Ying Time

Lake Junaluska

Yesterday at Jubilee was one of the most unique experiences I've ever had in a place of worship or on sacred ground.  Many times I've felt like the preacher/teacher was talking only to me, but yesterday went a bit beyond that.

Via Negativa is about the fall season, and the bulletin used the ying/yang symbol to help describe this time of the year. 

"Ying usually stands for the moon and winter.  That's where we're headed as we move into the autumn season.  Yin is dark, interior, stillness, and cold.  Yin times can be grief times. Yin times can mean uncertainty.  Yin time is when we find ourselves going inside. Way inside.  Ying time is when we sit quietly in the dark, allowing the darkness to have its way with us.  But it sometimes opens us to epiphanies of the mind and spirit." 

As "painful as it can be, emptiness, too, is vital to life's very existence."

The first song was "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" by Paul Simon, and I cried more than I sang.  The tears just flowed freely and I was...relieved...that I could do that there.  It was that safe for me.  I have come a long way since sitting in the balcony at Unity Church on a Sunday morning, crying hard and alone, yet not alone, and feeling the goodness flowing  from all the people in the space below me.   That was a bridge over very troubled waters and so was yesterday- they were the  same, and very different, at the same time. 

During the message, Howard Hanger, the minister of ritual, sang "Lean On Me" and I was able to sing some of that one.  The theme for his message was "Sorrow and Compassion". 

From Howard's Learnings:
"Ying times in our lives are the dark times, the cold times.  Ying times are not the mountain highs, but the valley lows.  While Yang is out boogeying at a party, Ying is home alone or perhaps taking a long walk by herself in the woods.  Yang is a rocky cliff in the bright sun; Ying is a glassy mountain lake at midnight. 
   Ying times, therefore, are sometimes lonely.  Sometimes empty or negated.  Vacant, chilly and uncertain.  Ying times can be grief times.  Ying times can mean uncertainty. Ying time is when we sit quietly in the dark, allowing the darkness to have its way with us.  Ying time is the hollowed out void that can sometimes scare the bejesus out of us and sometimes open us to epiphanies of the mind and spirit.  " 

"Compassion for me is just what the word says: it is 'suffering with'."  It is an immediate participation in the suffering of another to such a degree that you forget yourself and your own safety and spontaneously do what is necessary."  Joseph Campbell

"Nature requires that we form a relationship between our joy and our despair, that they not remain divided or hidden from one another.  For these are the feelings which must cross-pollinate and inform each other in order that the soul be enlivened and strong."
                                 Leunig, The Prayer Tree

After church, I went to my favorite pub for lunch, Jack in the Wood, having a Dead Guy Ale and a lamb burger and a dram of very fine scotch.  I drank the scotch in a toast to LaVerne and asked forgiveness from her for eating the lamb.  Ying/yang. 

Marcia and I rode the burg to Lake Junaluska on a gorgeous day, leaves just starting to change.  A little nip in the air.  Lots of bikes out and about.  It felt grand!  Lake J. is beautiful, with nice homes, retreat centers, athletic centers and places of worship.  We walked the 2.6 mile path around the lake and enjoyed the sunshine, water and each others' company.  Life is GOOD!!!

Marcia at Lake Junaluska