Carmel Reflections

9 - Reuters' Rules

I have learned so much from the many comments you have left here and I am really grateful.

I want to be sure to keep going and to get somewhere. I think the soul knows its way home, and all we have to do is help it, and go with it.

It seems strange that that task can be so hard at times. I believe that a framework lovingly evolved can also offer the support of the flock to those who attempt to fly.

I am following the structure of the year and connecting it to life around me, but I was wondering how to keep on track when I saw an article about Reuters' rules for journalists. Is spiritual writing very different from journalism? Here is my summary of Reuters rules:

1 - Do's

a Cover what matters in people's lives.

b If one door to information closes, open another.

c Go back to sources.

d Get out and about and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts.

e Integrity, Independence, Impartiality

2- Don'ts

a Never be intimidated, but:

b Don't pick unnecessary fights.

c Don't make the story about me.

d Don't vent day to day frustration, report without personal animus.

e Don't take too dark a view.

f Aim for fresh, useful, illuminating.

Suddenly I feel very Carmelite: I don't want to discuss these rules. I want to let them sit here. There is so much that is really relevant. Spirituality, even a personal spiritual journey, has to be real, rooted in the created world which God speaks though, and within which we act.

Trying to tell people things is beyond the scope of someone who is still trying to find things out. But this is a 'story' in Wattpad parlance, and journalists call every item a 'story' too. Maybe because they recognize that the truth is hard to find. There are a thousand ways to see it and to say it. What you leave out is as important as what you put in. These journalists' rules seem helpful to me in journalling this year's journey.

I come back to the scripture, to my sources, and the reading I google for today seems to be on last year's cycle. Ah well. It's for someone who is afraid to speak, afraid to carry their message. It's Isaiah.

You can just listen. It's the first one on this video.

Isaiah 6:1-8

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Find a flock, and fly. There is only now. The first step is the hardest, but go forward in faith. Knock at doors. If one closes, open another. Go out and learn what matters, what helps and what hurts. Do not pick fights. Live without animus. Vent your feelings apart. Share what is good and uplifting, and go. More than anything, go and carry the message that is spoken in the flight, felt in the quiver of your passing wings. You are somebody's angel.