Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

The table in my dining room is a mess. No matter how I try to clean it up and keep it that way, it's always covered with books, bills, receipts, flyers, newspapers and more.

I've always had an urgent desire to be more neat in my life. That urge goes at least as far back in my life as my days in college in the late 1960s and early 70s. Aesthetically, I've embraced in my heart the goal of making my space what I would call Japanese stark. Rooms that are devoid of clutter. Space that is neat, pristine, without distractions.

Well. it ain't gonna happen. I'm nearly 60, and try as I might to be neater, I think I need to just stop and accept the fact that I am always going to be messy. And that's not necessarily bad. Although that's a difficult idea for me to accept.
When I was a child my stepmother derided me for a whole range of things (inluding being fat and stupid), but one of the things she harrangued me mostabout was being messy. I was made to feel that my state of being was bad. My stepmother left my life when I was 15. But, as a therapist once pointed out to me, when my stepmother stopped abusing me verbally, I picked up right where she left off. My internal voice frequently chides me for being messy.

I'm beginning to see, though, that although messiness may create some problems for me from time to time, it's not a moral issue.

In fact, as Rabbi Irwin Kula points out, not only is life itself messy, but there is a sacredness to life's messiness. Those of us who are messy need to stop fighting messiness and embrace it.

Next Thursday Rabbi Irwin and I will make a presentation on this and related topics at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. Rabbi will base his presentation on his book, Yearnings: embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life; I will be talking about my new book, A Spirituality for Brokenness and how we can find tools to help us mend our sense of being shattered by life. To learn more about Rabbi Irwin and his book, visit http://yearnings.irwinkula.com/thebook.htm . To learn moe about my book, A Spirituality for Brokenness, please visit: http://helpforbrokenness.com .

Here's a description of the program we will be presenting in New York next week and in Louisville next month.

The Practice of Imperfection: Brokenness and the Sacred Messiness of Life

Featuring Rabbi Irwin Kula, President of CLAL and
Terry Taylor, Interfaith Paths to Peace

7 p.m. Thursday, September 10, 2009
Jewish Community Center in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10023
(646) 505-4444

Join Rabbi Irwin Kula, author of the award-winning book, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, and Terry Taylor, author of the recently published book, A Spirituality for Brokenness: Discovering Your Deepest Self in Difficult Times, for a conversation about love, life and meaning in these challenging and fast-changing times as we approach the Jewish high holiday season.



About CLAL

The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership:
Brings Jewish wisdom to the American spiritual landscape and makes it a resource for all Builds bridges across communities to encourage pluralism and openness.

Promotes dynamic, inclusive Jewish communities in which all voices are heard.

Nurtures volunteer, professional and rabbinic leaders and helps people to re-imagine Jewish life.

Enhances Jewish participation in American civic and spiritual life.

Founded in 1974, Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership is a think tank, leadership training institute, and resource center. Bringing Jewish insights to a wide American audience, Clal makes Jewish wisdom an accessible public resource. A leader in religious pluralism, Clal builds bridges across communities to encourage diversity and openness. Linking Jewish texts and tradition with innovative scholarship, Clal promotes Jewish participation in American civic and spiritual life, reinvigorating communities and enhancing leadership development.

Clal's diverse faculty, with its reputation for excellence, provides cutting-edge teaching, lectures, programs, and consulting nationwide. Working with scholars, professionals, volunteer and religious leaders, Clal has earned a reputation for compelling programs that explore religious and American identity. Joining with experts from diverse fields, Clal offers new perspectives on contemporary issues, reaching influential leaders, thinkers, and practitioners. Clal's publications and resources offer thought-provoking ideas, tools, and techniques that enrich people, communities, and institutions. In all of Clal's work, it strives to build vibrant Jewish life that is engaged in the intellectual and ethical challenges of the world.