Nirvana.........................

 I want to sit here longer, to move unhurried, to glide, to breathe, to be ordered but not scheduled, to release into reverie, to let my mind wander, my shoulders loosen, my being melt and flow with curiosity, delight, warmth, ease.

-Annie Mueller, from here

A proclamation...............................

 A Proclamation

 

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their Joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

 

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

 

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us—and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

 

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

 

Go. Washington

grace........................

     And now I remind myself that I must heed William Blake's warning not to attempt to cling to a sublime experience, but rather allow it to come and go with grace.  In another of his metaphysical poems, the four-line jewel called "Eternity," he writes:

            He who binds to himself a joy

            Does the winged life destroy;

            But he who kisses the joy as it flies

            Lives in Eternity's sunrise.

    I stand and raise my glass.  "It is a great privilege to be here," I say.  Then, smiling, I add, "In fact, it is a great privilege simply to be." 

-Daniel Klein, Travels with Epicurus

a resurgent romantic revolution....

      Childhood itself is the quintessential Romanticism, and every child needs to be allowed to live in that state of grace, but wider society also needs the romance of childhood for its very creativity, requiring the reckless rapture of the puer* figure, the eternal child within culture, whose incandescence must be tended and attended to, so that its light can flare in the storyteller or dancer, so that the risk-taking, anarchic and flame-like quality, the eternal return of the great romance of childhood which exists within us all, can flame in a resurgent romantic revolution.  The chill of our utilitarian age needs that fire.

-Jay Griffiths, A Country Called Childhood

*in case you are wondering about the choice of this word, go here.

On the messy stuff............................

 My Grandmother, Emma Sue, had a garden at her farm in the North Carolina mountains where she grew Jurassic Park sized vegetables.   I asked her one day how she did it.

     "Chicken droppings," she said dryly.  "A garden won't grow right without it."

     It took a few years after that to really enjoy a tomato out of her garden again.  But I never forgot the lesson:  It's the messy, unpleasant stuff that grows a great garden.  Just like sometimes it's the messy stuff in life, the mistakes and wrong turns, that grows a rich existence.  Yet we bemoan every tiny mistake.

-Rev. Susan Sparks, Laugh Your Way to Grace:  Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor

Grace..........................

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

-Frederick Buechner

Thankfulness......................

     When we see God's grace operate in the lives of people who we feel don't deserve it, we have a choice.  Either we can complain and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can be thankful that the God of such goodness is the One we love and serve.  Comparison kills because it always leaves us wanting more, but thankfulness brings life.

-Zig Ziglar and Ike Reighard,  The One Year Daily Insights

the grace needed...................

Value is, at bottom, simple.  The balance of values is complex, and how to trade them, to choose the worthiest course, is the problem of how to live.  Life has its absurdities, which we might expect and find humor in.  As for the meaning of life itself, in human history, we have yet to formulate an answer.  But we have found good enough reasons to potentially find meaning in our own situation, enough so as to find personal peace.  We needn't resign from life or withdraw, but can instead ready ourselves for being ever more attuned, in faithful practice.  For the basic joy in the surfer's kind of relational connection, even in an ordinary surf, is a real basis for peace in the sublime mix of the beautiful and the grotesque, of the fortunate and the unfortunate, of the just and the unjust.   One can relax the perfectionist scruples, ease up on the angst, and be less anxious.  One can get stoked and simple engage in worthy activities that give one the grace needed to call the present good enough within a life that's being well lived.

-Aaron James,  Surfing With Sartre:  An Aquatic Inquiry Into A Life Of Meaning

Saving grace...............................

via

Sync..............................

      Most of us postpone a decision hoping that Jesus will get weary of waiting and the inner voice of Truth will get laryngitis.  Thus, the summons of the crisis parables remains suspended in a state of anxiety, so long as we opt neither for nor against the new dimension of living open to us.  Our indecision creates more problems than it solves.  Indecision means we stop growing for an indeterminate length of time;  we get stuck.  With the paralysis of analysis, the human spirit begins to shrivel.  The conscious awareness of our resistance to grace and the refusal to allow God's love to make us who we really are brings a sense of oppression.  Our lives become fragmented, inconsistent, lacking in harmony and out of sync.  The worm turns.  The felt security of staying in a familiar place vanishes.  We are caught between a rock and hard place.   How do we resolve this conundrum?
      We don't.

