Journey to the Sublime

We have set out from here for the sublime

Without provisions, without one thin dime,
And yet, for all our clumsiness, I deem
It certain that we shall arrive on time.

No guidebook tells you if you’ll have to climb
Or swim. However foolish we may seem,
We have set out from here for the sublime…..

I have no doubt we shall arrive on time.

Exerpts from Prospects by Anthony Hecht

For many of us, our lives at some point become a journey toward the sublime, whatever that may mean to us.  It usually happens when we decide to listen to the voice of the spirit within us rather than the constant noisy egoic thoughts that created our false sense of self.  We’ve had a lot of practice listening to the ego’s voice so when we choose to listen instead to the voice within, it can be frightening and sometimes launches us into the dark night of the soul.  Yet, Spirit’s voice is always kind, loving, and peaceful.  It is only when we choose to listen to our ego thoughts that we suffer.  The journey to the sublime is the process by which we learn to choose Spirit rather than the ego.

This journey to the sublime is a series of beginnings and endings and beginnings. I think one of the lessons for me on this journey is to accept this truth, I am always in the process of ending and beginning and that when I am ready, I will arrive on time.  So, I am at another stage of beginning, ending and beginning.  I just moved into our new home that we built in Abiquiu, NM. It sits on a mesa with a 360-degree view overlooking the red cliffs of Ghost Ranch, the Abiquiu Lake, and the Pedernal Mountain. It is a time of deepening my spiritual path. I am making new friends and have found a home with the Course of Miracles community in Santa Fe.  The shape of my days leads me to invite spirit into whatever I am doing, so I am learning how to just be.

I also ended my Involve workshops.  My last workshop on welcoming children with special needs into our faith congregations was May 4^th in Santa Fe, NM.  The Involve Project started in 1999 with a survey of Unitarian Universalist (UU) churches concerning the challenges encountered trying to minister to children with special needs labels. While still working part time for the UU Urban Ministry in Boston, I wrote seven Involve newsletters for religious educators funded by the Unitarian Sunday School society and published on the UUA web site.  This led to leaving the Urban Ministry and a grant from the UU Funding Program to write my book, Welcoming Children with Special Needs, A Guidebook for Faith Communities, which was published in 2004.  The Veatch Program continued funding to train religious educators around the country. During these past 14 years with the Involve Project, I have conducted approximately 85 Involve workshops and trainings ranging from four to fifteen hours which translates into approximately 2,000 participants, given several sermons and talks, consulted with many churches, and wrote A Faith-Based Sexuality Education Guide for the Inclusion of Children and Youth with Special Needs to go with the OWL curricula.  Now it is time to end in order to make way for another beginning, whatever that may be.  It feels fitting that I end where I began, writing a guide for religious educators to be used in conjunction with my book.

A team of the Equal Access Disability Group is working with the UUA to create a congregational certification program focusing on disabilities.  It will be similar in nature to the Welcoming Congregation Program.  In lieu of the very expensive idea of having me provide training for religious educators for all the churches choosing the process of certification, it was decided that I write a manual for religious educators incorporating my workshop material so that each Director of Religious or Life-Span Education can train their own teachers. This manual has become part of The Disability Credentialing Handbook, Resources for Welcoming and Supporting People with Disabilities and their Families in Our Congregations. I am delighted to be able to end my Involve Project in a way that helps religious educators become self-sufficient.  It was the original intent.

My web site will remain. The document downloads for religious educators will still be available and includes this latest guide. My intent is to do more writing and posting on my blog.  I will continue be open to conducting spiritual parenting workshops based on my second book, Don’t Fix Me I’m Not Broken, Changing Our Minds about Ourselves and Our Children. And I will continue providing private consultations.

I have no idea what is beginning for me.  Spirit was very clear that I needed to end the Involve workshops in order for something else to emerge.  I know for sure being in New Mexico is where I need to be to deepen my spiritual journey.  And that may be all I am to do, drop judgments, forgive, and continue my journey to the sublime with no doubt that I will arrive on time.