Aug 23, 2015

Ponderings

I recently returned from a Clan reunion in Scotland. My Great-great-Grandmother was a MacRae, from Anson County in North Carolina. The Clan MacRae is a very active clan throughout the world, and has a reunion every five years at the home base of the clan, the castle Eilean Donan in Kintail, Scotland. I traveled with group of 45 from the U.S., joining with about 200 other MacRae clan members for the reunion, with had various events over a one week time frame, culminating at the clan castle which is part of the MacRae family in Scotland, and then toured Scotland for another week.

It is murky how the clan system that emerged in Scotland about a thousand years ago actually came about. It was similar to a village that was protected by the feudal lord of the area, but it emerged much stronger than that, with the clan members willing to die for the clan survival – and many of them did. Many, if not most, were not blood related, but swore allegiance to the clan chief, usually the Lord of the area, but not always, as was the case of the MacRae clan who were a renowned fighting clan, who was wooed by the owner of the castle Eilean Donan, MacKenzie, on the coast of Scotland close to the Isle of Skye, to join with him from another Lord across the land by promising them land in the area of Kintail, in 1385.

The history of the clan MacRae is interesting, and can be Googled easily. They became known as “The Shirt Mail” of the MacKenzies, and the relationship endured until the ending of the clan system during the “cleansing” of the highlands by the British Army in the late eighteenth century, which was a brutal attempt to kill all highlanders by burning and evicting all the crofts during the winter seasons. If they survived, they were shipped over the seas, principally to Australia and the colonies of the newly formed United States.

The clan system was similar to a village, but with many differences. Almost everything was in common. Most were farmers, and all lived in crofts, small single room stone houses with thatched roofs, and even the animals were in the crofts during the winter, in one end while the owners were at the other end. The farming land was divided up in 8-10 acre lots, and each year the lots were drawn by lottery as to who used that section. Some areas of Scotland you can still see the croft land system being used today, since arable land is scarce all over the highlands. So the people of a clan were more like a family, even though they were, in general, not blood related.

Then, unlike most immigrants, they did not leave one by one from the village, but the village was destroyed, burnt to the ground, and the houses were demolished, so that all were forced out at once, in the late 18th century. Thus when they left, they kept the stories of the clan, which they passed down to their children, even to today. They kept the feeling of kinship alive, even though they may not be blood related, they were truly kin, related in the soul.

Then, of course, there were the tartans. In truth, the kilt was a standard dress of the times, and could be used as a bedroll at night as well as clothing at day, but not the colorful dress we see today. That evolved after 1745, when the Scottish branches of the British Army were the only ones allowed to wear the kilt, and each regiment designed their own pattern. Then in the 18th and 19th century, the “simple life” of the Scottish highlands became the rage of the British gentry, who would go for their summer holiday and dress in tartans in their summer home around the edges of the highlands, and believe it or not, sometimes herd sheep.

But that does not change the way the clans remembered who they were and where they came from. Today most clans have a chief, and many have branches throughout the world, but especially in the United States and Australia, where so many were shipped to disperse the “wild men” of the highlands.

The sense of family, of being home, was overwhelming to me when I first visited there in 2005, and again this year, 2015. Since this was a five-year reunion of the clan, over 200 had gathered for the week-long celebration. There was a sense of belonging, and a feeling of oneness that was clear to me in ways that was like no other time in my life.

I began to understand, not just in my rational left brain, but in my emotional and feeling right brain the concept of universal oneness. I was one with the wild terrain, the mountains rising out of the sea with no trees or very few trees, and the rugged terrain that bred my forefathers. But most important to me, was the sense of oneness with all the people, first with all the people that were present, then spreading out from that with all people everywhere, throughout the world, and with not just that land, but the universal call from Mother Earth, our island in the vastness of the universe.

Gaining this sense of oneness is something I consider one of the milestones of my life. It only took me 81 years to find, not just the rational sense, but the emotional, deep-down gut-level understanding of being one with all of creation.

I now have a level of understanding that passes words, for nothing can teach that emotional sense but a gift from God to open my eyes so that I may see. I see with my heart, with my sense of love, with all that I am, how we are tied into a single being under the umbrella of the Image of God that is who we are.

