FAITH TAKES PRACTICE

Showing up may be 80 percent of spiritual success

We can learn some things about producing successful spiritual lives from creative agents in other fields.

The writer/actor/director Woody Allen famously said: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” That quotation has been repeated often by others and altered slightly for all sorts of purposes. And the reason is that, while such a thing as success is hard to quantify in percentages, the sense of the sentence rings true.

Allen says he first used the line in talking to aspiring young writers. “My observation was that once a person actually completed a play or a novel he was well on his way to getting it produced or published, as opposed to a vast majority of people who tell me their ambition is to write, but who strike out on the very first level and indeed never write the play or book.”

The Southern short story writer Flannery O’Connor similarly talked about the habits of writing that lead to success. Despite suffering from lupus, she maintained a strict writing schedule. “I write only about two hours every day because that’s all the energy I have, but I don’t let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place. This doesn’t mean I produce much out of the two hours. Sometimes I work for months and have to throw everything away, but I don’t think any of that was time wasted. Something goes on that makes it easier when it does come well. And the fact is if you don’t sit there every day, the day it would come well, you won’t be sitting there.”

Aspiration needs perspiration for inspiration. If you want to achieve strength and depth of spiritual character, desire is the first thing. We get what we want, not what we say we want.

The achievement of desire’s intent next requires time and attention. Paying attention means making time and minding it. Sitting before a blank sheet with pen in hand, or a canvas with brush at the ready, or with a Bible on your lap and reading glasses poised on your nose: these are postures that allow inspiration to drop in.

Insights come from patient, practiced seeing. You have to see something before you can see into it. Monet painted haystacks and the Rouen Cathedral over and over in all sorts of light and weather. He was looking at the same thing each time he painted, but what he saw each time and showed to us was different because of the time of day and the effect of the elements.

Prayer can be rote until it’s not.

Prayer can be rote until it’s not. You can say the same words of the Shema or The Lord’s Prayer over and over, and then one day it hits you — something new, something fresh. And it wouldn’t have if you hadn’t been saying it again and again.

Hymns in church get in our heads and stay there for when we need them. In fact, we know that people suffering from various forms of dementia can often sing along to beloved hymns long after they have forgotten the names of their beloved spouse and children. But the songs first have to get into our heads to do that.

Not sure about the other 20 percent, but showing up probably is 80 percent of spiritual success.

People

Neighborhood resident Judy Lowe’s second children’s book, “MJ’s New Friend,” was an award finalist in the North Texas Book Festival in April. The book is about a boy who meets a new friend who’s a little odd. Spoiler alert: turns out he’s an alien. And a pretty cool-looking one in the illustration by Ayuna Collins and David Edward Martin. The book is meant to teach children about courage, acceptance and diverse friendships. Lowe’s books are available on amazon.com.

Education

Dallas ISD’s $130-million “bridge plan” will benefit four neighborhood schools. Stonewall Jackson Elementary will receive $5.3 million for a building project to replace 15 portable classrooms. And Lakewood Elementary will receive $12.6 million for new classrooms, a new cafeteria and a new library.

The Woodrow Wilson Community Foundation appointed nine new board members: Derek Hopf, Amy Jones, Monica Latin, Lacey LaPointe, Dustin Marshall, Cheryl Camin Murray, Spencer Patterson, Eric Schenkelberg and Anne Thomas.

Giving

Starting in February, Comerica Bank collected hundreds of gently used prom dresses for East Dallas-based CASA In April, approximately 50 girls in foster care picked out prom dresses in a CASA-hosted boutique, which also included a make-up artist, shoes, purses, jewelry and accessories.

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One sick bird

Neighbors brought a Sunset Bay swan, Katie , to the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center last month after they noticed she wasn’t well. The swan had an object the size of a baseball, probably a piece of plastic or trash, lodged in her throat. The rehab center launched a fundraising campaign for the bird’s treatment, nursed her back to health and returned her to her home at White Rock Lake.

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