Make Way for Namaste: Kyle Greenberg

Namaste, a Hindi word used for greetings and goodbyes.


Namaste, a theological statement. A statement that, in my opinion, is as beautiful as any in existence. 


Literally, it means "I bow to you", but it is interpreted as meaning "the Divine in me recognizes and honors the Divine in you". You can replace "Divine" with "God", "Light", "Spirit", and several other congruent ideas. 


Namaste is an ancient Sanskrit understanding that says, "I respect the place in you that is of love, of truth and of Light. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me then we are one."


Leo Buscaglia, a professor known for his work pertaining to love, understood namaste to mean, "I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you, where lies your love, your light, your truth and your beauty. I honor the place in you, where...if you are in that place in you ... and I am in that place in me...then there is only one of us."


"Namaste is an East Indian greeting which means 'the light within me bows to the light within you.' In other words, beyond our achy bones, our tired feet and our multi-colored real life soap operas, lurks a dimension that is more than the body, the persona, the ego and all the 'trappings and the suits of woe' as Hamlet would say---a dimension where there isn't a 'you' and 'me' but rather a synergy that is more than all that, a space for the eternal to rest within the temporal."


So whats with this "spiritual" jumbo you ask? Its simple. Namaste runs much of my life. Namaste is the reason Jake Salley is my best friend. The reason why I admire my mother. The reason why I cherish my father. The reason why I fall in love. 


St. Germain interpreted namaste to mean:
The God I AM of my soul salutes, forever,
the God I AM within your being.

Read that again. 


To me, namaste expresses the acknowledgment of the presence of God in each others' lives. Namaste honors the way He works in you. In me. Namaste smiles and gives a hug to the Lord's presence.

I strongly believe that my God works through each of us. That He has a completely unique manifestation in everyone. This is why Jake is my best friend. No one communicates God to me in the exact way he does. I love how God expresses himself through Jake. His wit, intentionality, care, and creativity. This is why I admire my mother. God has chosen her to express His patience, compassion, humility, strength, and beauty. This is why I cherish my father. God has chosen him to express His intellect, humor, selflessness, and faithfulness. This is why I am attracted to certain girls. God chooses to express His passion, humor, goodness, compassion, and integrity through them.

So namaste. To you, and to me. For yes, the God in me, and in you, needs to take time to acknowledge itself. How often do I fail to recognize your hand in my life? How often do I fail to understand where I end and you begin? Thank you for how you express your creativity, comprehension, care, and love through me.

Now go, practice namaste. Tell your roommate how God expressed his beautiful self to you through him or her. Tell your parents how you see God's light in them. Tell yourself how you see God express elements of his character through you. Tell me how God did something for you through me.

Namaste. I love you.

Going “Home”-Tess Bates

The end of the school year is always a challenging time. I'm not talking about wrapping up classes or trying to raise grades. I'm talking about packing up and going home. This is my second year that when May rolls around, I have to put all my possessions in boxes and move out of places that I've come to call “home.”

For many college students, “home” is back at their parent's house where they spend the summers and breaks. It is the place where they can go back and see old friends and do laundry for free, as well as take advantage of home cooked meals. It is the place where they can rest and feel at peace with comfortability.

To be honest, I don't know where my home is. My situation is rather sticky and it has left me with a haunting question of how I define home. I grew up in suburb of Chicago for the first 18 years of my life. My mom moved to Vermont the summer before my freshman year of college. My dad still lives in the Midwest, along with one of my siblings and my extended family. I guess, “home” for me will always be Warrenville, where I grew up. But it's getting harder to define. If you ask me where I call home, I don't know if I could tell you.

I like the nostalgic feeling of going “home” to Chicago, because it's familiar: it's what I know. I don't mind going to Vermont, because it is the “home” where all of my possessions are kept. I'm starting to feel that my permanent “home” is in California. This is where I want to be, spend the rest of my life, place all my earthly possessions in one house.

But I can't help feeling that these aren't my homes, there's something much deeper that is tugging at my heart. Maybe it's heaven. Maybe I don't feel rested or completely grounded anywhere because I have been uprooted. Maybe it's because this isn't my final refuge.

Again, I don't think I could tell you. But don't put your entire life into this home or that house, because it's not the last place where you'll live. And maybe we all need to be uprooted to truly evaluate how we view the sense of “home” that we've grown up with. And for those whose hearts are wandering and trying to find rest, like mine: we'll figure it out, together if we have to.

In the meantime, I need to get back to packing up my apartment for the summer.

Namaste,

Tess Bates

Tess Bates: Kyle Greenberg

Tess Bates; A beautiful human.

Namaste, Tess.

