It occurs to me…

The Coleman Banks translation of The Guest House  by Rumi – to comment on it would only lessen its power:

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor

Welcome and entertain them all

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be brageful for whoever comes,

Because each has been sent

As a guide from beyond.

Today from Oswald Chambers: “We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves and we will find that we can do what we said we could not.  The curse with most of us is that we won’t.  The Christian live is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.”

No sugar coating or sympathy here from Chambers.  In three sentences Chambers conveys a lot.  It occurs to me that Chambers was about 100 year ahead of Nike’s “Just Do It” and about 70 ahead of Yoda’s “Do or do not.  There is no try.”  Still, the message is generally the same.

“Every tomorrow has two handles.  We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”  Henry Ward Beecher

Thinking about my two-handled tomorrow bucket, I don’t know if I have quite worn out the “handle of anxiety” yet, but I am confident it is the more worn and polished of the two.  It occurs to me that the other handle, while different, will still allow me to carry the bucket, and ought to be used more often.

“More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense.”  Ken Keyes

I ran across this quote recently and it supports the thought I have been having (those are the quotes I like best, the ones that validate my own thoughts!).  My thought is that people, and I am a people, seem to be predisposed to being offended.  That is, our skin seems to be thinning.   I won’t pretend to understand this, but have some thought that it has to do with the fact that our “soapboxes” are both anonymous and so readily available, and our egos are fed by joining in on a landslide of public opinon.  Had a bad meal at a restaurant, a bug in your hotel room, felt cheated by a mechanic – just post something about it anonymously on any one of many sites that provide review opportunities.  Read a ten-word headline about some recent action by some egotistical, bombastic guy elected to public office – form an opinion without knowing the facts.  The exchange of information is not necessarily a bad thing, but taking offense, particularly as the speed of a cell phone grab and type, at the speed of a knee-jerk reaction, may say less about the offender than it does about the offended.  Perhaps all might be better served if I attempted to gather more information before jumping to a conclusion, or noted my disappointment to someone in a position to address the concern and possibly rectify the situation.

I had to change my computer password at work recently, which is always a hassle.  I find myself typing in the old one out of habit, though I know I have a new one.  In fact, it seems like just about the time the “new” password becomes automatic, it is time to change to a different new one.

It occurs to me that this is a good life lesson here.  Change is almost always difficult.  Even when I know intellectually it is good (thwarting hackers), change is still difficult to embrace.  Yet, at some point, and generally without realizing it, the change I had such difficulty embracing becomes the change I have difficulty letting go of.   I am reminded of one of George Carlin’s comedy routines where he makes this astute observation – “Have you ever noticed that after you have a hat on for a while you forget it is there, and then, after you take it off, you still think it is there?”

All that to say – Change, hard to accept, hard to let go of.  Go figure.

“The entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.”  John Andrew Holmes

I ran across this quote again today.  With some frequency I need to be reminded that I am but one of the (approximately) 7,500,000,000 who inhabit this clod of dirt orbiting the sun.  Still, I struggle with the word “trifling,” and would have preferred that Holmes would have omitted that word, for my sake, and for the other 7,499,999,999’s sake.

Today from Oswald Chambers:  “we have to work out the salvation God has worked in.”  This is of course reminiscent of what Paul urges the Philippians to do in Philippians 2:13 — “continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

In this I am reminded that God has given me the tools, the resources, the raw material I need for this task of working on my own salvation.  Now I just gotta find out where He put all the pieces, and where did I set down those damn assembly instructions.

Reading the Prodigal Son parable again this morning I was struck by the phrase – “and there wasted his substance on riotous living.”  Luke 15:13.

What a turn of a phrase.  It is somehow, both devoid and full of of detail.  My on-line dictionary defines “riotous” as “wild and uncontrolled behavior,” but that definition is meaningless as “uncontrolled” means just that.  One can be “uncontrolled” in any direction.  I suppose if you asked a room of a hundred people what “riotous living” meant to them you would get a wide range of answers.  Only the older son gives us some hint here, when later (v. 30) he complains to the father that the younger son has “devoured thy living with harlots.”  Of course, we don’t know if the older son knows that as fact, or is just spinning an argument.  All we really know is that the younger son “spent it all” (v. 14).

But then it occurs to me that the uncertainty of the meaning of the phrase “wasted his substance on riotous living” was purposefully chosen by Jesus and/or those who told the story in the oral tradition and then ultimately put it onto paper.  I mean, isn’t that the point brought home by the father, who, as best as we can tell is indifferent to just what the younger son did while he was away.  Indeed, the father cares (so much so as to say it twice, in v. 24 and 32) about only one thing, — that the younger son “came to himself” (v. 17) and returned home —  “my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.”  Wilson Mizner

I ran across this quote recently and tucked it away.  It reminded me of another that has, apparently with some uncertainty attached, been linked to Albert Einstein:

“It’s not that I’m smart.  I am merely inquisitive.”

These quotes both remind me that as frustrating as not knowing is, as challenging as new situations and circumstances may be, as difficult as the waters of new relationships are to successfully navigate, they provide fertile ground from which good things (though maybe not the “good things” I had in mind) may grow.  Granted, this requires some effort and/or patience on my part, but it occurs to me that it has, and always will be that way.

A friend recently sent me some information on the seven virtues.  (I think he meant it kindly.)  They are, I assume in no particular order:

Chastity     Temperance     Charity       Diligence     Patience     Kindness      Humility

There is a converse sin associated with each:

Lust     Gluttony     Greed     Sloth     Wrath     Envy     Pride

I note at the outset that the sins are much shorter and contain less syllables than the virtues – just an observation.  But what really caught me at the outset was how the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines “virtue” as: “an habitual and firm disposition to do the good.”  One need not bat 1,000 on the list of seven, one only need have a “firm disposition” to do so.  Whew!