A Lesson On Being

By Rev. Sharon Mooney

This launches a new series that we are calling Knowing Ourselves, Knowing Each Other. This is a place to share stories, queries and learnings of ChI clergy in their richly varied expressions of interfaith ministry and chaplaincy.

Rev. Sharon Lopez Mooney: A Lesson on Being

Five years ago Rev. Sharon Lopez Mooney (ChI, 2011) relocated to San Carlos, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez. In this video she reflects on “Being,” as an elder living a quieter phase of life after many years of active work and service. 

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From the video: This morning I woke up and I thought, “You know what? The corona virus doesn’t mean anything to the birds. It doesn’t mean anything to those fish. They are all just still doing what they do. They are being who they are.”

For me, learning about “being” began a long time ago when I first heard phrases like “awareness” or “presence.” I do not think we learn to BE by intention. I think we learn to be—to just be who we are at this stage in the life that we are expressing—by learning to listen to ourselves, and by learning to be aware and tuned in and present, every minute of every day, throughout our life. …No, nobody could do that. I don’t even think the Dalai Lama does it. But we practice it. That is why we call it a practice.

Through listening to myself, I have re-invigorated my writing practice, which is part of my spiritual practice and helps me absorb more fully the gifts and lessons that life has to offer.

We hurry through life, telling ourselves stories about what we have to do and what we should be doing. We lead our lives according to those decisions and those perceptions. If we could stop and listen, really just listen, to the arc of our own life, it might be very different. When we line up with that arc, a synchronistic magic happens. Life unfolds in front of us.

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Rev. Sharon Lopez Mooney follows the mystical path of spiritual practice. A published poet and writer, she is a ChI-trained interfaith minister (ordained in 2011) and served for several years on ChI’s Board of Directors. In her past work as a chaplain, she served elders and the dying as well as those in the midst of life-changing transitions. Prior to chaplaincy, she was a Human Communication Specialist. Currently Sharon is retired and lives in San Carlos, Mexico.