Listening With More Than Just Our Ears
Preached 10/18/2020 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
A quote from Igor Sikorsky: “According to recognized aerotechnical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to the total wing area. But the bumblebee doesn’t know this, so he goes ahead and flies anyway.”
That’s an old quote. I don’t know exactly when it was said, but the man who said it died in the 1970s, and I can say with certainty that scientists do understand today how bumblebees fly.
But that quote, I think speaks to how very unwavering our faith in science can be. And it’s a bit humbling, I think. That as humans, we have only understood something as basic as bumblebee flight within the last 30 or so years? (Yes I am suggesting that the 1970s were 30 years ago… that’s the world I choose to live in)
But the best part of the quote is the end: the bumblebee doesn’t care. He flies anyway.
Last year I spoke about a book that really grabbed me - Dogs the Know When Their Owners are Coming Home. A very scientific book with one scientific test after another showing that when you control for other factors, dogs really do seem to have a sixth sense about when their owners are returning home. They set up experiments where they could be sure that it wasn’t that the dog was hearing or smelling the person or the car, or that the dog wasn’t used to the owner arriving at a certain time.
Sometimes these returns home were international flights, often they were at randomly chosen times known only by the researcher until the last minute - and this has been replicated with not just dogs but cats, birds, and horses.
So going back to the quote about the bumblebees I find it interesting because here is something about animals that science can’t explain…. Can’t explain yet. I think we will someday have words for this phenomenon. But we don’t yet.
And not understanding it doesn’t mean that it’s not real! Bumblebees really do fly whether we understand it or not, and your pet really does have ways of knowing that we don’t fully understand. Most pet owners suspect that there is more going on than meets the eye. Than meets our human eyes, that is. We’d be great fools to assume that our five senses are the only ways of sensing.
So what is it that our pets know? What is it that they can teach us?
According to Dr. Dennis Thomas, a holistic vet from Washington state, because the animals around us live at a higher vibrational frequency than we humans tend to, they can teach us about living in the moment and unconditional acceptance. Here is a story he told recently on his blog about a patient:
Kris came to my office because her dog had chronic pain. Conventional treatment was not helping and her dog had a great deal difficulty getting up and moving around. When Kris entered my office, it became very clear that something was presenting itself that was more than a painful dog. Kris moved very similarly to her dog. She told me that she had been injured on her job and that she had been living with chronic pain that kept her from doing the things that she loved most. She seemed angry and bitter at life. As a holistic veterinarian, it was easy to see that her dog was acting as a mirror for herself.
I talked to Kris about how energy worked and why our dogs come into our life. Immediately, Kris reacted with guilt as she became aware of her contributing to her dog’s overall health. Now, she not only felt horrible about her own health, but now she felt guilt about her beloved dog. I explained to her that we had to find a place of allowance so that we could learn from this experience and that from that place of allowance we would not be influenced by negative emotions or thoughts. This would be the only way to find the lesson in this experience and open the door to true healing.
We sat together for a while and did a short meditation. Her dog lay between us. In a short time I asked Kris to look at her dog and tell me what she saw. I asked her not to think about it, but instead to feel from her heart and let me know what came to her. She answered, “joyful.” Kris became absolutely aware that her dog was joy expressed.
Joyful. Dr. Thomas goes on to state that our pets truly have a Namaste attitude with us, that is, the sanskrit greeting Namaste, meaning roughly, the divine in me recognizes the divine in you. This is what it means to really see the other person, or animal as the case may be. Namaste means I truly acknowledge your essence, I see you, I hear you. Namaste means practicing deep listening, as we are trying to do this month.
If Namaste is the ultimate form of deep listening, our pets can teach us this - this way of listening without using our ears. For even science has shown that they appear to have a sort of sixth sense that we humans are lacking, or out of touch with. They know when we are on our way home without seeing or hearing us. They seem to even know when we have the intention to come home.
I have an app on my phone that tells me when Cricket barks, and without fail she is silent throughout the service while I’m here, and as soon as I give the benediction, she barks. She knows I’ve set my intention to come home. That’s not a coincidence. Just because science can’t explain it yet doesn’t mean it’s untrue. Bumblebees can fly whether we understand it or not!
Let’s allow ourselves to nestle into the comfort that we can learn from our animal friends, whether they are dogs or cats or the squirrels outside our windows - as autumn turns colder, let’s pull that Namaste wisdom of deep listening over us like a blanket, allowing it to nurture our souls.
The animals around us understand the UU first principle better than we do! The inherent worth and dignity of all people. Of all living things!
May we live with joy in our hearts. May we greet each moment and each living thing with a pure Namaste attitude.
