Chapters 8, 9, and Epilogue--LWD

[Cindy]

Well, my friends, this is the last section of the book, just in time for Easter. I hope that you have enjoyed the journey as much as I have. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your feelings, your lightness and your darkness. I hope you have felt heard and honored in the sharing.

So here are some discussion questions for this last section of the book.

1) The author compares her night in the Buddhist cabin to a night of fear years before, and she finds that both nights have "the conspicuous absence of God." She seems to have come to peace with this absence. Have you? How do you relate to the "conspicuous absence"?

2) In this same paragraph she writes: "I have courted the Beloved long enough to know what it is like to receive a divine visit: it is like coming home after a long time away; it is like being held by someone with all the time in the world; it is like remembering a dream that opens a door." I love this sentence. Have you "courted the Beloved"? Do you have similar feelings of what it's like?

3) The author wonders about "whatever was snuffling outside my door," describing it as dark thing but not necessarily a bad thing. She asks, "Whom did I refuse to let in that night? Did I turn the Beloved away because of a frightening mask? Or was the Beloved out there without a mask for once, asking only that I handle my fear long enough to let the divine darkness in?" Have you experienced such times of fear, and did it occur to you to let the dark thing in? Or have you experienced enough trauma in the dark that you can't consider such a thing? Do you think God comes to us masked or unmasked?

4)When BBT and her husband go to watch the moon rise, he asks her how long it's been since they've done this, and why. She says "The answer makes me so sad that I cannot say it out loud. We have been busy. For twenty years." What are you too busy to do this week, that is calling to you?

5)BBT writes about her "conversations" with Our Lady of the Underground, and how "Our Lady" wants nothing for her "because she knows how scared I am of it." I can certainly relate to these fears. Does this resonate with you, too?

6) In the Epilogue BBT lists some questions we are to ask ourselves. (They're in the paragraph that begins "This is not a how-to book.") They are really powerful questions. Which is easiest? hardest? Which do you need to spend the most time asking? Do you have any answers?

7) Near the end she writes, "With limited time left on this earth, I want more than the top halves of things--the spirit but not the flesh, the presence but not the absence, the faith but not the doubt. This late in life, I want it all." I absolutely love this quote. I agree that too many of us--and maybe especially too many of us in the church--try to float along the top halves. And the top halves will seldom help us grow. I want to work on "wanting it all."

[Judy]

"the conspicuous absence of God" - I want to add "in that moment" to this phrase. I don't believe that BBT feels an absence of God in her life in general, but that she did feel that absence during times when she was specifically seeking God, like people do when they rail at the sky and say "Show yourself!" It helps that I do not think of God as being the direct causative agent for every tiny thing that happens, minute-to-minute, in my day. When I do catch a glimpse it is nearly always a surprise and can stop me in my tracks.