Sitting with Reality

"The more we mindfully observe what is, the more beauty comes into focus. There is nothing broken here, nothing to fix. Rather, the prophet-mystic practices sitting with reality as it is. From that space of quiet listening, we may perceive what is ours to do and tap into the vitality we need to do it."
--Richard Rohr
 
Sitting with reality as it is... 
 
Have you ever sat and just weeped with gratitude at a new realization of reality? A time when your perception of a scene became clear, like a mirage that has just come into sharp focus? When some hidden meaning was suddenly and gratuitously revealed to you? 
 
Centering Prayer is being with everything as it is. It's teaching us to overcome our overwhelming perception that everything is broken and to let go of our central disposition that we must fix everything. We feel that if we don't do something, then we must sit in despair and that is unbearable to us. We'd rather wring our hands about how to create a world of harmony and peace -- how ironic -- than to allow the disharmony of the world to go on unmitigated. 
 
Meditation seems to be doing nothing when so much needs to be done. We sense an urgency to do something. But that is exactly why we need contemplative prayer--to prepare ourselves for doing. The preparing part is coming to know God and his will for us. In our times of silence, we may grow to understand that not everything we think needs fixed actually needs to be fixed. In the silence, we may discover that -- in the letting go, the loss, the undoing of what has been done before -- there is resurrection, there is new life. We find it hard to let things die that we were once a part of, that filled a place or purpose in our hearts and minds and lives. 
 
Can there really be beauty in broken things? Can breaking and destroying really be a good thing, something that we should allow or even facilitate? Change is the nature of creation. Evolution and revolution are natural and continuous processes. Sitting in the silence may be the only way we can come to accept that what is happening-- as hurtful and harmful as it might be-- is the first step towards doing something. We must perceive what is ours to do before we can do it. In our rush to help, we may cause more harm, or forego the benefit of sitting in the dust and decay and allowing ourselves to be changed. 
 
Centering Prayer refines, deepens, and enhances our capacity to perceive reality as an observer outside of ourselves, beyond our biases and preferences and prejudices. Our prayer of consent creates within us an intensity of awareness, transforming our focus as an observer, becoming a witness  to God's goodness in the world, his infinite depth of love, grace, beauty - in every thing and every moment. 
 
Sit silently and patiently and see where God is working and then, when God reveals what is yours to do, weep with gratitude and then go and do it.