It occurs to me…

In The Way To Love Anthony DeMello writes about that pesky “love your enemies” admonition.  He posits four strategies:

Ask not “what is wrong with this person” but instead, ask “what does my irritation with this person tell me about me?”

Consider that my annoyance is from being forced to see something about my life I don’t care for.

Consider that my annoyance arises from the person not living up to my programed expectations.  Others might not be annoyed, or not annoyed as much.

Consider that the person, given history, background, etc. can’t help behaving how he/she does.

Well, that just sucks all the fun out of hating my enemies, and out of annoyance in general!

Reading the parable of the prodigal son this morning, Luke 15:11-32, I was struck by something that had not previously occurred to me – the pace.  We of course don’t know how much chronological time passed from when the younger son to take his “journey into a far country” to when he “wasted his substance on riotous living,” went into the fields to “feed swine,” and ultimately “began to be in want,” but it takes only four verses of the story.  It seemed pretty quick.  I imagine that to the son, the road to the “far country” seemed a damned sight shorter than the road back to his father and brother – though of course the distance was the same.  It occurs to me that this is reality.  The fall is always quicker/easier than the climb back up.  Still, we climb.

Photo taken on a walk this morning.

Reading Anthony DeMello’s contemplation Love One Another, he notes that love has for qualities.  The first quality is that love has “indiscriminate character.”  He writes:

“Take a look at a rose.  Is it possible for the rose to say ‘I shall offer my fragrance to good people and withhold it from bad people?’  Or can you imagine a lamp that withholds its rays from a wicked person who seeks to walk in its light?  It could only do that by ceasing to be a lamp.  And observe how helplessly and indiscriminately a tree gives its shade to everone, good and bad, young and old, high and low; to animals and humans and every living creature – even to the one who seeks to cut it down.”

It occurs to me that I can of course mount an argument for being discriminate with love, but it seems the white flag is the wiser option.

“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.”