It occurs to me…

It seems the perfect send off to my friend Fr. Sid Gervais who passed away this weekend — this, today’s entry in Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest which Chambers titles “Undaunted Radiance”:

“Nay, in all things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”  Romans 8:37

Chambers writes: “Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter.  The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That pretty much sums up how Sid lived, what he believed, and was a, perhaps the, basis for his interminably positive attitude, and it is his legacy he leaves for me, for us — “Nay, in all things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”  Romans 8:37

This short in stature, yet a giant in every other way, man – Sid, the conqueror. 

This Sunday’s offering in honor of Fr. Sid Gervais, a friend of mine who passed away in his sleep Saturday night (so Sid-like!). The text is from Mary Oliver, but Sid certainly lived by these principles.

Photo taken in Kona, Hawaii a couple of months back.

From Mary Oliver’s The World I Live In:

“You wouldn’t believe what once or

twice I have seen.  I’ll just

     tell you this:

Only if there are angels in your head will you

     ever, possibly, see one.”

Here’s to making room in the head for angels and countless other blessings that may, possibly, appear if we just keep them in our heads.

Photo taken of the Austin skyline a few years back. Text inspired, in part, by Mary Oliver’s Bazougey, and in particular, her phrase, “world of particulars.”

I am rereading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. His first agreement —

“Be impeccable with your word.”  

Ruiz calls this the most important and most difficult of the agreements.  I’ll have to ponder that, but it may also be the best 5-word bit of advice ever given.  I looked up “impeccable” and its  synonym is “faultless.”  That faultlessness is (in my experience) an unattainable goal is beside the point, or maybe that is his point.  That is, we all need to be impeccable with our word because none of us can be.

Reading today from Howard Thurman’s Deep Is The Hunger he notes:

“Worry is faith in reverse.”

While its not so difficult to put my vehicle in “Reverse” and back a car length or two out of a driveway or a parking space, I never consider driving down the road any meaningful distance in “Reverse.” That would just be silly, not to mention dangerous (or the crick it would put in my neck).

Maybe that’s the image to get out of the worry mode, to see myself moving the shifter to “Reverse,” taking my foot off the brake, and hitting the accelerator to drive down a winding, hilly, narrow road.

Photo taken in Galveston last year, sunrise at one of my fishing spots. The text — well, it helps us see that Ali was more than a boxer.

Photo taken on a run last year. For anyone who is counting, the song turns 55 this year.

Listening to an On Being podcast in which Sharon Salzburg was the guest, Salzburg said something akin to this — “We spend our effort rowing frantically but fail to see that we left our boat tied to the dock.” It has occurred to me several times since, particularly when I am struggling with something that seems like it ought to be easier — Is my boat still tied to the dock?

Photo, appropriately so, taken at sunrise of Pleasure Pier, in Galveston.