It occurs to me…

“Every path has its puddle.”  English Proverb

This is a simple truth.  On reflection, it seems I want truth to be complex, or at least I see it as being complex.  (Maybe because I want to have “figured it out?)  However, it occurs to me that most truths, real TRUTHS, are only a few words, and can be stated in a single sentence – without dashes, commas, or semi-colons.  If it takes more than that to state a truth, it is suspect.  And of course, I note that sentence has a comma in it (though I am not sure it was needed).

Today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13:24-43) was the parable of the wheat and weeds.  A farmer goes out and sows some wheat, and an enemy goes in and sows weeds amongst the wheat so the seeds end up sprouting at the same time.  Fast forward a few hours and I am out weeding my front yard flower beds, listening to Tim McGraw sing Better Than I Used To Be, which includes this tag line: “I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get, but I’m better than I used to be.”

I go out every weekend and spend time weeding my front yard (the back is rock).  We put weed blocker under the mulch when we planted the beds, but still, every weekend I pull weeds, then come back the next weekend and pull more.  (To my knowledge, I don’t have any enemies that plant them there.)  As I worked and listened, the work, the parable and the song merged in my mind, and served as a reminder that I am, I guess we all are, works in progress — mixtures of wheat and weeds.  I guess what’s important is to realize that and keep separating the wheat from the weeds.  That is Jesus’ point in the parable, and McGraw’s:

I ain’t no angel

I still got a few more dances with the devil

I’m cleanin’ up my act, little by little

I’m getting there

I can finally stand the man in the mirror I see

I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get

But I’m better than I used to be

“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.  Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them – every day begins the task anew.”  St. Francis de Sales

Today is going to be really busy!  And tomorrow, and the next day….

This deserves to be left uncluttered by my thoughts.

From Anthony DeMello:

“Compare the serene and simple splendor of a rose in bloom with the tensions and restlessness of your life.  The rose has a gift that you lack: It is perfectly content to be itself.”

 

 

Today C. S. Lewis takes on change.  Apparently, he is for it — ugh!

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go on indefinitely being just and ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.”

It occurs to me how comical it is, the degree to which I fight change.  Any change I fight is an effort to keep something as it is, but of course the “something as it is” I am fighting to keep was, at some point, the change I was fighting to avoid while I was clinging to its predecessor.  John Prine is right – “it’s a big old goofy world!”

Today from Oswald Chambers:

“God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the things we have calculated on without taking him into account.”

Well, it occurs to me that the “upsetting” rarely seems “delightful” as it unfolds, but, with time and sufficient salve for my (deservedly) wounded pride, the “upsetting” can provide wisdom, and if allowed, a good “what was I thinking” chuckle.

As I ponder things this morning, this pops into my mind:

“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.  Any fool can do it.  There ain’t nothin’ to it.  Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill.  But since we’re on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride.”               James Taylor – The Secret O’ Life

James Taylor crams much into this opening chorus – wonder, humility, encouragement, resignation – enough to make my head explode.  But he notes later that such is to be expected by this thing we call life.  “Einstein said he could never understand it all.  Planets spinning through space, smile upon your face.  Welcome to the human race.”

As I ponder things I can’t seem to explain or understand, somehow that simple thought seems to help.  “Welcome to the human race.”

Gratuitously, given that Independence Day is around the corner, I read Christopher Colombus: Dead White Male, a commentary in Charles Krauthammer’s Things That Matter. 

“If we are to judge civilizations like individuals, they should all be hanged, because with individuals it takes but one murder to merit a hanging.  But if one judges civilizations by that they have taken from and that they have given to the world, a non-jaundiced observer…would surely bless the day Columbus set sail.”

Oh, yes!  The United States has screwed up a lot.  The American Indians, slavery, internment camps, our current president … are legitimate tragedies (okay, the last is hyperbole, and the jury is still out) but there was also some good done in those 241 years – not the least of which is intervention into two world wars.  Just as I hope not to be judged by my worst moments, nor should the United States of America.