I am reminded again today of the power of these words from Romans 12:2 –
“[T]his is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
May the “transforming” continue.
In An Altar In The World Barbara Brown Taylor extols the virtues of getting lost. She notes: “Most of us prefer to remain on our cow paths, where we know the language and we do not need maps because we know the way by heart. Some of us even stay behind our fences because we do not want to be mistaken for interlopers in other people’s pastures.” Indeed, as encouragement she offers this: “Others before you have found a way in the wilderness, where there are as many angels as there are wild beasts, and plenty of other lost people too.”
That is and has been my experience when I get off the path — “there are as many angels as wild beasts, and plenty of other lost people too.” Soon enough, I usually realize that I am, in fact, not lost at all.
This from Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar To The World:
“Anything can become a spiritual practice once you are willing to approach it that way – once you let it bring you to your knees and show you what is real, including who you really are, who other people are, and how near God can be when you have lost your way.
Of course, for this last to be true you have to be willing to recognize God in your neighbor. Once, when I took the wrong train to the New York Botanical Gardens and ended up walking through a pretty scary neighborhood in the Bronx, a bus driver stopped and opened his doors just for me.
‘I don’t have the right change,’ I said, my eyes huge with fear.
‘Get in,’ he said. God drove a bus in the Bronx that day.’”
She’s right, of course. I need to be able to recognize God in my neighbor, which (given limitations to my vision) may take a second, third, or fourth look. On that day, for her, God drove a bus in the Bronx. What might I see him doing today if I have my eyes, my mind, open?
From The Life of a Day by Tom Hennen:
“[I]t would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times more interesting than most people…. We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, no, this isn’t the one I’ve been looking for, and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when, we are convinced, our lives will start for real. Meanwhile this day is going by perfectly well-adjusted, as some days are, with the right amount of sunlight and shade, and a light breeze scented with a perfume made from the mixture of fallen apples, corn stubble, dry oak leaves, and the faint odor of last night’s meandering skunk.”
He is right, of course. I take days for granted, in large part because I am waiting for the next, which I am convinced will be a new, better day, just like I characterized today yesterday. Suddenly, I have that feeling I get when I realize that the keys or glasses I am looking for are in my hand. Duh!
Today I ran across Poem About Morning by William Meredith. There is a lot to digest there for a relatively short poem, but I got a good laugh out of this line:
“Life is some kind of loathsome hag who is forever threatening to turn beautiful.”
Indeed. And sometimes, she actually pulls it off!
You can (and should) read the whole poem here:
https://april-is.tumblr.com/post/513096646/april-11-2010-poem-about-morning-william
In my meandering thoughts today this one occurred to me – blessings to baggage. There is this human capacity (one I fear I have highly developed) to take blessings and turn them into “baggage.” Work from a good job becomes life’s driving force. Having money, one becomes focused with how to handle it. Food, hobbies, and of course the family and friends in our lives, all blessings, can easily be turned into “baggage.” One thought that occurs to me here is that this (the perception of “blessing” or “baggage”) is in large part (if not fully) a matter of perspective.
Photo taken on the beach in Malibu, California.
I read this today from Address to the Lord by John Berryman. While I am not sure there is such a thing as a “perfect prayer” for all occasions, this one strikes me as such here, now:
“Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,
Inimitable contriver,
endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon,
thank you for such as it is my gift….
…Whatever your end may be, accept my amazement.
May I stand until death forever at attention
for any your least instruction or enlightenment.
I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight and beauty.”
Amen
Photo taken recently in California.
“Be though my vision, or Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me save that thou art. Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping Thy presence my light.”
The lyrics from Be Thou My Vision popped into my head this morning. If I gotta have a song in my head all day, this beats most!
It occurs to me... 