Amen.
Preached 10/18/2020 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
A quote from Igor Sikorsky: “According to recognized aerotechnical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to the total wing area. But the bumblebee doesn’t know this, so he goes ahead and flies anyway.”
That’s an old quote. I don’t know exactly when it was said, but the man who said it died in the 1970s, and I can say with certainty that scientists do understand today how bumblebees fly.
But that quote, I think speaks to how very unwavering our faith in science can be. And it’s a bit humbling, I think. That as humans, we have only understood something as basic as bumblebee flight within the last 30 or so years? (Yes I am suggesting that the 1970s were 30 years ago… that’s the world I choose to live in)
But the best part of the quote is the end: the bumblebee doesn’t care. He flies anyway.
Last year I spoke about a book that really grabbed me - Dogs the Know When Their Owners are Coming Home. A very scientific book with one scientific test after another showing that when you control for other factors, dogs really do seem to have a sixth sense about when their owners are returning home. They set up experiments where they could be sure that it wasn’t that the dog was hearing or smelling the person or the car, or that the dog wasn’t used to the owner arriving at a certain time.
Sometimes these returns home were international flights, often they were at randomly chosen times known only by the researcher until the last minute - and this has been replicated with not just dogs but cats, birds, and horses.
So going back to the quote about the bumblebees I find it interesting because here is something about animals that science can’t explain…. Can’t explain yet. I think we will someday have words for this phenomenon. But we don’t yet.
And not understanding it doesn’t mean that it’s not real! Bumblebees really do fly whether we understand it or not, and your pet really does have ways of knowing that we don’t fully understand. Most pet owners suspect that there is more going on than meets the eye. Than meets our human eyes, that is. We’d be great fools to assume that our five senses are the only ways of sensing.
So what is it that our pets know? What is it that they can teach us?
According to Dr. Dennis Thomas, a holistic vet from Washington state, because the animals around us live at a higher vibrational frequency than we humans tend to, they can teach us about living in the moment and unconditional acceptance. Here is a story he told recently on his blog about a patient:
Kris came to my office because her dog had chronic pain. Conventional treatment was not helping and her dog had a great deal difficulty getting up and moving around. When Kris entered my office, it became very clear that something was presenting itself that was more than a painful dog. Kris moved very similarly to her dog. She told me that she had been injured on her job and that she had been living with chronic pain that kept her from doing the things that she loved most. She seemed angry and bitter at life. As a holistic veterinarian, it was easy to see that her dog was acting as a mirror for herself.
I talked to Kris about how energy worked and why our dogs come into our life. Immediately, Kris reacted with guilt as she became aware of her contributing to her dog’s overall health. Now, she not only felt horrible about her own health, but now she felt guilt about her beloved dog. I explained to her that we had to find a place of allowance so that we could learn from this experience and that from that place of allowance we would not be influenced by negative emotions or thoughts. This would be the only way to find the lesson in this experience and open the door to true healing.
We sat together for a while and did a short meditation. Her dog lay between us. In a short time I asked Kris to look at her dog and tell me what she saw. I asked her not to think about it, but instead to feel from her heart and let me know what came to her. She answered, “joyful.” Kris became absolutely aware that her dog was joy expressed.
Joyful. Dr. Thomas goes on to state that our pets truly have a Namaste attitude with us, that is, the sanskrit greeting Namaste, meaning roughly, the divine in me recognizes the divine in you. This is what it means to really see the other person, or animal as the case may be. Namaste means I truly acknowledge your essence, I see you, I hear you. Namaste means practicing deep listening, as we are trying to do this month.
If Namaste is the ultimate form of deep listening, our pets can teach us this - this way of listening without using our ears. For even science has shown that they appear to have a sort of sixth sense that we humans are lacking, or out of touch with. They know when we are on our way home without seeing or hearing us. They seem to even know when we have the intention to come home.
I have an app on my phone that tells me when Cricket barks, and without fail she is silent throughout the service while I’m here, and as soon as I give the benediction, she barks. She knows I’ve set my intention to come home. That’s not a coincidence. Just because science can’t explain it yet doesn’t mean it’s untrue. Bumblebees can fly whether we understand it or not!
Let’s allow ourselves to nestle into the comfort that we can learn from our animal friends, whether they are dogs or cats or the squirrels outside our windows - as autumn turns colder, let’s pull that Namaste wisdom of deep listening over us like a blanket, allowing it to nurture our souls.
The animals around us understand the UU first principle better than we do! The inherent worth and dignity of all people. Of all living things!
May we live with joy in our hearts. May we greet each moment and each living thing with a pure Namaste attitude.
Amen.