Marcia Lee

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Radical Surrender and Commitment to ‘Your Thread’

marciaBy Marcia Lee (Detroit, MI)

*This is the fourth installation of a year-long series of posts from contributors all over North America each answering the question, “How would you define radical discipleship?” We will be posting responses regularly on Mondays during 2019.

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
William Stafford

Radical discipleship is the willingness to surrender to the thread that is your vocation; a commitment to listen deeply to what it calls you to do-in this moment in time; and to be disciplined in follow through of that commitment: in the context of our community and what the world needs.

In different times and
different circumstances:
what is called for in order for us to live beloved community
what it means follow the example of Mary, Jesus, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr.,
and so many other unnamed people, plants and animals
how this thread shows up
what it invites you to do
how you do it
this changes.
But the thread remains the same.

Radical discipleship is to live this calling in what we say and what we do:
nothing more
and
nothing less.

~Marcia is a learner, seeker of beautiful questions, healer, spiritual being, wife, sister, daughter, and friend.

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What is Your New Years (R)evolution?

Grace LeeBy Marcia Lee, Healing by Choice!, a women of color healing circle in Detroit, MI

Now that Christmas is over, you may be thinking about what new years’ resolutions you want to make and how you want to show up in this new year.  I want to invite you to consider, instead of a resolution, to make a New Years (R)evolution. Grace Lee Boggs  (right) taught us that the next revolution needs to be a (r)evolution = the re-evolution of ourselves and our community.  Although it is helpful to have goals for how we want to grow as individuals, we live in the context of the times we live in and in God’s time.   Continue reading →

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Meeting the Sacred in Our Daily Lives

IMG_9157By Marcia Lee

Every month, I host a gathering at Taproot Sanctuary, an intentional community of mostly people of color working on living in right relationship with the earth and our neighbors.  These gatherings are Circles of Trust.  They are in the lineage of the work of Parker Palmer through my work as a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal.  The purpose of these gatherings, or mini-retreats, is to create a space for us to listen to our inner voices and to support each other in following the calling of our own souls.  We do this type of deep listening best when we are in spaces where we can trust that our words and actions are not repeated and that the people in the community with us are listening to us not for their own benefits, but to just be a witness and support of us.  We use what we call third things to accompany us.  The third thing might be a poem, song, or something in nature.  These third things allow us to focus in on the issue at hand in a more gentle and circular manner. Continue reading →

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time(lessness)

imagesBy Marcia Lee, Detroit, MI

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Albert Einstein.

Time in its measurements of hours, minutes, days, and years is a human construct that we have created to make order in our lives.  (Think of how many different calendars there are in different parts of the world and terms we use like people of color time, Asian time, etc.). We want a certain level of structure and having time to measure events allows us to have something outside of ourselves, a ‘science’ if you will, to give purpose and stability to our decisions.  This is how people come to say things like, “If only I had the time,’ or ‘there are not enough hours in a day.’ This, I call ‘human time.’ Continue reading →