Friday, January 22, 2010

Home again, home again...

Solitude greeting solitude, that's what community is all about. Community is not the place where we are no longer alone but the place where we respect, protect, and reverently greet one another's aloneness. When we allow our aloneness to lead us into solitude, our solitude will enable us to rejoice in the solitude of others. Our solitude roots us in our own hearts. Instead of making us yearn for company that will offer us immediate satisfaction, solitude makes us claim our centre and empowers us to call others to claim theirs. Our various solitudes are like strong, straight pillars that hold up the roof of our communal house. Thus, solitude always strengthens community.

(from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey )

Back from Hilfield, things are becoming clearer. It's in many ways wonderful to be back in my own church community, from the very different community that is the Friary. It's strange, but loner that in so many ways I am, I just love living in community. I was thinking this morning about how to express this seeming paradox, when I found this quote from Henri Nouwen that summed it up perfectly.

It's obvious that I need both discipline and simplicity to follow the deepening call to prayer and service that seems to have overtaken me. Discipline in the sense of living according to a framework of time, just as a religious community does, with its hours, its times of work and meals and recreation. Simplicity in the sense of trimming away what I am not called to do, and giving myself wholeheartedly that those things that I am. It sounds obvious, but I find that when I examine, mindfully, the patterns of my own life, there are far too many things that just get in the way, and I shall have to see what I would be better off without!

Over the next few weeks, I shall be making a few changes to my online life, too. I think I shall have to abandon Facebook and Twitter. They are good things in themselves, but they are a fierce waste of time unless you actually need them for the way you work. I shall also have to go on a geek diet, probably. I waste loads of time mucking around researching things I don't need to research, playing with software I've no practical need for, and many more things like that. It's got to stop. God has more use for me than that, strange as it may seem - especially to me!

This blog is good and important, though, and I shall continue to write here, perhaps in rather more depth than I often have. The old place is looking a bit tired and scruffy, too, so I'll try and smarten things up a bit...

Huge thanks, by the way, to all who prayed for me on this trip. Your prayers were answered, and then some, as I'll hope to explain here over the next few posts...

5 comments:

Sue said...

Oh, boy, I'm grateful this blog is not going! I eat here, regularly! :)

That Nouwen quote is just absolutely wonderful, thank you so much. I struggle with boundaries. I struggle with taking my solitude amongst others and retaining it. This is a wonderful quote.

I love how complex we all are. You say, "It's strange, but loner that in so many ways I am, I just love living in community." And I would say, "Extrovert that I am, I just love living in solitude." Haha. Funny :)

I'm so glad you are seeing crumbs along the path. Manifold blessings to you, Mike.

Mike Farley said...

Dear Sue, you are the best kind of blog friend! Thank you... and thank you for all your honesty and wisdom on Discombobula and wisha~wisha~wisha - I may not comment as often as I should, but I do read, faithfully, and I do pray ;-)

Huge loads of blessings to you too, Sue...

kam said...

If all possible, continue to post. I know personally most of those yearnings and deep down long for them all. My time has not yet come. Our Lord and His Mother be with you on your journey.

Ken Eck said...

Welcome home Mike. Glad you are keeping the blog. May God inspire you as you seek to discern his will for your life.

Barbara said...

So glad to have you back, Mike.

Not too sure what is happening with my own blog ... I fear I am tipping off the edge of solitude. Perhaps I need to shut down for a period. Just sayin'