A second opening in the anchorhold was for the person who cared for the anchoress, supplying sustenance for daily living, laundry service, and any books or personal items that would be needed.
In my anchorhold, my physical needs are supplied by various supports, though mostly by myself. In the past, however, and still in the present, there have been numerous 'benefactors' that have supported and upheld my physical, spiritual, and emotional needs.
Intellectually I am supported by a vast array of writers, scholars, philosophers, scientists, and thinkers of all kinds. Here you will find the bibliography that supports the particular thought of my anchorhold offering, as well as highlighting those who have fed my soul and intellect over time.
And every anchoress has Benefactors, those who have cared for her throughout her lifetime, who have brought her to the place where she may assume the mantle of anchoress.
Jay Markranksy's book, 'Awakening to Love, Unveiling your Deepest Good,' draws our attention, and gratitude, to those who have brought us to our current place in the world. In his 'Learning to Recognize Benefactors' exercise, I brought to mind the many people who have gifted me with their love, attention and instruction over the years. I was swamped with an endless parade of characters, some known to me, and some not. When you look at me there is one face looking back. But trailing behind me are the millions of connecting people who have made my current existence possible. Makaransky comments that "very few of us would have survived our childhood had it not been for the countless, now mostly forgotten, acts of loving kindness extended to us." (Awakening Through Love, 18).
Here are just a few of the many who hold me in love, either by their own personal love for me, or for the fact that they have extended their love to serve humanity, and I am by virtue of being alive, in their embrace: My husband Bruce, and children Michael, Christopher and Madelaine; my parents George and Ruth; Martin Luther King and all those who have given their lives to uplift the lives of others; all the woman who come to my home and into my life to serve the larger good; Albert Schweitzer, whom I have had a crush on since I was six and who shares by birthday; two of the many girlfriends without whom I am a lost creatures, Leisa and Ann; so many elders throughout my life; the gracious Little Flower; my beloved grandmother Jane Jardine; Rabbi Abraham Heschel who taught me about Sabbath and beauty in faith; Jesus' presence, my ultimate Beloved; my personal Saint Simone; George Grant, a man of deep integrity; all the musicians, singers and performers who have supported my work; more girlfriends - can you have too many?; mes beaux-parents Anthony and Esther; Evelyn Underhill, the consummate spiritual director; churches, especially the rural ones; choirs offering celebration and joy; Gandhi, with whom I share the battle of of the lentils and the search after truth. Benefactors all. And I, the fortunate recipient of their love and gift.
“Mentally hold the smiling faces of those benefactors before you: then relax and just accept the simple goodness of their wish for your well-being and happiness, their wish of love for you.”
“Because spiritually weighty beings have communed so deeply with the very source of love and compassion, the very ground of goodness, we share in that ground when we open to their wish of love, their wish for the fullest well-being and happiness of ourselves and all others. It blesses our life. ”
NEEDED HERE - YET TO BE CREATED - THE MANY PEOPLE OF COLOUR AND INDIGENOUS HERITAGE WHO HAVE SUFFERED ON MY ACCOUNT AND ARE UNKNOWN TO ME IN PARTICULAR BUT MUST BE RECOGNIZED AND ACKNOWLEDGED. TO BE WRITTEN.
WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE THOUGHT BEHIND
'CONTEMPLATION. COMPASSION. CREATIVITY.
THE SACRED TRINITY OF POSSIBILITY.'
SIX Canadian Thinkers Who Have Influenced Me
“To reveal someone’s beauty is to reveal their value by giving them time, attention, and tenderness. To love is not just to do something for them but to reveal to them their own uniqueness, to tell them that they are special and worthy of attention.”
“We, all of us, are being called to do something unprecedented. We are being called to think about “everything that is,” for we now know that everything is interrelated and that the well-being of each is connected to the well-being of the whole. This suggests a “planetary agenda” for all the religions, all the various fields of expertise.”
“The question for serious Christians is this: can the Christian movement distinguish itself from Christendom with enough imagination and daring to help humanity find a way into the future beyond the demise of the modern vision and the spent imperialis of the ‘Christian West’?”
“It is the exceptions that will determine the rule of your spiritual life. Do you have a secret sin? Everything in your life may be in order, but that secret sin will eat away and fundamentally alter all that you are and all that you do. It’s that one little exception, that tucked away secret sin, that one unfought battle, that will be your undoing”
“Perhaps there is only one distinction that matters: those who are learning to love their neighbors and those who remain indifferent to them”
“Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life’s breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth.”
I am also drawn to the theologians from the Jewish and Christian tradition who suffered through the Holocaust and WW2 and yet discovered the deep desire for goodness in humanity. I am currently working on a collected reflection of their thought.
Emmanuel Levinas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Simone Weil.
Abraham Heschel. Etty Hillesum. Jürgen Moltmann. Dorothee Sölle.
And also of influence is the movement of deep ecology initiated by Thomas Berry and Teilihard de Chardin and continued on by Brianne Swimme, Wendell Berry, Mathew Fox, Diaramid O'Marchu and others.
ABOVE REFERENCE NEEDS UPDATING
CURRENT READING/SCHOLARSHIP OF INTEREST BEING WRITTEN AND UPDATED.