|
Friends United Meeting |
 |
November 2004
Soul Simplicity
Frank Levering and his wife, Wanda Urbanska have just published a book, Nothing’s Too Small to Make a Difference in conjunction with their new PBS program Simple Living. I caught up with Frank one afternoon after he had spent the day in the apple orchard. The following is Part 1 of our conversation.
QL: The theme of our November issue is “Growing Hope Through Soul Simplicity: Decluttering Our Lives and Souls.” In your new book, you talk about shedding and I think shedding is like decluttering—the art of letting go. Can you share ways in your own life that you have let go or shed?
Frank: In that section I talk about Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her book Gift from the Sea. She has so much wisdom about the idea of letting go. In terms of what I have done, one of the biggest things for me was actually shedding a career. Being a former screenwriter out of Los Angeles, I was really getting very attached to the ambition of that and becoming totally work driven with no other life.
The first big shedding process or step was letting go of the ambition of being a rich and famous screenwriter. And that wasn’t easy. And quite honestly, getting back to my Quaker roots and the wisdom of the gospels was very important in letting that go. I sort of came to my senses when I came back to the orchard from California and re-read the New Testament. The most basic thing about shedding or letting go is fi nding the core—what is the set of most meaningful things for you. And then I think about my core, the other things start shedding on their own in a sense. You have to identify what are the most important things in your life, rather than what is the most superfluous. In my case, it was my screenwriter ambition—the glamour and fame of it; it was very seductive for me and I was a child of our culture, which worships fame. I was probably in rebellion too against my Quaker roots and my parents who were horrified that I was a Hollywood screenwriter.
In terms of day-to-day life, that’s one of the great challenges for any of us —how do you let go of 
things and get to that core? The whole idea of Queries is to keep asking yourself the big questions. Because it is so easy to lapse back into things that aren’t really beneficial, you have to keep reminding yourself. If you go to Quaker meeting you have to ask people to help you remind yourself.
And prayer is very much a way of asking for help in keeping to the core. One of the delightful things in my life, which you are familiar with from reading the book, is my Tuesday prayer group. We continually ask ourselves, “What are the most important things?” almost every week. If you have a group you are in or a Quaker meeting with a core group of folks you are comfortable with, that’s just so helpful. There’s no sort of fi nal answer because new temptations keep arising. With me, it’s not material things. What gets me is the lure of some new activity or some new pursuit that sounds exciting. Then I have to ask myself, “Is this really how I want to spend my time?” I need help with that because I can’t always see my blind spots.
QL: It really makes a difference to have someone to help us see those things in our lives. Being part of a group is so important and I’m glad you brought that out.
Frank: That group context is really helpful and of course, your immediate family can be so helpful.
And prayer is really important. You can say so many things about prayer and meditation, which I also do fairly regularly. They are wonderful ways to hear yourself think and also hear the Voice of the Great Thinker who you are interacting with.
We need to value prayer because so many other things seem more important and seductive.
QL: You mentioned in your book about “listening with the ears of our heart” by Cathy Whitmore from Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity. It’s a different way to talk about prayer and helps us to have some idea about the inward kind of work that is necessary.
Frank: Cathy talks about inner attentiveness, the whole process of learning to listen within.
Quakers, because we value this whole process of listening with the ears of our heart, because we attend meetings where there is silent worship, I think we are fairly naturally attuned, or at least we have the opportunity to be, to that kind of inner attentiveness. That was certainly my tradition here at the Orchard while I was growing up. We went to Mt. Airy Friends Meeting, which did have a pastor, but we also had a period of silent worship. And then at home with my parents we would most days have a period of silent worship, just for 20-30 minutes. Each of we six kids in the family came to value this time.
I don’t know that I have any tips but the process that Cathy writes about—how she transformed her own life—is available to all of us. Once you make the decision to be more attentive within, good things happen. And I think anybody can do it. It’s not an esoteric thing, even though the language is a little abstract and a little hard to grasp. Once you actually try it, you can see what she’s talking about and experience it for yourself.
QL: Along with some of these things you use for shedding, what about journaling?
Frank: Journaling is something I have done for years. I actually started in 9th grade when a wonderful English teacher got us started. Again, that is a way of access. All of this, at least for me, is about access and it’s about clearing your mind, clearing the lens of sight so that important truths can be seen and come into your consciousness.
The kind of journaling I like to do is to be surprised. I like to start writing not knowing what I am going to write about and just follow that wherever it goes. I am also interested in writing poetry and there is a parallel in writing poetry in that you often don’t know where you’re going.
Left: Henry, and his dad, Frank Levering play in the orchard. Above: Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering
I don’t want to sound mystical about this but I believe the process can take you to a divine place. You wind up communing with the divine that way. God is full of surprises although we tend to think of God as a steady constant source of love, hope and so forth. I also think it’s true that the God of the universe we are living in throws us curves all the time, and they’re usually beautiful curves.
As you get older and age, journaling is a wonderful way to come upon the unexpected. Of course, it’s not always unexpected. Sometimes you know where you’re going to go, but it certainly gives you a chance to reflect verbally on some of the deeper issues in your life, some of which can be troubling, of course.
When I was in Nepal, walking over 200 miles to the foot of Mt. Everest and back, I kept a journal the whole time. Walking every day for miles on end and writing in a journal was a wonderful combination. Those two things just went together beautifully because many thoughts would arise as you put one foot in front of another on the trail.
QL: I know that I often get inspiration while walking. Walking meditation has certainly been a part of my life. And I started journaling when I was in 6th grade. I find when I look back in my journals that I can see how God has been in the midst of everything. Even though when you were in pain, you can see through hindsight how God was in the midst of it. Journals are a helpful way for me to just remember the steadfast love of Jesus Christ. Do you look through your old journals?
Frank: I do. But I find that to be a source of both happiness and misery. Because especially in adolescence, and in my 20s when I was sorting so many things out, I was the sort who would often write out of pain. I would be in pain and so I would start writing to try to release something. Now I find those releases and old journals can be a little bit painful to read.
As you get older, you tend to write about happier things, about things that are delightful to you. So it’s a little less painful to read more recent journals.
QL: I smiled as I read this book. I know it is for a general audience and is certainly not a Quaker book, and yet interspersed all through it are little gems about Friends. That’s one of the things Friends need to do better—not talk to ourselves, but talk to the world. And this book and the PBS series do talk to the world. I’d like to encourage you to continue doing the work you are doing because you are taking those gems we have as Friends, that understanding, that learning, that way of doing things, and you’re helping to get that word out to a general audience.
Frank: It’s important to try and translate some of what we have learned to a more general audience. And that’s our mission at the moment. But it’s very Quaker-based as you recognized. We’re trying to speak the language of popular culture without selling out.
On behalf of Quaker Life, Editor, Trish Edwards-Konic interviewed Frank Levering via telephone. The conversation flowed between two new Friends.
Watch for Part 2 next month... and order your copy of the book from Quaker Hill Bookstore.