Monday 29 June 2020

Exile, Imagination and Belonging

Psalm 137: 1 – 6
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion. There on the poplars we hung up our lyres, for our captors asked us there for songs, our tormentors, for amusement, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How can we sing a song of the Lord on alien soil? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour."

Isaiah 61: 1 – 4
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me as a herald of joy to the humble, to bind up the wounded of heart, to proclaim release to the captives, liberation to the imprisoned; to proclaim a year of the Lord's favour and a day of vindication by our God; to comfort all who mourn - to provide for the mourners in Zion - to give them a turban instead of ashes, their festive ointment instead of mourning, a garment of splendour instead of a drooping spirit. They shall be called terebinths of victory, planted by the Lord for His glory. And they shall build the ancient ruins, raise up the desolations of old, and renew the ruined cities, the desolations of many ages."

These two pieces illustrate two different perspectives on the Babylonian exile. The first, from Psalm 137, is the anguished cry of those who had experienced severe trauma and were anxious to preserve the memory of what they had lost. The second, from Isaiah, looks forward to their homecoming – imagining their release, return, and renewal.

For those who might not be familiar with this episode of biblical history, the exile began around 586 BCE when the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army. The upper echelons of Judean society were deported to Babylon, where they remained until the edict of Cyrus allowed them to return in 539 BCE.

Reading Reem Mojahed's On Exile: A Journey of Fear, Guilt and Nostalgia, I was struck by the similarities between her story of exile from Yemen, through fear, guilt and nostalgia, and some of the biblical stories of the experience of exile and its relationship with belonging, almost 3,000 years before.

The exile had a significant effect on the development of Jewish spirituality, culture and identity. The destruction of the temple of Jerusalem and subsequent exile destroyed the pillars of the Jewish faith as they were at the time, causing a spiritual crisis. The temple of Jerusalem was believed to be the eternal dwelling place of Yahweh. Yahweh was the god of the promised land of Canaan. He had promised that there would always be a King from the line of David on the throne. When the kingdom of Judah was overrun by the Babylonians, they lost their temple, their city, their dynasty and their land.

Trauma studies show that an ability to flexibly retell our story is an important factor in developing resilience after trauma. The Jewish people had to reinvent their religion in exile – to create a new way of being with their God, without the land and the temple. Jewish law specified that some forms of spiritual practice, principally animal sacrifice, could only be performed at the temple in Jerusalem. In exile, the people were no longer able to do this. They created the synagogue as the focus of their communal spiritual life, shifting the focus of worship from animal sacrifice to the study and teaching of the Torah, communal prayer and the singing of Psalms. Even when they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, they continued the synagogue services alongside the temple practice.

There are parallels with our experience of church in the pandemic. We were exiled from our church building. We have reinvented the way we do church to fit our current circumstances. Our sense of belonging to the church community has shifted from gathering in the building to gathering online.

Even when we are able to gather again in our building, our gatherings are going to be quite different to how they were before the pandemic. For example, those great pillars of Unitarianism, communal hymn singing, and tea and biscuits, will be unavailable to us for some time. When we do resume in-person gatherings, not everyone will be able to join us and we will endeavour to continue online gatherings alongside in-person gatherings to ensure that all our community is included in our communal worship life. All this is part of flexibly retelling our story and building resilience as a spiritual community.

The Babylonian exile, like many of the stories in the bible, is not only the story of one incident in the history of the Jewish people, but an archetypal story that plays out again and again throughout human history, revealing spiritual truths on the inner level.  Biblical scholar Walter Brueggermann defines exile as a sense of not belonging and of not wanting to belong in the place where we are. Many of us have had some experience of such a feeling of alienation and may be experiencing this feeling more strongly as a result of the pandemic. I am finding that the pandemic has increased both my sense of alienation and my sense of belonging.

I have often felt a sense of alienation, of not wanting to belong to a world built on systems of domination, where power over the many is in the hands of the few – from neoliberal capitalism to systemic racism. The pandemic is exposing the injustices of these systems as never before.

In recent times, I have often felt a sense of alienation in my own country, of not wanting to belong to a society where government policies are driven by economics rather than a genuine concern for public health and wellbeing.

In my early adulthood I often felt lost and had a sense of not really belonging anywhere. It took me a long time to realise that this sense of alienation was a sense of alienation from myself – a feeling of not being comfortable in my own skin.