The Dash by Linda Ellis

The Dash by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of his friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the second with tears,
but he said that what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth,
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars, the house, the cash,
what matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard,
are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left.
You could be at “dash mid-range.”

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what’s true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
and more often wear a smile,
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life’s actions to rehash...
would you be pleased with the things they have to say
about how you spent your dash?

Linda Ellis.

Red Thread: Tess Bates

I read this quote the other day, “An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break” - an ancient Chinese belief.

I would call this happenstance fate, or divine intervention.

We all have people in our lives that have shaped us in some way or another. I truly believe God puts people in our lives for a reason. I also believe that those people will find us in one way or another. I do believe that God plans occurrences, but I believe that he leaves enough wiggle room for us to move around in. Let me explain:

One of the most influential persons in my life in high school was a beautiful individual named Swimmy Kimmy. We met during my youth group's summer adventure trip in Wisconsin as she was one of our group's trip guides. To make an extremely long story short, she turned out to be a huge mentor figure in my life. Little did we know that we had attended the same church, worked at the same camp, and lived in towns near each other for years. You see, I believe Kimmy was supposed to be in my life one way or another, and God gave us many chances to get to know one another. We just so happened to cross paths at that specific adventure trip that summer, and so the course of fate continued in our lives.

We think that our lives are mapped out in one specific direction. This is not so. If we are supposed to meet someone, we will. As the quote from above says time, place, and circumstance are not deterring factors from meeting people that we absolutely need in our lives.

I am so thankful for this very fact of existence. I made some new friends this semester, and I'm sure they know who they are (Jen and Aranda), and I absolutely need these people in my life. I believe the divine intervention of God sped the process of meeting them up to this specific season in my life. The things is, we have this invisible thread that connects us, and time will tell, but it is bound never to be broken. It didn't matter that I met Jen in Intro to Lit, because I could have accidentally ran into her scooter, or met her through mutual friends. It didn't matter that Aranda is roommates with Jen, because I could have met her by reading her blog posts. We somehow found each other, and now we're living life together in community.

Hold onto people like that. Leave room for God to open doors that lead you to these types of people. And don't worry, you will meet them somehow, someway, someday.

Namaste and Love,

Tess Bates

Friends and Graduate School: Kyle Greenberg

 This year has been an interesting year for me. While I did not move to a new town, change universities, or even lose a lot of my close friends, my role has been completely recreated.

I was very comfortable with myself these last 4 years. I grew into a position I loved and was largely successful in, had a serious significant other, had steady friendships, knew my post-graduate plan, and was participatory in a healthy religious life. 

The start of this year found me in a new position doing something I had never done, single, detached from some of the relationships that were close to my ex, and removed from the spiritual disciplines that had meant so much to me. 

These last few months have been considerably difficult for me. I have found myself not knowing how to think or behave, and to me, there is no more uncomfortable, more scary, or more unnerving thing. I have many insecurities, we all do. The way I suppress mine is through put-togetherness. I compensate for my feelings of being young my dressing up. If my age won't get me respect my attire will. I try to fight insecurities with my height by working out. There may not be a lot of me, but I will make sure I can be confident in what is here. So this disequilibrium has been exceedingly difficult for me. I have been more frustrated, overwhelmed, confused, angry, and sad this year than ever before. Well, at least since I have been a healthy adult. However, this unsureness has pushed me to rely on God and others more than I have ever done before. 

I have developed substantial, meaningful relationships with many members of my graduate class. These people have embraced me in my vulnerability, and allowed themselves to be vulnerable with me. I love you Garrett, Evetth, Leif, Lisa, Amanda, Olivia, and Ramona. And I love the rest of my cohort as well, but those listed have become intimate friends. There is still room for more, so please seek me out, and I will seek you out too. Yes I'm talking to you Cherie, Davinah, and Logan.  

Vulnerability is important, it is what has allowed me to be loved by these friends, and what has allowed me to love them. Communication theory might call it Social Penetration, the depth of what we divulge to one another and the level of reciprocity present. I think it is allowing ourselves to communicate our humanity to one another. It is the practice of saying, "hey, I'm not enough. I am not put together to be able to go through life alone. There are parts of you that are needed in my life. There are parts of you, that when shared with me, actually make me, more me". Vulnerability acknowledges the uniqueness in others, the Light/I AM in them, and asks for them to share it with you. Vulnerability is scary, because many times, we are met with a resounding NO.

So go, be vulnerable. If that is too difficult, and it might be...no, it is...so when it is hard, at least be willing to let someone else be vulnerable. Don't make another fear vulnerability. Don't be another no. 

Watch this, and then go and love,

Namaste

Reaching Out: Kyle Greenberg

Communicating Gods's love can be as simple as putting a comforting hand on a friend's shoulder. How have you let God love the people in your life today?