There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. Friday December 8, 2017 Come here - you gotta see this! You yell for their attention and wind up with nothing but a sore throat and no one to share the moment with. STOP THE SHOUTING. May you be blessed to engage with others and meet them where they're at with calm and quiet. Try it - it
works. SPIRITUALITY OF CHIMPANZEES
"Some animals have been observed performing the
same rituals over and over, leading scientists to speculate that they might have a sense of the sacred."
As the water tumbles and foams, the world’s most famous chimpanzees sway rhythmically in a state of high arousal. First hurling rocks into the spray, the apes then quiet themselves and sit calmly, gazing at the waterfall before them. Jane Goodall, who knows these apes from 55 years of
observation at Gombe, Tanzania, interprets these compelling images of our closest living relatives in a spiritual framework. The chimpanzees’ behavior, she says, are “perhaps triggered by feelings of awe, wonder” for magnificent natural features or events. Chimpanzees are so similar to us, she asks, “Why wouldn’t they also have feelings of some kind of spirituality?”
That question—rooted in Goodall’s
definition of spirituality as the experience of appreciating magnificent, unknowable powers at work in the world beyond ourselves—has taken on a new urgency. Last month, a team of 80 scientists led by Hjalmar S. Kuhl and Ammie K. Kalan from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig published a paper in Scientific Reports raising the possibility that chimpanzees at four field sites in West Africa may perform a ritual when they repeatedly throw stones at trees in the forest. The apes take aim at the trees with stones they have accumulated (or cached). This behavior, with its striking patterns of re-use of the same stones and trees, has never been observed at Gombe or the other
best-known chimpanzee study sites...READ MORE
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GENESIS 39:3 The Bible describes Joseph’s ascendancy in the house of his master,
Potiphar: “And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and whatever he (Joseph) did the Lord made prosper in his hand.”
Genesis 39:3
Tradition teaches us that Potiphar was not a righteous individual. How then did Potiphar see that God was with Joseph?
One Bible commentator explains that the answer is contained in the words “…and whatever he (Joseph) did the Lord made
prosper in his hand.”
Potiphar saw that Joseph was successful in endeavors with a very low probability of success and therefore concluded that this supernatural success resulted from God being with Joseph and blessing all his activities.
Early Biblical interpretations offer a different explanation. Joseph would enter to serve Potiphar and whisper to himself “Master of the universe, my trust is in You, You are my solution. Let me find grace, kindness and compassion in Your eyes,
in the eyes of all who see me and in Potiphar’s eyes.”
Potiphar would inquire as to Joseph’s whispering and Joseph would explain that he was praying to God to find favor in Potiphar’s eyes. Throughout Joseph’s work activities the name of God would be upon his lips in prayer. According to this beautiful interpretation, Potiphar saw that Joseph was constantly connected to God in prayer.
Joseph teaches us that prayer is not only reserved to the
domain of specific timeslots in the setting of a holy place. Prayer is a way of life, a deep realization of our complete dependence upon the almighty God, and therefore manifests in our daily work and activities. Talking to God is the domain of the bus, car and airplane. Praying for grace, kindness and compassion is the domain of a stroll on the beach, the doctor’s office, the workplace, the kitchen and all our daily activities.
Let us learn from Joseph and turn our trust towards God to
such a degree that it becomes apparent that God is indeed with us.
- Rabbi Barak Bar-Chaim (adapted) |
Thank you to author and veteran, John Holmes for today's opening quote. |
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