Tag: Books

The Wonders We Seek

Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Cafe

My first encounter with the quote “We carry within us the wonders we seek” struck me as a kind of ephinany. As a newly trained therapist, this one statement put in perspective that my task involved helping folks find the wonder, the capability, they carried within, to assist them in bringing it out in themselves. I hung a sign with this quote in my office.

Very similar words are attributed to Rumi in the 13th century, but later credited to Sir Thomas Browne, a “polymath,” known for his diverse education in science, religion, and the esoteric. He had a deep curiosity about the natural world and wrote widely with subtle humor.

He was educated at Winchester College, later graduating from Oxford. Browne then began studies in medicine and received his medical degree from Leiden in 1633. His prolific writing careeer was marked by a controversy when he discovered an unauthorized edition of Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician). This version included “unauthorized religious speculations,” which ultimately got him placed on Papal Index Librorum Prohibitorom, the “banned book list” of its time.

The following year Browne published Pseudodoxia Epidemica, (Enquiries Into Very many Received Tenants, and commonly Presumed Truths) which delved into the prevalence of false beliefs and “vulgar errors.” This was at a time when science was considered “New Learning,” and, as such, somewhat suspect. His book proved helpful in promoting scientific journalism.

Browne’s curiosity is inspiring. That he builds on Rumi’s wisdom about wonders within reminds us that we all have the opportunity to expand on the knowledge and wisdom that has gone before us. And we are enabled to do that with the recognition that “We carry within us the wonders we seek.”

The invitation is open to share two cups of tea anytime at Hope’s Café or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we bearers of hope, the “wait staff” at Hope’s Café, for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Sparks in the Dark

Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Café

In a previous blog several weeks ago, I made reference to a book I had discovered and intended to order called Hope in the Dark.   Since receiving it, I have been steadily working my way through it, not so much seeking answers as seeking anchors, something solid in this current murky morass.

Published in 2004, the time frame in which author Rebecca Solnit wrote was in the early days of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Thanksgiving before President Bush led us into that quagmire, my brother, who was visiting us at the time, said he thought all the rhetoric was “just a lot of saber rattling.”  But before it was over one of his sons would do multiple tours there and now suffers from PTSD. Unforeseen consequences? Apparently so, as 82% of the country supported the invasion, at least initially.  Eighteen percent of us bore the mantle laid on us of “unpatriotic.” 

Yet Solnit sifts though the circumstances like a beachcomber finding the ocean’s treasures left behind amid the litter.  The litter is most certainly there but we are remiss if that is all to which we give our attention.   In her opening, Solnit refers to Virginia Woolf’s statement that: “The future is dark, which is on the whole, the best thing the future can be” which the author interprets to be dark as inscrutable rather than terrible.  She notes that we often mistake the one for the other and elaborates: “Or we transform the future’s unknowability into something certain, the fulfillment of our dread, the place beyond which there is no way forward.  But again and again, far stranger things happen than the end of the world.”

The context eludes me now, but I came across the term “sparks in the dark” this week and latched onto it.  “Sparks” conveys energy, an energy that is the fuel of hope.  Hope inspires action, whether quiet or bold, even when that action may be simply putting one foot in front of the other.  Despair is hope that has run out of fuel.  The antidote is movement.  I think of the fellow in the Bible described as lying by the pool of Bethesda, “hoping for a miracle” that the waters reputed for healing powers would stir and he could be cured and mobile again. But as the story unfolds, Jesus says, “Arise, take up thy bed and walk!”

I offer some encouragement for the journey:

“Hope is the small light that insists the path ahead is still possible.” – Grace Ellison “When you plant hope, you harvest courage to face tomorrow.” – Marcus Reed “Hope whispers that the worst moment is only a chapter, not the whole story.” – Amelia Brown

Insist on Hope read the church marquis this week.  Let us insist.  Let us persist.

 The invitation is open to share two cups of tea anytime at Hope’s Café or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we bearers of hope, the “wait staff” at Hope’s Café, for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Orphan

The word “orphan” took up residence in my awareness recently.  I think the loss by someone I knew of their last living parent may have triggered this.   I recall when my father died the year following my mother’s death, feeling the impact of being “orphaned,” a sense that even as a 60-year-old was difficult.  My quilting friend Mary had a post last week about “orphan” blocks, bringing the word to the fore again.  I am recalling as I type this that I also heard a report recently about the devastating number of children aged five and under who have been orphaned by the war in Gaza.  Statistics from December indicated 24,000 to 25,000 Palestinian children had been orphaned in the current war. Another 17,000 children in the Gaza strip are estimated to be unaccompanied or separated from their parents. It would seem almost certainly that some Israeli children are now orphaned but I did not find such information readily available.   Not as recently, but adding to the numbers of orphaned children, are the aftereffects of the pandemic, where about 200,000 children lost parents or other caregivers.  Those are some of the reasons the term “orphan,” more commonly known now as Children Awaiting Parents, came to mind.

My first job out of graduate school was at a Methodist children’s home.  I was aware of no orphans in the classic sense, that is,  children who have lost both parents to death. There were plenty of children from single parent homes, where the parent, due to whatever circumstances, could no longer carry the responsibility.  Grandparents who had taken on childrearing when their adult children were dysfunctional or otherwise unavailable, sometimes utilized the Children’s Home when they themselves could no longer carry the load.   My husband and I both grew up with parents who took children in.  We took foster children ourselves and we both worked with children in our therapy practices over the years. This is a subject close to my heart, and therefore quite troubling to me that there are many more children needing homes than there are available people to offer them. 

  There are in this country about 4.5 million people who are adopted, about 7% of the population. Many adoption agencies are busy matching available children with parents.  Various programs and resources are available, perhaps one of the better known, The Dave Thomas Foundation, associated with Wendy’s restaurant.

  As an adult I learned that two girls in my grade school class were adopted.  However, they blended in seamlessly enough that I don’t recall anyone ever making an issue of it or considering them any different.  Thus, I hope as an adopted grandchild appears to be on the horizon for us, I pray that she will come to feel as significant a part of the family as any other member.  (And likely THAT is the primary reason that the word “orphan” has been on my mind 😊).

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Hope’s Café Bonus: “The work goes on. The cause endures. The hope still lives. And our dreams never die.”—Edward Kennedy from OrphanQuotes.QuotesGram