Center and Open
reflection from Rev. Shay
When I was in college, I took a pottery class. I learned how to get my hands dirty, pugging the clay with the force of my body until it was ready to be put on the wheel. I learned how to center that clay, and myself, as the wheel spun, and then finally, how to open it, pushing my thumbs into the center and slowly pulling upwards and outwards until a plate or bowl began to form.
Once the clay is pugged and wedged, it is centered on the wheel. This is a very critical step as it is the foundation of the pot. The pot is only as true and strong as the centering. The next step is opening the centered clay so the potter’s hands can begin to pull the clay up vertically from both inside and out. If you aren’t both centering and opening your clay at the right rate, you create an uneven rim that will pull the whole thing out of line.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The life of a human is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end the heart refuses to be imprisoned; it tends outward with a vast force, to immense and innumerable expansions.”
It is in our nature, it is in our hearts to expand outwards, to emerge into the world with the vast force of our convictions and our compassion. Our faith calls us to contemplation and personal growth, to seek our own individualized truth, to be centered in ourselves and our beliefs AND it calls us to action, to seeing and being in the world differently, to opening our minds and our hearts.
However strongly we may feel about topics and issues, however deeply we may yearn to make change in our world, we must remember to center ourselves, to keep our spirits grounded in our faith, for if we don’t, we are constantly in danger of slipping and straying away from our truths.
The practice of centering rewires us, helps us learn to listen to our core convictions and values. Helps us open to the reality of the world we are a part of and then we are able to put our faith into action, to move out into our world in ways that live our values and create the kind of world we dream about.