-Brennan Manning,  The Ragamuffin Gospel

Grace.........................

God, whose law it is 
that he who learns must suffer. 
And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget 
falls drop by drop upon the heart, 
and in our own despite, against our will,
comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

-Aeschylus, as translated by Edith Hamilton

how slowly we evolve..................

      I have to believe that a real higher power is struggling in this as much as we are.  But horribly, if healing and care are going to get done, it will be love working through us.  Us!  In our current condition, not down the road, when we are in the fullness of our restoration, in wholeness, compassionate detachment, patient amusement.  Us, now.  It has taken years for me to get this well, which is to say, half as reactive and a third less obsessed with my own neurotic disappointing self.  I don't agree with the pace of how slowly we evolve toward patience, wisdom, forgiveness.  Anyone would understand if we gave up and settled, the way people settle into terrible marriages.  But these are our lives.  Se we try, we do the work of becoming saner and more authentic, which is hard enough without truly monstrous people crashing our lives, often - not always - through marriage, although I am not going to name names.  Well, maybe just one...

-Anne Lamott,  Small Victories:  Spotting Improbably Moments of Grace

a start.............................

       John, Stevo, and I have been collectively sober for eighty-four year.  It's a start.
      John found refuge among the people he had hurt and neglected.  I still had some little grudgelets and feared he would leave us again, but the three of us were slowly growing up.  That, grace, and exhaustion with myself allowed me to forgive.  I did not want to keep score anymore.  I always won, but got booby prizes.

-Anne Lamott,  Small Victories:  Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace

Forgiveness...................................

     "Years ago I came across Dag Hammarkskjold's line 'Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which that is broken is made whole again, that which is soiled is made clean again,' and knew that this could not happen for us, that our parents were gone and John was just John.  Take it or leave it.  Life on life's terms."

-Anne Lamott,  Small Victories:  Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace

the hardest work.......................

      No one can prove that God does or doesn't exist, but tough acts of forgiveness are pretty convincing for me.  It is so not my strong suit, and I naturally prefer the company of people who hold grudges, as long as they are not held against me.  Forgiveness is the hardest work we do.  When, against all odds, over time, your heart softens toward truly heinous behavior on the part of parents, children, siblings, and everyone's exes, you almost have to believe that something not of this earth snuck into your stone-cold heart.

-Anne Lamott,  Small Victories:  Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace

Gracefully...........................

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

-Max Ehrmann,  Desiderata

On grace and forgiveness..............................

     It's not a once-and-for-all thing, self-forgiveness.  It's more like a  constant attitude.  It's just being hopeful.  It's refusing to hold your breath.  It's loving yourself enough to offer yourself a million more tries.  It's what we want our kids to do every day for their whole lives, right?  We want them to embrace being human instead of fighting against it.  We want them to offer themselves grace.  Forgiveness and grace are like oxygen;  we can't offer it to others unless we put our masks on first.  We have to put our grace masks on and breathe in deep.  We have to show them how it's done.  We need to love ourselves if we want our kids to love themselves.  We don't necessarily  have to love them more;  we have to love ourselves more.  We have to be gentle with ourselves.  We have to forgive ourselves and then ... oh my goodness ... find ourselves sort of awesome, actually, considering the freaking circumstances.

-Glennon Doyle Melton,  Carry On, Warrior:  The Power of Embracing Your Messy Beautiful Life

Hidden.....................................

“Why do we marry, why take friends and lovers? Why give ourselves to music, painting, chemistry or cooking? Out of simple delight in the resident goodness of creation, of course; but out of more than that, too. Half earth's gorgeousness lies hidden in the glimpsed city it longs to become.” 
-Robert Farrar Capon

Instead.........................................

In Augustine's view, people do not get what they deserve;  life would be hellish if they did.  Instead people get much more than they deserve.  God offers us grace, which is his unmerited love.  God's protection and care comes precisely because you do not deserve it and cannot earn it.  Grace doesn't come to you because you've performed well on your job or even made great sacrifices as a parent or as a friend.  Grace comes to you as part of the gift of being created.
     One of the things you have to do in order to receive grace is to renounce the idea that you can earn it.  You have to renounce the meritocratic impulse that you can win a victory for God and get rewarded for your effort.
-David Brooks, as excerpted from The Road To Character

Trigger warning.........................................

"The truth that many people never understand is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt."
-Thomas Merton