Author: itoccurstocp

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake.”  Henry David Thoreau

Speaking literally, it is difficult to be awake at dawn, but the same is true figuratively.  I, like all humans, have this innate ability to block out, even intentionally ignore.  Or as Simon and Garfunkel put it, “a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.”  The challenge, of course, is in the deciding what to hear.  I have old-fashioned wind up clocks in my office at home and at work that create the classic “tick/tock” as the pendulums swing back and forth.  Noisy as they are, I rarely hear the sound they generate though I notice others do as they enter the office.

It occurs to me that life is in large part a product of what, in Simon and Garfunkel terms, I hear and what I disregard, or in Thoreau’s terms, what I am awake to.

The same old new thing

C. S. Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters of how humans have both this love of change and permanence – we want the new yet value the old. He goes on to say that God “has contrived to satisfy both tastes together in this very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence we call Rhythm.” Thinking through that this morning that rings true.  Many mornings I watch the sun rise, and there is a sameness to it, yet the light, the color of the sky, the calling of the birds outside, they all coalesce to create a different morning each morning.   We have the seasons each year, and while each spring brings with it a sense of renewal, it is not the same as last year’s, nor will it be the same as next year’s.

I could, I guess, perceive each day as the same old thing, but of course, if I am paying attention, it is not.  The same old new thing — another fine example of the wonder of God’s creation.

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.”  Blaise Pascal

That is, I suppose, the nature of faith – light and shadow, knowledge and uncertainty.  This brought to mind another quote from Anais Nin: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

It occurs to me that perhaps I make my own light and shadow.

Photo taken a while back in Puerto Vallarta

The pharisees said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”

The disciples missed their chance.  Their response should have been: “I can’t speak to the “tax collector” part, but as to the “sinners” part, who else is there for him to eat with?

“Any radical shift in consciousness requires the stimulus of crisis.”  Robert & Edward Skidelsky

I came across this quote recently in a book I am reading, picked my pencil up, and put a question mark by it.  My immediate urge was to deny the truth of this, but I have not, in the time since, been successful in convincing myself that it is not true.  The best I could do was convince myself that “crisis” is a relative term, and, in the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” tradition, I have almost convinced myself that it is a good thing that it is true.  I mean, who wants to have a “radical shift in consciousness” occur on a whim.  Still, I haven’t erased the question mark!

“There is a wonderful, mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life – happiness, freedom, and peace – are always attained by giving them to someone else.”

Peyton Conway March

I ran across this quote today and it rings true.  Much time and effort is spent trying to achieve happiness, freedom, and peace through other means, while bypassing the obvious route.  Which reminds me of this quote attributed to Anne Frank: “No one has ever become poor by giving.”

“Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be good for all the people.”  Luke 2:10

That phrase is used often in the Bible – “Do not be afraid.”  In Chapters 1 and 2 of Luke it is used three times, once with shepherds, once with Zecharias, and once with Mary, each at the outset of an angelic appearance.  It is understandable that being confronted by an angel might be alarming, and thus the “Do not be afraid” introduction makes sense, but then any indication of divine presence, from the gentle tug of a “still, small voice” to an angel appearing, can be startling.  In The Jesuit Guide To Almost Everything James Martin notes that “an indication that God is close to you can be alarming,” but goes one step further, noting: “Religious experiences are often dismissed – not out of doubt that they aren’t real, but out of fear that they are real after all.”

That rings true to me – here’s the pattern.   After being startled, after the nudge, some form of reason kicks in, and I start to see that this realization, this awakening, is going to put me on a different path, and that if I listen and respond, things are going to be different.  Once that fear takes over, well, I can “but” God out of the way and that gentle tug (I have no experience with angels appearing) can get lost in the jostling of life.

“Do not be afraid,” or hell, just be less afraid.

“The sun, with all those planets revolving round it and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”  Galileo Galilei

This both provides encouragement and speaks to the wonder of creation.

Photo taken outside the house.  the cats are ours, or we are their humans.