It's All About How You See

I think the contemplative mind is the most absolute assault on the secular or rational worldview, because it really is a different mind—a very different point of view—that pays attention to different things.

The mind that I call the “small self” or the “false self” reads everything in terms of personal advantage and short-term effort. “What’s in it for me?” “How will I look?” “How will I look good?” As long as you read reality from the reference point of the small self of “how I personally feel” or “what I need or want,” you cannot get very far. The lens never opens up.

Thus, the great religions have taught that we need to change the seer much more than just telling people what to see—that is contemplation. It does not tell people what to see as much as how to see.

Richerd Rohr

Greenbelt's 40th

Got back from the Greenbelt Festival on Tuesday night...heavy traffic on the M25 (what's new?)...the M20 flowed nicely so was on time for the ferry.
Rewind...
After 2 gorgeous days in Brighton with Jack my dear wife, we headed for Cheltenham - which took us 6 hours (damn British roads!) -
It's our 4th Greenbelt the trot  since the 80s...Greenbelt has become our oasis, a place where we are comforted, challenged and stretched. It's encouraging to be in the midst of thousands of people who have a similar ethos when in our daily lives it's not often the case.
Greenbelt nudges us back on track...with its eclectic array of arts, talks and conversation...

What did I personally get out of Greenbelt this year? That's a good question.
I can be a pretty cynical guy (yes really)...and one of the things that challenged me was the right to be skeptical but pay attention about getting cynical.
You see I'm really skeptical about our world systems, its politics, its capitalism that benefits the rich and keeps the poor impoverished...(I could go on)...and my skepticism can then boarder on down right cynicism ( a jaded, scornful negativity) which leads me to think that nothing can change.
Greenbelt challenged me that things can change, things are changing for the better, for the common good...
Jim Wallis suggested that skepticism of our unjust institutions is healthy. But cynicism is dangerous because it believes that nothing can change.
So I've been challenged to remain skeptical but to use to fuel a dogged perseverance to get things changed!!!

More on Greenbelt coming soon...