Celebrating Life
I don't think I've ever commented in this blog on the little film clips from Spiritual Literacy, the book that my husband Frederic and I put together 10 years ago, that have been sprinkled throughout the New Morning shows almost since the beginning. They are from a TV series created in Canada called
Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life, which consists of 26 half-hours, each devoted to one letter in our Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy (Attention, Beauty, Compassion, Devotion, etc. through Wonder, X-The Mystery, You, and Zeal).
Frederic and I love this series unabashedly — and other than choosing the excerpts that are read in voiceover, we didn't even have anything to do with producing it! But we are now distributing it on six DVDs from
our website, and we're happy to report that it's being used by small groups in churches, chaplains in prisons and hospitals, retirement communities, and lots of other settings. If you've seen the brief pieces on New Morning, you probably know why. They have a meditative quality that inspire reflection and discussion.
The
clip clip used in the New Morning show on
Celebrations is one of my favorites; it's from the "Gratitude" episode on
Volume 2 of the DVD series. I hadn't seen it for a while, and it really leaped out at me because it so beautifully sums up a lot of what is said and shown about the nature of celebrations in the rest of the show.
The quote read in voiceover is from the Christian devotional writer Henri J. M. Nouwen. He's talking about a birthday, but he could be talking about any celebration — a wedding, a prom, a tea party for close girlfriends, or a baby shower. He could be talking about those times when we celebrate our cultural heritage, like the Samoan fire dancer
Fo'i Tuitama, or our spiritual connection, like
Elizabeth Wandelmaier did when she had a Bat Mitzvah. The whole point is to celebrate life, in all its amazing forms, and to express gratitude: "Thank you for being born and being among us."
Nouwen goes on to say that a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life and so, we really should celebrate them every day. When we were not able to get away for a special trip for my 60th birthday, I decided that I would celebrate my birthday on the 5th of the month for my entire 60th year. I didn't have a birthday celebration every month, but I did celebrate more than usual that year. And each time, I said, "It's good that I'm alive. It's good that I'm walking on this earth."
Of course, celebrations are more than just about the person being honored. Nouwen ends with that point. Celebrations are about connecting with others. How wonderful it would be if every day we remembered this: "Let's be glad and rejoice. This is the day that God has made for us to be and to be together."