A man named Phil introduced me to the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, the poet that Joanna Macy quoted in this week’s OnBeing Hope Portal. Here’s the poem once again:
Phil's videos touched me in ways that might surprise you. I'll think about my response more fully and you'll probably get a long email from me tomorrow/church day.
What a beautiful life, to have touched and held mystery so deeply, and what a beautiful way to honor it. Thank you for sharing Phil’s wisdom and the journey of your lives, together and apart. 💓
I lost a very close friend from ALS and I remember sitting with him many times. Your thoughts brought back some very hard and sad thoughts. But I do know he is in a better place now. I can only imagine his thoughts on the turmoil we are living through now.
Phil basically wanted to be in meditation and prayer for that last segment of his life. It was very much an intentional act of preparation for his death.
The entirety of Phil's death - from his decision to enter into hospice and the ways that the weeks in hospice went were unlike anything I have ever seen. It truly was a beautiful dying.
I know that not everyone has the option or ability for something like this but it was very much a way that as not approaching death with fear but with hope and trust in what was ahead, whatever that would be.
We read Nature and the Human Soul just after reading Rohr's Falling Upwards. Nature felt a lot like Rohr's model but if you zoomed in a LOT on the two halves of life. The stages that Plotkin shared felt like they aligned greatly with what Rohr shared in Falling Upwards but jsut going into a lot more detail and seeing smaller stages within the larger halves.
While Plotkin definitely does not write from a Christian worldview, I found it to be very compatible and also deeply meaningful. It helped me in that season of my life to see where I could find truth in a much wider variety of places than I was allowing myself to at that point. I also believe that his deep emphasis upon connection with nature has a lot to do with how I engage the world today.
I have been feeling like I need to re-engage the book once again but just haven't done so. I'd be curious how it speaks to me some ten years after I first read it.
I plan on becoming a paid subscriber soon. Touched deeply by today’s post.
Thank you on both counts!
Phil's videos touched me in ways that might surprise you. I'll think about my response more fully and you'll probably get a long email from me tomorrow/church day.
I look forward to it!
Thanks very much for sharing such a fine example of love, peace, and fortitude.
What a beautiful life, to have touched and held mystery so deeply, and what a beautiful way to honor it. Thank you for sharing Phil’s wisdom and the journey of your lives, together and apart. 💓
I lost a very close friend from ALS and I remember sitting with him many times. Your thoughts brought back some very hard and sad thoughts. But I do know he is in a better place now. I can only imagine his thoughts on the turmoil we are living through now.
💕
It never occurred to me that I could decide to die in solitude. I’ll be pondering that.
Phil basically wanted to be in meditation and prayer for that last segment of his life. It was very much an intentional act of preparation for his death.
The entirety of Phil's death - from his decision to enter into hospice and the ways that the weeks in hospice went were unlike anything I have ever seen. It truly was a beautiful dying.
I know that not everyone has the option or ability for something like this but it was very much a way that as not approaching death with fear but with hope and trust in what was ahead, whatever that would be.
Another amazing post and photos. Wondering about your study of Bill Plotkins work.
We read Nature and the Human Soul just after reading Rohr's Falling Upwards. Nature felt a lot like Rohr's model but if you zoomed in a LOT on the two halves of life. The stages that Plotkin shared felt like they aligned greatly with what Rohr shared in Falling Upwards but jsut going into a lot more detail and seeing smaller stages within the larger halves.
While Plotkin definitely does not write from a Christian worldview, I found it to be very compatible and also deeply meaningful. It helped me in that season of my life to see where I could find truth in a much wider variety of places than I was allowing myself to at that point. I also believe that his deep emphasis upon connection with nature has a lot to do with how I engage the world today.
I have been feeling like I need to re-engage the book once again but just haven't done so. I'd be curious how it speaks to me some ten years after I first read it.
Have you read Plotkin's work?