To My Friend Brian...

I have been on email lists with Brian for about four or five years now.  Without the miracle of the internet, the odds would have been overwhelmingly against us ever knowing each other.  He lives in Ireland.  I live in Pennsylvania.  Like I said, odds would not have been good. 

I first met Brian on the Wider Universalist Fellowship...and have been on several other lists with him.  He is a moderator on Emerging Universalist, group annie and I started about 2 years ago. It has been a pleasure to share cyber space with him. I've never seen him get pissy..or flame anyone...or demean anyone's beliefs.  He is quite knowledgeable, well read and a very likeable guy.  He has a twin here in the US...born of a different mother, of a different race...but that is a joke between Brian and the other Brian...B2...who has also hung out on the same e-lists for the past few years.  They often express very similar beliefs, nearly identical beliefs...and so the joke about being twins was born.  Oh...they are also about 20 or so years apart in age...but no matter...they are spiritual twins.  

So, my life has been enriched because I've known him.  But there is one thing I am especially grateful to him for.  He has faithfully prayed for Beth the past few years...and been an encouragement anytime I turned to my "buds" on the list for some uplifting.  ( A disclaimer here...I am also very grateful to all my wonderful EU friends who have been so supportive during these tumultuous times with Beth. It has been a rough few years)  In his responses about Beth, he often said he had a soft spot in his heart for her...and sometimes he closed by saying he was holding her "in the light." It usually brought tears to my eyes.  It is bringing tears to my eyes right now.  He sent the following post to the list during what I hope was the worst of the Beth saga....

Haven't been online for a couple of days, Cindi, so I'm just reading this now. I'm glad you found Beth and that she's OK. This is such a long, hard journey for you guys, and to be honest I didn't think it would turn out anything like as rough a ride as it has. From thousands of miles away, there's not much I can do except offer verbal empathy and support and of course keep all of you in my prayers. Beth is surrounded by a network of people who love her and are looking out for her, even if they aren't sure precisely how to help her...and there's a wider community of folk here who will make sure that Beth's heavenly father doesn't forget his beloved daughter.

More than ever, I'm holding our Beth in the Light...

Brian

Today, when I was reading through the google preview of Letters To My Friends by John Conley, the following excerpt from one of the letters immediately made me think of Brian.  And I post it here on my blog, with appreciation to John Conley for writing it...and to my friend Brian for faithfully holding Beth in the light of God, in whom there is no darkness....

The Stillness is a healing breath. Does your loved one hurt? Close your eyes now. Breathe deeply. Breathe slowly. Be comfortable. Now imagine your loved one with all her pain, all her sorrow standing before you. Breathe in her pain deeply and slowly. Hold her pain in the Stillness at the end of the in breath.

Now, as you breath out, surround your beloved in light—radiant, bright light. Send it through your eyes. Send it through your heart. Send it through every fiber of your being.

Again breathe in the pain and sorrow of your loved one. Notice your own pain and sorrow rising to meet that of your loved one. You see resentment. You see disappointment. Anger. Perhaps you even see loathing or hate. It is nothing compared to the Stillness. Breathe all the pain, yours too, into the Stillness at the end of the breath. Now, again, breathe out light—healing, radiant light to your loved one.

Keep doing this, and you will feel the Stillness deepen in your heart. You will grow calm as your heart, mind, and body meld into the Stillness. Now, instead of breathing in the sorrow of your loved one, see her radiating light back to you and see yourself breathing in the light she sends. Now sit in Stillness, healing and being healed, as long as is comfortable.

This meditation is one of the most power I know. It can turn my pain into joy, even when the outward circumstances of my life are not all that I would like. This mediation is ancient, probably more ancient than I know. I read that a Buddhist monk first taught a version of it a thousand years ago. But I imagine he may have have heard if from someone else who heard it from someone else who heard it from Stillness. Make it your own and you will come to know that even though you may have but little control over your life, you have control of your heart’s response to life.