| Carol Lynn Pearson, News & Views, March 2008 | ||
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Not to make anyone jealous, but on my walks these days all the trees are in full blossom; I love California for that. And I love what I read this morning in Eckhart Tolle’s A NEW EARTH: “We could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants.” Ah, to be so enlightened that we can’t contain our beauty. But first–
***** FREE NO MORE GOODBYES: Circling the Wagons Around our Gay Loved Ones to the first twelve people who place an order for any of the 25 products at http://www.clpearson.com/. Starting–now! So glad so many of you enjoyed the love poems I featured last month. For those who fell in love since my last newsletter, check out IN LOVE AGAIN AND ALWAYS at the website above. (And a second free NO MORE GOODBYES to those spending $50 at the site.)
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STORY: IF WE ONLY KNEW WHAT HAPPENED IN ACT ONE. More and more I believe that, as a Course in Miracles states, it’s not that we SHOULD not judge one another, but that we CANNOT judge one another. We know squat, as it were. Meeting someone new or even looking at someone we’ve known for a very long time, it’s like we are entering the theater in the middle of the second act of a play we know nothing about, see some characters, hear some dialogue, and then decide we know what’s going on. This hit me over the head a few years ago in a way I’ve never forgotten. I was invited to speak to a conference of LDS Young Women in Southern California. The chapel was filled and I was doing my best to inspire. Then I noticed, on the front row to my left, a group of six or eight teenage girls, all of whom looked Asian, huddled together and visiting with each other. I have only one response when people start talking when I’m presenting: I stop speaking and look at them and smile, waiting until they are quiet before resuming. I did this. They became aware and stopped visiting. I continued my talk. Minutes later they were back at it, huddled together and whispering. Again I stopped and smiled at them. Again they stopped. I went back to speaking. And they went back to talking. I gave up and finished my speech, trying not to look at them and trying to keep my annoyance from getting in the way of my message. After the meeting, in the recreation hall where we were having refreshments, one of the leaders spoke to me. “Oh, Sister Pearson, I hope those girls didn’t bother you too much. They’ve recently arrived from Laos. They got out of the country just before the borders closed. Many of them lost all of their family. The Church has done wonders in helping them relocate here, and they’re so excited to come to our events. Those who speak better English were trying to make sure the others knew what you were saying.” To paraphrase someone many of us know, I did not know their history–I don’t know your history–you don’t know my history. I have walked into your drama for a moment in the second act, not knowing what has come before on this eternal journey, and I am not called upon to judge. What a great relief.
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TELEPHONE CONSULATATIONS: http://clpearson.com/consultations.htm. PRIVATE RETREATS: http://www.clpearson.com/CLPRetreatFLYER.pdf.
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UPCOMING PERFORMANCES OF FACING EAST (LDS couple deals with suicide of gay son):
Buffalo, New
York!--April 4-26 St. George, Utah!–May 8-24 The Space Between Theatre Company, using venue at Dixie College
http://www.tsbtc.org/audition.html.
http://www.tsbtc.org/ Baltimore, Maryland–June Spotlighters Theatre
***** “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” --Mother Teresa
A most happy blossom time to all, and much love from
Carol Lynn
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