Belonging in community and belonging to myself are intertwined. Since I have found a place I call home in the Unitarian community, I have become more comfortable in my own skin. During lockdown, thanks to the wonders of technology, I have connected with Unitarians all over the world and my sense of belonging in the Unitarian movement, from the local to the international level, has strengthened. Lockdown has also provided me with the opportunity to reflect on how I understand myself and my place in the world, and to try to practice self-acceptance.

Professor of Leadership and Management BrenĂ© Brown says, “Belonging is being part of something bigger than yourself. But it’s also the courage to stand alone, and to belong to yourself above all else.”

In his paper, Exile and the Creative Imagination, Professor of Art and African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut, Olu Oguibe, discusses the art of African exiles. He says, “Exile is an in-between place where nothing is firm. This is why exile may only be lived down fruitfully in that embattled yet mobile and secure territory called the Republic of the Imagination. In exile every act is an act of faith, and only projects of the imagination may exist in the present tense. Art, and faith, therefore, are the only possibilities open to the exile because they transcend the strictures of the existential. Like little safe havens, art and faith provide a space from whence dream and determination may battle the myriad traumas of survival away from home. Through art the exile is able to escape the burden of circumstance, even the temptation of bitterness and recrimination, and thus question, explore, ruminate, and attempt to repossess fragments of that which is lost. Through art the exile may return, in a manner of speaking, by reconstituting the past, participating in the present, as well as envisioning a new world.”

As Chorlton Unitarians in exile, we are participating in the present and envisioning a new world through sharing our creative arts, such as our collective poems.

On a global scale, are experiencing a collective trauma with the pandemic, which has to some extent exiled us all from the life we once knew. I believe that the pillars of the societal structures of domination are crumbling and we have the opportunity to envision a new world. There seems to be a collective will not to go back to 'normal' and a recognition that this is our opportunity to use our creative imagination to envisage a new way of being, with ourselves, with one another, with the Earth, with our God – a way of being that is based on a recognition of our common humanity and of humanity as part of nature.

To quote BrenĂ© Brown again, “We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequality, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.”

I do want to belong to a world where all of humanity and nature are held in love, peace and justice. I do want to belong to the world Reem Mojahed wrote about, where “the soul is the first homeland and representation of the idea of belonging and the ultimate identity is above all human.”

Guru Arjan Dev Ji, fifth Sikh Guru, wrote, “Seeking and searching, I have found my own home, deep within my own being.”

If exile is a state of feeling we do not belong where we are, homecoming is coming back to feeling we do belong – not to something or somewhere eternal, but to our hearts and the love that lies at the core of our existence. When we experience this homecoming, we belong to ourselves and to one another, wherever we are.

The Sufi poet Rumi wrote,
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”



Monday 1 June 2020

Creative Chorlton Unitarians Chronicles: Part 1

Springtime is the time of creativity and growth, of blossoming and blooming. During this time we have been physically separated, but the community of which I am a part, Chorlton Unitarians, has grown closer together in spirit, aided by technology. Our community is blossoming and blooming in many ways, one of which is our collective poems, which we are composing together regularly. For the most part, the themes our of collective poems echo the themes of our Sunday Zoom gatherings. Our process is that we each send our lines on the theme, unseen by anyone else, to one of our members, via WhatsApp message, who puts them together and posts them on our WhatsApp group for us all to enjoy. I am delighted to say that they have given me permission to share our creations so far with you here. I may be biased, but hope you will agree that our collective poems are astonishingly beautiful!
Blessed Be

‘Unity’
Together we will soldier on and
find that Rainbow o'er the sun
The collective sources both known and unknown
Ignite the breath to forge eternal soul
Shared love and wisdom upholds our Calm
In turn which Leaves our fears unarmed
When hope hangs frail as a gossamer thread
Strength is found from the thoughts of our friends
Breathing gently, each fragment touches the next and sighs
I am home

'Earth'
All the earth's loves, big and small
The cat snuggles at my feet
As the wind whispers it's secret song
Leaves dappled with sunlight dance
Amidst ever reaching branches which sway
Atop pillars of strength rooted in the fertile soil
The Moon salutes our stars which shine
To guide the Nocturnes on their way
Oh Earth our womb, cradle, shelter and tomb
We come from You and to You we return
And as we grow, decay, wither and bloom
We are one and the same, this we must learn
The vibrant beauty on display
The silence between the crashing waves
We love you Earth
The Mother of our birth!

