The end of the semester is a time to reflect on lessons learned and set new goals. Life today is so busy and hectic that it is a good time to think of balance in one's life.
All of the major faith traditions and spiritual paths at some point speak to the virtues of silence, meditation, stillness, reflection and mindfulness. All religious traditions have their holy man or holy woman, mystics or recluse. They all benefited from organizing their life around a schedule of hard work and giving time for contemplation. I would say there can be no activism without an interior journey that is rooted in a form of prayer.
In the Jewish Scriptures, one of the most profound encounters with the Creator comes in 1 Kings 19:9-13. The prophet Elijah is being pursued by a mob and prays for deliverance. But the Creator is not to be found in the rain and heavy winds, or in an earthquake nor fire. Elijah experiences the Creator in a tiny whispering sound from his cave. Do we allow for the tiny whispering sounds to come to us?
In the Christian Scriptures, one of the first resurrection appearance stories has Peter and the other disciples going fishing. It was what they knew best. They went off fishing, maybe discouraged, thinking that Jesus had died and the movement was over.
They went fishing. And in John 21:1-14, it was in doing the simple, ordinary and every day event of their lives they encountered the Risen Lord on the sea shore. Do we make time for discoveries in our simple, ordinary and everyday events of our day?
All of us need to take the time to refresh and re-charge ourselves. This can be done with prayer, meditation, reading a (non-assigned) book of fiction, taking a walk along the Mystic or Charles Rivers, going to see the Impressionist painters at the Museum of Fine Arts, or just laying out on the library roof in the sun. The important point is to make the time for oneself. All of the faith traditions and spiritual paths point to the necessity of allowing time for stillness and silence. To fully live is to be fully aware of life and its many gifts. Do we allow ourselves to be in awe of life?
The poet Robert Frost penned these words many a year ago:
A Prayer in Spring
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above,
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
We as members of the Tufts University family have spent another semester learning, doing, achieving and completing tasks and assignments. I would argue that a balanced life is about caring for self, in order to give back and serve others. Have you stopped on the hill or walking along the quad to gaze up at our hawk? Have you allowed yourself to smile at the many children walking with their parent(s) around campus?
In these last few days at Tufts, take time for yourself. Pray, reflect, meditate, be in awe of life. Giving yourself the time to process knowledge is the true art to master. Leading a well-balanced life might be a lifelong goal, but start now. The mystical sense is essentially a feeling for, a presentiment of, the total and final unity of the world; it is a cosmic sense of oneness; an oneness with life.
A balanced life? I don't have all the answers, but I have learned to smile, slow down and be still. I have learned to listen for the whispering sounds, to see newness in the simple, ordinary and everyday events of life. I have learned from the various faith traditions and spiritual paths to be in awe of life.
Reverend David O'Leary is the Tufts University Chaplain.
