Divinely Dance Into The New Year

You did it: you changed wild lament into whirling dance; You ripped off my black mourning band and decked me in wildflowers. (The Message Bible)

2021 was a big year for me!  I turned 40! I got engaged! I discovered Yacht Rock!  I added more support groups to my life, for myself and for my business. While many conventions were canceled, some continued, and I got to attend DragonCon again with some of my best friends. I ended what was a horrible year for most to something magical for me and I am proud of myself.

I have A LOT that I want to write about, which is probably why I haven’t been writing-I’m busy and overwhelmed!  Slowly I will begin writing again and the first posts that you will see this year are spiritual book reviews.  I get spiritual books for free from a group called Speakeasy, as long as I review them in a timely manner.  Unfortunately, I have been so busy and forgetful that I am woefully behind, but without further ado here is my book review of The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation by Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell.

This book was lovely, and I would recommend it to anyone who has an open mind and wants to think more deeply about the concept of the trinity.  Rohr makes the point that even though belief in a trinitarian god is a core part of Christianity, most Christians don’t really think about the concept and its importance.  And yet, the belief in the trinity is so important for Christians-not because it is a litmus test for who is right and who is wrong, but because it illustrates a fundamental truth-there is nothing without relationship.

Life is a process and God is love.  We are all a part of God because God is the Love that is a part of everything.  I know this may sound New Age-y, but it is not.  If you want to think in Christian terms, this immense, awesome, mind-blowing maker of creation is what we would call “the Father” (or “the Mother,” which is what I prefer).  She is a part of everything lovely and anything that loves comes from Her.

Christ is the savior not because believing in Him means you’re saved from going to Hell, but because He shows how you can be in relationship with God and being in relationship with God is being in relationship with the Love of the Universe (my own term).

Christ was (and is) in The Flow.

Christ connected with the Flow, the Love, of the Universe all the time and we can be that way too!  If you connect to the flow of the universe, then you will realize that no one ever dies, because we are all a part of each other and the life force that continually renews.  We are saved from death by following the Flow of Christ.

The Holy Spirit can be described as the relationship between that Flow and us and God and God’s self.  It is my belief that Christ is resurrected not because he literally came back from the dead, but because He lives in us through the Holy Spirit.  Humans have the wonderful opportunity to connect with Divine Love and to be in Her flow.  Christ is the way, but so are many others.  Christ is us in the Flow of God.

This idea of being in the Flow of God is indeed life saving to me.  It reminds me of “walking the middle path” and being in the “Wise Mind” found in the tenets of Buddhism and in the zen-based behavioral therapy called DBT, or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.  I have experienced the Flow of God and I strive to remain in the Flow of God-this is a laughably impossible task to be in all the time, but it is a worthy goal anyway.

My only disappointment with The Divine Dance is that I felt it could go deeper-I was left wanting more!  Fortunately, it does have wonderfully accessible footnotes that provide many insights and directions towards more expansive ideas and sources.  I loved and wrote down many quotes in the book and have even been sharing some on Facebook and Instagram.  Here are some of my favorites:

“The energy in the universe is not in the planets, or in the protons or neutrons, but in the relationship between them.”

““God does not love you because you are good. God loves you because God is good. I should just stop writing right here. There’s nothing more to say, and it’ll take the rest of your life to internalize this. ”

“Be reminded that neuroscience now tells us that fear, negativity, and hatred stick like Velcro to the nerves, while positivity, gratitude, and appreciation slide away like Teflon from those same nerves—until we savor them, or choose them, for a minimum of a conscious fifteen seconds! Only then do they imprint! Please reflect on this. The positive, loving, and non-argumentative savoring of the moment is called contemplation.”

“The cross is the standing icon and image of God, showing us that God knows what it’s like to be rejected; God is in solidarity with us in the experience of abandonment; God is not watching the suffering from a safe distance. Somehow, believe it or not, God is in the suffering with us”

“The whole shattering experience of living is avoided whenever we try to make forgiveness into mere legal pardon—like Catholic indulgences or confession, or Protestant transactional theories of salvation. Such an approach reflects a mind-set of, “Let’s do something. Let’s avoid this whole relational vulnerability thing if we can, okay? Let’s just skip out on confidence and surrender.” This kind of religion is not Trinitarian. It’s not participating in the divine dance, and it’s not going to get us anywhere. When I can stand under the waterfall of infinite mercy and know that I am loved precisely in my unworthiness, then I can easily pass along mercy to you.”

“I do not believe there is any wrath in God whatsoever—it’s theologically impossible when God is Trinity.”

I hope these quotes heal and help you as they did me and that they motivate you to read this book.  I highlighted many passages and I know I will come back to them often.  My take away is to forgive and love everyone and everything as much as possible, in the only way I can-by being in The Flow.