and reminds me what a gift love is; to give and to receive.

Thank you again for your wonderful column.

Kind regards

Dawn Rice

https://on.soundcloud.com/4JxNThKxBo4tAo2GA

Stop. 

Be still. Dig deep.

Visit the deepest place within you.

Find your soul, your spirit, the place within where thinking, creating. envisioning, and your capacity to worship, link and join forces.

Find this innermost place, the inner-sanctum which renders you as powerful and loved as any human who has ever graced this planet.

Read Romans 12:1. 

Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.

Go respectfully, confidently into that deep, awesome, beautiful place. Close your eyes if you must, or, open them wider than ever before. Eyes open or closed, allow beauty and love and the Power of a Loving God to penetrate your humanity.

Then, listen.

Spend time listening. 

Lots of it.

When it’s time to speak — and you will know when it is — say little.

I’d suggest our spoken words, yours and mine, be a version of this prayer:

My Lord and my God, I offer this place within me, this eternal place within me that is your handiwork, to You as a living sacrifice.

Teach me. Use me. Transform me. Show me. Send me.

Ubuntu, I believe, is a Zulu word.

Zulus, and descendants of Zulus of southern Africa which includes Zimbabwe, hold sacred the concept of Ubuntu. It captures a cultural concept of hospitality, openness, and the power of community.

Ubuntu is an ideal to which many aspire.

It means we make each other. I am more who I am when I am appropriately connected to you. You are more who you are when we acknowledge our mutual need for each other.

Ubuntu has no room for lone genius.

Consensus is highly valued.

As far as possible, all voices are heard.

Age is deeply respected.

Community-above-self is honored.

[If you know more about this beautiful way of life than I’ve tried to encapsulate here, kindly add to my description in a comment.]

We Will Be Men, My Sons

(With acknowledgement to Rudyard Kipling)

When we can negotiate without compromising our integrity, and stand on our own two feet without pushing others over, and love without controlling ….. we will be men, my sons.

When we understand and accept our uniquenesses, our resilience, giftedness, our frailties and failings, and within that understanding, do no harm ….. we will be men, my sons.

When we can forgive all others, deserved, undeserved, requested or not, and freely offer mercy and grace even to those who have rejected us, deserved or not……. we will be men, my sons.

When we can welcome strangers with radical hospitality, and yet foster independence, and be generous with all we own, while treasuring our valued possessions ….. we will be men, my sons.

When we empower others, desire their highest good especially when they can do nothing for us in return…….. we will be men, my sons,

………………..we will be men.

Today, for the rest of the week, and beyond, I encourage you to regularly identify and deploy your superpowers. I believe we each have all 7 of the following superpowers – they come with our humanity – while 5 will probably be stronger, more pronounced within you. I also believe we will each “shine” with one as if it is our particular divinely imparted strength: 

• Generosity – the willingness to give of what you have. It is not about wealth or having vast possessions, it is about being willing to give and share from what you already have. 
• Hospitality – the willingness to be open to others, especially those who may be unlike you in terms of language or ethnicity or social background.  
• Mercy – the capacity to offer grace where it is unexpected or even undeserved. 
• Kindness – the willingness and desire to see and affirm and promote the best in others. 
• Acceptance – the willingness and strength to embrace other people because of who and what you are rather for who or what they may be. 
• Forgiveness – the willingness and capacity to let others off the hook – turn the page – for your own sake and for your own freedom.  
• Love  – the willingness and capacity to desire the highest good for yourself and for all whom you know, friend or adversary.

I found the last letter written to me by our father….

Just to thank you for the lovely holiday you gave me. Thanks for Washington, Atlanta, Aussie, and New Zealand. Hard to believe that I covered so much ground and saw so much. I am missing Indianapolis a lot, also America and all its people. We had such a lovely time.

I am finding it hard to settle down. Can’t seem to get mobile. Health wise, I am a lot better. Tummy back to normal. Just a little backache now. I am sure that I will get better in time. Everyone’s looking forward to your visit in August. I will be away for seven days while you are here but will make it up as soon as I get back. Perhaps you can take a trip to Margate to visit me. We’ll talk about this later.

Have had so much to tell friends about our stay in America. Saw Chicago on TV and we were so excited as it was one of the main streets we went down with you. We are lucky to have so much to remember. I don’t think we can ever forget how kind and generous you and your friends have been me. August 1994

from Australia …… thank you! You know who you are…….

Please, take a few minutes to write something beautiful today – and, if you wish, send it to me. 

Such writing shifts things within us, sets our heart on seeing beauty.

Uplifts.

I discovered this in a moment of desperation. 

My sons were preteens when multiple pressures demanded I land a part-time job teaching writing at a local community college.

Mostly, it was a pleasant, inspiring experience. The adult students were often late, arriving after work by public transportation, sometimes after a second job..

One evening a married couple entered the room while engaging in a raging vicious and rather abusive domestic argument.

Once the couple was seated I knew I had to do something to ease the tension. 

“Welcome,” I said, “I am glad you are here.”

Where I got this from I don’t know:

“Everybody, please, take a blank sheet of lined paper and let’s take 7 minutes to write something beautiful. Anything. A short poem, a vivid joyful memory, perhaps something about a gift you gave or received. I am also going to write. You will have an opportunity to read what you have written to the class if you would like to.”

Within 15 minutes there was widespread healing, weeping as students volunteered to read their writing.

May we all write something beautiful today.