Oneness

Science has told us that we, and all life on earth, are made from the dust of a star. The universe exploded into being 13.7 billion years ago, and the universe has been expanding ever since. Some time later, maybe 5-7 billion years ago, a star in our vicinity became nova and exploded. Before that time, only the simplest of elements, such as hydrogen, existed in our space. All heavier elements and compounds, both here and in all the universe, are the result of the extreme pressure and heat inside the body of a star, and when the star goes nova, these elements are expelled into the void of space.

These expelled compounds and elements formed bodies due to their gravitational attraction, and the sun was created from a massive collection of the expelled elements, and the planets that were too small to self-ignite as a sun were pulled together and formed clumps, about 4.8 billion years ago. What made it different from previous bodies was the presence of the heavier elements and compounds, including carbon, the basis of all life as we know it. All life stems from carbon compounds, and no life as we know it can exist without carbon, made from stardust from an exploding star.

So all our lives, each and every one of us, and all life on earth, from the simplest one-cell being to the most complex (Humans), stem from that star, and all are various assortments of carbon-based compounds.

In truth, we, all humanity and all living creatures, are one, made from the same material, and will return to that basic material when we pass from this existence. That natural oneness forms the center of all life as we know it, and nothing we do can change that without a massive change in the nature of life.

All religions agree on one basic element of God: God is everywhere, and there is nowhere that God is not. No matter how one turns that statement, that means that all religions agree, whether they state this or not, in fact most religions vehemently disagree with the following statement that is a direct result of the first statement, that if there is nowhere where God is not, including the basic quantum energy that forms all matter and everything else including dark matter, all are part of the Being we call God, the Supreme Being, the All in All.

This insight is not pantheism, which states that all matter is God, and nothing outside of matter, but does state that all is part of God, one with the Being of God, even though God is beyond our universe and beyond and more than all that is contained within the universe. God has many dimensions and states of Being, so that we can only brush the surface of that Being we call God.

This insight also states that since we are all one in God, we are all one in one another, not separate from any living (or non-living) thing, but together as one. Einstein’s basic equation, that Energy equals Mass times the speed of light squared, also states that nothing can be destroyed, only that things can change form from one state to another, for all eternity.

Thus both science and religions and faith agree: everything is one, and we cannot change that basic relationship for all eternity. If we could but see that relationship, it could possibly change how we treat one another, treat our planet, and approach life as a whole rather than the usual way of approaching everything as if everything was separate from everything else.

And if we but have eyes to see, all is a part of the Being we call God, the Creator of Life, the Source of Life, and truly Life Itself. That is, another name for God is Life, Life Itself.

Now our task in this life is to not just intellectually understand this statement, but to place this new sense and understanding of Life into the seat of our internal mind. Our soul already knows this as fact, and is encouraging us to bring this forth into our conscious being, and to live this internalized knowledge in all that we do in our own life. If we can internalize this fact to sufficient depth, we will adjust our life to recognize this, living in such a manner that all of life and all of the earth is treated as being part of the Eternal Being that is the All in All, what we have named as God. Not just our God, but the God of all, and not just the God of all, but the All Itself. Everything is part of the All, and there is no exception to this statement.

Everything around us, and we ourselves, are part of that Being we call Life, or God. Thus we can extract from Genesis 1, when it is stated the “God made humans in Their Image, In their Image they made them, male and female God made them”, a new understanding that springs forth, demanding a new outlook on life. St. Francis understood this, and his call to treat all from the very earth, the animals, and one another, as wondrous beings springs from this insight he was given.

Meditation

I bow in gratitude, my Wondrous One, as it has become clearer to me at this time the truth that we are all one in one another and with all of the universe, from the star dust and dark matter to the sea of stars that surround us, through the wondrous beauty of our small planet, to the beauty of nature, and the wonder of humanity. I am grateful for the opportunity to look at the awe of creation and see Your bounty in all that exists. I ask your help in seeing the wonder of Your Being in all that surrounds us at all times, especially when life becomes difficult, and in the vast sea of humanity that is attempting to work out their life process at this time. I find it a wondrous thought knowing that each of us is an expression of Your Being made manifest, expressed in a unique way never found before nor ever to be found again, as each of us is a unique expression of Your Love in action. I can feel Your Joy and Love being expressed in each life that You bring into my life, and I am grateful beyond measure for that. I ask for Your help and Encouragement for me to continue to remember that it is Your beauty that I see in all that is. I am grateful for each day, so full of life in Your many different ways.