It occurs to me…

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life.

And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.”  Matthew 6:27-30

Outside my window are two Hibicus Moscheutos planted in a pot, one of the white variety, one maroon.  They are visible out my door to my right as I sit and type in my home office.  The plants create beautiful flowers throughout the summer, but what strikes me most is that the flowers last one day.  Well, to be precise I see the bud for a few days, then one morning I look out and that flower is in full bloom, as the two in the photo are.  The next day the flower has withdrawn back into a bud shape, and the following day the spent flower drops. 

Granted, these are not the “lilies of the field” in the Matthew passage above, but  each time one blooms it reminds me of that passage, and in particular, two thoughts arise.  First, one day, today, is not only enough, but it is what matters.  Second, there’s the echo of that admonition as if it is being spoken directly to me – “O ye of little faith.”

Bloom for someone/something today.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”  Anaias Nin

I thought of this quote today when reading Anthony DeMello’s The Way To Love, where he notes:

“It is from the oppression of your programming that you need to be liberated.”

Both of them have it right, I think.  We see things as we are because of our programming.  No excuse there, just fact.  Let the liberation begin/continue.

So much is written on happiness these days, but little of it is as direct as this from Anthony DeMello in The Way to Love written some thirty years ago.   I love this passage for its truth and pointed delivery — with an undertone of sarcastic humor.  It is as if DeMello is channeling his inner George Carlin – but he would need to add a few expletives:

“Yet another [mistaken] belief: Happiness will come if you manage to change the situation you are in and the people around you.  Not true.  You stupidly squander so much energy trying to rearrange the world.  If changing the world is your vocation in life, go right ahead and change it, but do not harbor the illusion that this is going to make you happy.  What makes you happy or unhappy is not the world and the people around you, but the thinking in your head.  As well search for an eagle’s nest on the bed of the ocean as search for happiness in the world outside you.  So if it is happiness that you seek you can stop wasting your energy trying to cure your baldness or build up an attractive body or change your residence or job or community or lifestyle or even your personality….  The fulfillment of desire can, at most, bring flashes of pleasure and excitement.  Don’t mistake that for happiness.”

“If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier.”  John Wooden

It occurs to me that Wooden is correct, but at the same time it seems a little odd that it is easier, perhaps even more socially acceptable, to magnify disappointments than it is to magnify disappointments.  Of course, there’s really only one way to resolve that.

For some reason what comes to mind here is the “Snoopy” character in the Peanuts cartoon.  Snoopy has that hang dog look from time to time (say, his dinner is late), but then in the next frame we may see his exuberance (the dinner bowl has arrived).  Maybe that’s why Snoopy is such a beloved character. 

Photo of my desk at home.  Lyrics from Sam Baker — “Go In Peace.”

“I am not young enough to know everything.”  Oscar Wilde

I ran across this quote and love the combination of truth and irony.  I find, and think this was at least one of Wilde’s points, that age, if I am paying attention and am humble enough to entertain the thought, has a way of revealing to me what I don’t know – and I don’t know a lot.  Thankfully, age also brings with it an acceptance of that lack of certainty that youth so despised.  That is, I find that age seems to be accompanied by a willingness to embrace the lack of certainty and knowledge, a willingness to, as Iris Dement sings, “let the mystery be.”

“Therefore, do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 2 Cor 4:16 (NIV)

“Wherefore we are not wearied, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”  2 Cor. 4:16 (Tyndale)

Some days (whether by some aches and pains or a lingering glance in the mirror) that “perishing” or “wasting away” of the outward man is more apparent than others.  Those highlight the need to acknowledge the presence of that “inward man” and make sure and do what can be done to make sure that he “is renewed day by day.”

It is easy to pull life analogies out of golf — or is it golf analogies out of life?  Anyway, this one occurred to me yesterday.

There is this dogleg-left par five hole on the nearby course, the only par five on this 9-hole course.  You can’t see the green until you get to the turn.  The distance/positioning of the creek/ trees combine so that no human I know could approach the green from the tee box.  That is, you have to get to the joint in the dogleg (for me, two shots, for some, one) before you can even see, much less take a shot at the across-the-creek/up-the-hill green.  In that sense, I always tell myself on the tee box (particularly after a bad tee shot) that the first shot doesn’t matter much (particularly if I already hit it) since the goal, at least at that point, is to get to the turn so I can see/take a shot at, the elevated green.

There is a lot of fruit there for the picking, but what came to mind the other day was that the next shot, the one I am lining up for now, is the one that matters.  However it got there, the ball is where it is, and there is no way on God’s green earth (golf course) I can hit the next shot until I hit this one.

“And when he came to himself….”  Luke 15:17

To that point, the younger son was focused on the external.  His answer to the question “What must I have to make me happy” was “give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.”  (Luke 15:12)  His path to happiness took him to “riotous living.”  (Luke 15:13).  But then, he comes to himself, or as other translations put it, he comes to his senses.  Of course this is made easier because at that point, “himself” is all he has.  But then, in coming to himself, he realizes that he has the father, who we understand from the story, never really left him, who was yearning all along for his return, for the son to come to his senses.

So much travel to get to where I am.  So much effort to attain what I have.  It’s like walking around the block to get next door.