Minister's Musing

Rev. Mark Ward
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville

May 2009

Here’s something for you to try. Settle yourself in a room of your choice at a time when you have no particular pressing obligation. I know, I know: when is that? But really we all have moments when there’s nothing urgently demanding our attention, when we can just be. Instead of flipping open your cell phone or turning on your TV, radio, computer, iPod or whatever other technological assist you may have – even opening a book – just sit. OK, you say, now what? Just sit.

Sigh! OK. . . . This is boring. Now, what? No, I really mean it: just sit.

It is interesting that with the many ways we have to distract ourselves these days, one thing most of us have a hard time living with for more than a few moments is our own company. Many of you have been practitioners at various times of meditative disciplines – yoga, Buddhist mindfulness, and others – all good things to do. But as Unitarian Universalists our main discipline seems to be busyness – filling our schedules with all manner of fascinating activity but never really slowing down to truly take it in. I want to argue, though, that sitting is an essential discipline for us as well.

A Russian Orthodox priest I read about once argued that the reason we get bored so quickly is that “we have so little to offer ourselves as food for thought, for emotion, and for life.” He suggested that a reason for this is that “we do not act from within ourselves, but accept as our life a life which is actually fed in from outside.” No wonder our lives seem so frenetic: we’re living in response mode, always waiting for the next thing to come our way. Yet, it seems to me that if we take our first principle seriously – affirming and promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person – we are missing out on something, and that something is us. Affirming the first principle begins with affirming ourselves, and that begins by taking the time to experience ourselves absent distraction and self-judgment.

Just sit. Remove yourself enough from the welter of the world to experience your simple presence. Whatever the circumstances of your life – your body shape, your age, your physical abilities, your employment status, your relationship status, your education – it is irrelevant to the fact, the wonder of your simple presence in the world. Appreciating, welcoming, loving that person is the source of all else that we hope to accomplish in the world. From that place we are able to join in fulfilling relationships, to engage in our heart’s work, to live with integrity. It all begins if now and again we can just sit.