There are people who think spiritual life is a way to run away from the real world. They see spiritual life as a crutch, an escape, a way to ignore or avoid what is really happening.
Some people talk about my brother and sister monks as if they were hiding behind cloister walls. They seem to believe people join monasteries because they cannot handle the world around them. They seem to think people go to church to find relief from everyday life.
They see spiritual life as people being nice to each other.
That is not my experience of spiritual life.
For me, spiritual life is lived, like Max, where the wild things are. Spiritual life is not confined to religious places or ceremonies. Spiritual life is everyday life.
Max was able to tame the wild things by looking them in their yellow eyes and not blinking. He did not run away. They called him the most wild thing of all.
Spiritual life does not run away, escape, or hide from the truth of the world. Spiritual life looks wild truth in the eye and does not blink. Spiritual life looks into the yellow eyes of suffering, pain, hatred, and anger. Spiritual life looks into the eyes of hunger, poverty, sickness, and violence without looking away.
We fear the wild things all around us, and in us. We look into our own eyes, the eyes of other people, and the eyes of the world around us. Spiritual life gives us courage and patience to look deeply into those eyes without blinking.
Spiritual life shows us the love in us is the most wild thing of all.
When do you look truth in the eye without blinking?
How does spiritual life help you live where the wild things are?
[Image by geraldbrazell]
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