A Monk Manifesto: Living in the World with Deep Intention, and Coffee

Another woman of note to follow.  Christine Valters Paintner.  A way of living in the world with deep intention.  Her Manifesto is a public commitment to live a contemplative, creative and compassionate life. 

How this resonates to me in my life:  I often choose quiet, calmness and chances to be alone or I choose not to be in a group or meeting.  Example are AA meetings.   After all this time I am uncomfortable speaking in meetings.  I actually have fear around sharing in meetings.  The thinking is - the belief is that when called on - you share.  Why do I have so much fear around this?  Would sharing more often help me with reducing the fear.  I feel more comfortable sharing one on one.  Although, lately, I tend to listen more than share even in small groups.

The Saturday coffee group,  once the women in treatment left, the core group of women were still at the table.  I feel very comfortable with this group and will contribute to the conversation.  But even with this core group of women, I am careful and tend to listen more than share.  Partly this is the "ego" thing, I often feel like I sound arrogant (fearful) or without humility. 

I choose to be alone or to not share, but when I do, often feel bad because I am alone, or feel like I let people down.  Do people want to spend time with me?   Do people think I have something to say?  More often than not, I choose not to talk.  I listen. 

Over the last few days there were a couple of events or items that were on my focus.  Getting through two days of volunteering during spring break at the Fort, driving to Portland to have the lip biopsy, and lastly, figuring out how to generate the reports required to support the new client I have been assigned to.  In the meantime, rest, walk and be present.  I feel a sense of accomplishment or really relief,  that I got through all of these things.  I have learned much, I met commitments. 

Back to the Monk Manifesto, or a list of intentions - to do just that, live with intention.  This is my mission, my objective.  When I get lost, or fearful, or do not feel centered -  thinking of the list of intentions in the Manifesto can being me back to being present and to what matters. 

It is a roadmap for living, like the 12 Steps, like reading Taoism or any number of spiritual paths one can study.   The Monk Manifesto feels like home because of the  strong tradition of Benedictine values.  Copied from On Being so I may review and meditate on without having to look for it.

The Monk Manifesto

1. I commit to finding moments each day for silence and solitude, to make space for another voice to be heard, and to resist a culture of noise and constant stimulation.
2. I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others.
3. I commit to cultivating community by finding kindred spirits along the path, soul friends with whom I can share my deepest longings, and mentors who can offer guidance and wisdom for the journey.
4. I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish.
5. I commit to bringing myself fully present to the work I do, whether paid or unpaid, holding a heart of gratitude for the ability to express my gifts in the world in meaningful ways.
6. I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do.
7. I commit to a lifetime of ongoing conversion and transformation, recognizing that I am always on a journey with both gifts and limitations.

And remember, Maira Kalman.  One of my favorite muses.  Listening to her now - an On Being conversation.   She talks about angst.  The angst of writing.  How she got to writing and to the art.  It looks to me that she celebrates daily, maybe ordinary things.  That are not ordinary at all.  She does talk about ritual and to me that sounds like, feels like what does is a good day?   A simple life? With intention.   ("coffee and the obits")   A discussion about how to begin the day?  Back to coffee and reading the obits.  A glimpse into people's lives, working through bad periods and good periods.   

What else?  Walking and looking at trees, then coffee.  Ms. Kalman has the ritual of repeating how she is the luckiest person in New York, luckiest person in the world.  Much of this appreciative "luck finding" is because she lives, walks, drinks coffee  in New York. 

Her painting above is about coffee and her dog.  My favorite things too, coffee and my dog, and other people's dogs.   

Like my muse, I have enough, I create.  

Footnote:  Some days are difficult due to the political corruption, really unprecedented, that surrounds us all.  It is like an undertow that is demoralizing and exhausting.