I've gotten a bit behind with both this blog and Open Tabernacle (to which I've yet to make a contribution) for a number of complex reasons. Running about looking at apartments here in Prague, because it feels time to move out of this very tiny studio on the river to something more spacious - with a meditation room or chapel, being an essential requirement. These are my two favorites so far, each of them about 700 Euros, which is why it's still cheap to live here in Prague:
None of this has anything to do with the proper subject matter of this blog, I just felt like sharing. Curiously, though, I started the search in response to an 'interior call' - just the sense that it was time to move, but it was a very persistent, interior movement which I felt I had to obey, despite the folly, and somehow it felt like a gift. When I informed my very friendly landlady of my thoughts, she told me she was selling the apartment and the new owners were going to refurbish it prior to raising the price. She was planning on informing me when the contracts were finalized in about a month, and I would then be given the two months required notice. Synchronicity once again and a sign of how the Spirit is always with us, sometimes in surprising ways. We are not alone.
I've also been involved in emotional trials with teenager angst - conducting tryouts for our upcoming drama production of Polly Teale's great adaptation of Jane Eyre. The girls in the cast very much wanted the dreamboat of the school, a sultry Argentinian boy named Santiago (right), to try out and win the part of the dark and mysterious master of Thornfield Hall, Edmund Rochester. Santiago shook my hand some weeks ago and said, "I'm definitely doing it, Mr. Cameron," and all the girls swooned. But Santi's best friend, Julien (below), also wanted the part, so Santi, being a Latin gentleman, backed out at the last minute and all the girls swooned again for very different reasons. Julien, at 15, looks like he has never been kissed and has yet to begin shaving (in contrast to the very dark Santiago). So ... we now have a cherub in the part and all the girls are planning on various ways of 'manning' him up. I shudder to think. Every time I pass Santi in the corridors, he turns away sheepishly. However, I pray over every one of these casting choices and feel very much like a Novice Master, praying over whether to approve his young charges for vows. Somehow, it felt "just right" to go with the very innocent and sweet Julien, who has tremendous stage presence, a magnificent stage voice and a very winsome personality. Santiago exudes 'attitude,' which is what made him seem so suitable for the part, but also makes him difficult.
Lastly, my very dear lesbian friend, Anastasia has been in Prague this last week as we try once again to bring another spiritual being into this world. I've been doing my best to entertain her and it's been a wonderful experience to have her here, since I usually go to London for these attempts. Our sense of spiritual connection is very strong, we both feel we are 'parents' in differing ways, though Anastasia will carry the weight of bringing up the child. Again, another spiritual gift and a sign of hope for the future. The Spirit is everywhere around us, offering us signs of hope for the future - though not many of those blossoming sprigs are found within the formal institutions of religion. But then the Master from Nazareth didn't seem to pay much attention to formal religion either - though he clearly respected the Temple for its symbolic reference to the "Father" - but most of his religious activities took place far from it - and where did he go to pray? Into the wilderness, not into the sanctuary. Which leads me to my final thought - what of the spiritual formation we will give the new child coming soon into the world. We've decided to remain open and to expose the child to a variety of spiritual alternatives - which may sound superficially synchronistic and "new age," but Anastasia is drawn to a Buddhist meditation center near her house, where she feels spiritually at peace. The Christian organizations in the UK - she feels no connection with them whatsoever, largely because of their sorry history of anti-gay attitudes. So I'm happy to go with her intuitions and because she is such a spiritual, discerning woman, I have no doubt the child will receive the most beneficial exposure to genuine, authentic, lived spirituality devoid of all ideology. And that is another sign of hope and the Spirit's surprising presence, always delighting us with the unexpected and manifesting 'her' presence in the most unlikely places.
Meanwhile, I've been reading Margaret Atwood's latest, The Year of the Flood, which is as bleak as bleak can be about our perilous future - but also funny. A very severe warning sign, yet reading it gives me hope. Amen.
3 comments:
Best wishes for the falt -hunting: very different to what you get in London - and for the production - and for the renewed attempts at human creation.
And to add to your burdens at this time of transition: don't forget an novel with a plot that has left some of us hanging like those 1920s newsreel teases that ended with the lady tied to the railroad track and the train bearing down.
Good luck with the apartment hunting.
Haha- thanks for reminding me, Bill. I've been neglecting the novel as well, but have just found a wonderful flat, so that anxiety is over. If you and your partner ever get over this way, I can put you in the sofa bed in the living room. :-)
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