Dear friends,
Inspired by an incident which I will relate to you in this meditation,
I encourage all of us,
You,
Me,
Every one of us,
To dedicate or rededicate ourselves to a life of kindness and love.
But since resolutions are conceived and brought to birth in the quiet room of our inner space,
I invite us all to retreat within for some moments of calm.
Take a deep relaxing breath in,
And as you breathe out,
See if you can still the chatter that can go on and on in our heads,
Until we draw attention and decide to apply the brakes.
These next few moments are a gift to you,
Not a gift from me.
Silence is a gift from the universe.
Silence is sitting here on your lap and on my lap,
Wrapped up in the fascinating,
Colourful packaging of life.
In suggesting to you to enter the quiet space within,
I am just helping you to untie the ribbon,
Remove the wrapping,
And find within yourself the existing treasure of calm.
Welcome for one minute to the Fellowship of Silence.
Welcome back.
And now to the theme of this meditation,
Which is designed to encourage each of us to live a life of kindness and love.
These thoughts were inspired by my attendance at a funeral of a man with whom I was just a little acquainted.
A quiet,
Pleasant,
Unassuming type of person.
He and his family had endured the difficulties arising from advancing dementia in the last five years of his life.
Sometimes at funerals we hear eulogies which make mention of the facts and the stats of a person's life.
Where they were born,
The perceived good or challenging circumstances into which they found themselves,
History of education,
Work,
Achievements.
All interesting facts in their own way,
But I wonder of what real consequence.
Norman's funeral was different.
His children spoke of his love for them and their evident love for him.
His acts of kindness and generosity towards them and others.
His helpful,
Uncomplaining attitude.
His discouragement of self-criticism.
His unwillingness to ever speak ill of other people.
They talked of his enthusiasm to do a good deed,
Almost without the need for his help being sought.
His motto,
Often repeated,
Was the Golden Rule.
A thread which can be found expressed in a variety of ways in so many of the religious and humanist texts of this world.
As I said,
The man was simply an acquaintance of mine.
We had exchanged only the simple pleasantries as our tracks crossed in the unpredictable journey of life.
But the thought occurred to me,
As I am sure it has often occurred to you in similar circumstances,
If only I had known him more.
Our world is a little poorer arising from Norman's departure.
But our world is the richer for his having lived in it.
As I heard his children promise to follow his good example,
I was encouraged to try to do the same and now I am encouraging you.
So the kind,
Loving message of this man's life lives on.
His kind and generous life reminds us that our actions send out ripples which roll out into time and space long after we have departed this life.
Who can say where this rolling out will end?
And who can predict the effect it will have way into the future?
Let's pause for reflection.
We might think of the good people whose lives have been an inspiration to us.
Welcome back.
When we look back on our lives,
Some of us can be disheartened.
Times of thoughtlessness,
Indifference and even times when we have fallen below the standard which we know to be right and just.
Sometimes these regrets can act as a break and as a discouragement to us to better activity.
We ask ourselves,
What is the point of beginning again?
We feel we can never live a life filled with love and kindness because of some earlier part of it that may have been tainted with the opposite.
But today is the first day of the rest of our lives and today we can resolve to follow the example of the many good people we have known.
What we have been up to now is far less important than what we might be from now on.
So we need time and time and time again to lay down the burden of past mistakes and press on to make tomorrow a brighter day than yesterday,
Thanks to our lessons learned.
And we have to constantly encourage one another.
People who are well intentioned must not be deterred from good actions by the sense of their own deficiencies.
That would mean the end of all good effort by any of us.
Neither should we think that it would be hypocritical for any of us to counsel a perfection which we ourselves do not yet possess.
In the Christian tradition,
St Francis de Sales advises the opposite.
No,
He says,
It is not being a hypocrite to speak better than we act.
If it were,
Lord God,
Where would we be?
We would have to remain silent.
I encourage all of us to dedicate or rededicate ourselves to a life of kindness and love.
Namaste.