'Friendship'
What joy, to embrace others on this
meandering path of life
Igniting heart and spirit and giving of light
To share your laughter and your tears
A friend is there throughout these years
A brilliantly beautiful bond
Friendship flows like water
A vital element nourishing your life
But never demanding its form
A knowing, a past, anticipation, a future
Brought together with dreams, laughter, woe
An unwrapped gift
Full of comfort and a safe place to grow

'Creativity'
Creative are the skills we bring
At Chorlton Church in everything
We set ourselves to make or do
As banners books and poems too!
When my pen begins to flow
I leave my thoughts and let them go
The Welsh hills are calling me
To listen to my song
Swords into ploughshares
The comfort of quilts
Creativity, the key to my soul
Gives me energy, so I suddenly feel my heart beating
Combined conscious collaboration
How to get something from nothing
For the artist and physicist alike
Both their wellspring and their frustration
Creativity Nativity
Through pain, struggle, birthing
The mystery is revealed
A spark ignites the senses and
like a bud unfurling its petals
The mind awakens to its fullest bloom
Slowly but surely She sighs
Whispers on the Wind
Sparks imagination
Fire in the belly
Into the flow
Shaping clay
Forming You
Breathe

'Humour'
I’m laughing my socks off...
The stripey ones!
Giggle, chortle, snigger, smirk
Chuckle, titter, cackle, howl
Where poetry is yin
Humour must be the yang
Where the words left the concrete
And they danced and sang
I love Laughing so much that you cry and your stomach feels weak
As beautiful tears tenderly trickle down your cheeks
Nothing perplexes me more than Time and Space
On the other hand
nothing perplexes me less
as I never bother to think about them!
God laughed so much when I told her my plans that she fell off her chair and bruised her bum!

‘Wonder'
From the majestic beauty of a mountain range, as far as the eye can see
To a minute particle, an atom, that makes up all that be
People wonder at the Stars, the Seas, the Mountains, but never think to wonder at their own souls
The scientists know
This world's beauty they can't grasp
Like a graceful forest deer
Enchanting enough to chase
But too elusive to catch
A bright elusive butterfly dances
Through the dark rooms of my mind
We ponder the wonders of this world searching far and wide
Take a moment to just breathe and feel the glorious power we hold inside!

'Patience'
Slow down take a moment and breathe
Feel the flow as things unravel as they should
Lifelong learning
finds the you in you
If it's for you, it'll not pass you by, so be patient while you wait
A watched bud
Never does bloom
Until we meet again
Let's give thanks for Zoom
With waiting comes reward
Corn from seed sown
Honey from the bee
Wine from the vine
Fruit born from tree
A harvest of beautiful bounty
Engines revving, on your mark, get set...WAIT, STOP
But I'm ready!.. please start again

'Lockdown'
Shutters are down all about town
We're in Lockdown
Joggers multiply as the days go by
We're in Lockdown
Schools out, stay home we shout
We're in Lockdown
Jeans are feeling tight...that ain't right
We're in Lockdown
You’ve stolen my freedom and reduced me
Under house arrest
A parallel universe exists
Lockdown, look down, look back with nostalgia, for the life we used to lead, and took for granted, will it ever return? Will we ever resume our unlocked lives?
Lockdown, schmockdown,
Never was there such a load of Crockdown!
masked and plastic gloves
No hugs
Essentials only
Isolated and lonely
What a load of..
All the same what a load off
A Much needed rest
Feeling blessed
Suddenly, there is time
space to dream and to listen
to silence myself
Through all the troubles
A lesson to learn

'Love'
The liminal space where there are no boundaries and we have to stand naked and exposed
Love transforms us
Makes us whole
The Love that I call God opens her arms for me to enter
So we open our arms to each other
To love and be loved
Many say love is mighty
But it's also in the small
Remove your heart's obstacles
And you may well see it all
In for a penny, in for a pound,
It's love that makes the world go round!
Send my love to the flowers
With sunshine and showers
Love's tendrils reaching out to the furthest shores
Like the ripples from a pebble cast in the widest ocean
Lost in the beauty in your eyes
Found in the beauty of your soul
A lingering look
A sideways smile
A tender touch
A whispered word
I savour the plump fruits of love
And hoard them in my heart
To describe the indescribable
to solve the unsolvable and
to know the unknowable...
that is Love




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