Few Surprises

In the end, few things are as surprising as we would have thought.

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They talked of Jesus present in us as though we were the only ones to benefit from such a relationship.

Go Forward

Looking back at roads we might have taken we can know they may have led to better places, but they are not the ones we are upon, and so time spent looking back is not time well spent.  Go forward instead.  Remember sometimes what might have been or what could have happened.  If you pass a juncture such as this see if it is still the road you might want to take.  In time you may need to be where you have traveled, and the road not taken will not need to be now.

The Journey Itself

If getting to the promised land was the goal they could have walked there in a week, but instead the aim was the journey.  The desert was the purpose itself.

Cycles

I am, I think, cycling again into a time of hope.  I hope it will last.

Righteous People

Righteous people are so terribly dull.  For all their solemnity they add nothing at all.

No Choice at All

Choices determine subsequent choices, sometimes narrowing the options and at other times expanding the range.  When the range is sufficiently narrow it becomes fated, and choices follow one from another with such inevitability that it seems no choice exists at all.  To go along with what began at the start of the chain is all that remains, ratifying rather than selecting what is available.  Resisting can seem a choice but it is too expensive to be considered.

Anchored in Childhood

People should not have to grow up, and children least of all.  There should be no rush to put aside the aspect of life that anchors us to goodness and innocence.

Seduced By Violence

We can be seduced by violence.  It promises a resolution it cannot deliver.  In the end, war (or other instances of it) provides no resolution.  It offers frustration which leads, if permitted to do so, to only new acts of violence pretending to be the answer.

Friend on the Move

My friend goes from one place to the other.  In each are people he cares for and things that he fears.  Wherever he is he will be without who he left behind and surrounded by the aspects that frighten him so.  No matter how quickly he goes from one to the other he will not outdistance the sad and scary parts.  Nor can he gather around him all whom he loves.

Wanting It All

Sometimes, people do not want parts.  Instead everyone wants all of what is available and they can resent the part they did not receive, even if it is the part you tried to keep for yourself, or so it can seem.

Focus Into the Moment

At some time in therapy people ask why life is unfair, why the good suffer, not caring so much why the evil may prosper, and more specifically they ask why is their pain so great and why life has seemed to conspire against them.  They ask why there ever was such pain and no discernible relief, no time when they can say it is finally over or at least for a time they will have life without its tragedies and estrangements.  They so want it to be fair.  In our dealing with people we can respond honestly and equitably, but there are no choices in our lives about what they do, about fate, or about anything else.  It helps, I think, to recognize and acknowledge the very limited nature of what is fair, and to spend less time and energy in anger about it.  It is also helpful to narrow expectations and focus into the moment, as it is beneficial to move from the global control residing in fate and force that seem blind to our distress, narrowing the process to aspects where people can have choices about what to do or how to respond, even if it is only in this moment.

Little Hope

Had we to rely only on what we presently see few would have much basis for hope.

Standard Ideal

When the ideal becomes standard nothing can work.  We have made it necessary, rather than desirable, that everyone be satisfied; or we have required that outcome be according to the plan, allowing for no variation.

Wait

Wait.  Just wait, settling into your soul.  Wait without anxiety, trusting in the waiting itself.

Center Stage Craziness

When the craziness is at center stage masquerading as sense its performance can be so frightfully realistic.

Road Raging at God

He passed me on Route 101, crying and raging, his face red and swollen by tears and the very terror of his anger.  I thought as he pulled alongside he was yelling at me, but there was no object other than God.  I know because I have done so myself, though I confine my shouting to two-lane roads, unwilling to share this ritual with other motorists.

Uncertain Purpose

Most would agree there is purpose and direction to life unless they were required to also say just what it might be.

Furrowed Brows and Foolishness

Officiousness confuses itself with competence.  The dullest people seem determined to be experts as though the ponderous nature of their discussion were the key.  Furrowed brows and labored discussion do not give added value to foolishness.

A Kind and Gentle Man

Of all this world's dear people I find I am related to several; among them is my brother. A kind and gentle man.

The Lives of Others

I sometimes do better in the lives of others than I do in my own, perhaps because they had come wanting to change.

Questioning Clichés

While clichés may be O.K. as points of reference, we should periodically question their claim to universality.

No Solutions for Everyone

There is no solution that will meet everyone's needs, and so it would be all right to spend less time and energy in attempts at reconciliation.

The Widow's Coins

Having given to the temple her two copper coins the widow did not then win the lottery.

The Question With No Answer

To think we should, or that we ever can, respond to the question having no answer is to not understand it has no answer.  Nothing is the only reply.

Right to Know

People may be entitled to some facts, but not to all of the discussion or explanation with which they would pursue and challenge what is said.

Limited Perspective

Because people talk only from their experience and understanding -- bringing to what they would share their values, hopes, and expectations -- they can understand each within his own self what might be offered, but at a more distinct level they can be more at odds.  Yet, even in their need not to be so distant that they would risk precluding resolution, there is wariness.  To overcome it requires additional trust and a willingness to be less absolute.

The Truth

Knowing some truths may only make us more knowledgable.  The truth does not always set us free.  It may sometimes constrain us all the more.

Seeing Bartimaeus

In the story of Bartimaeus, the bishop had thought Jesus' friends had not understood and so they tried to protect him from this shouting blind man.  This Sunday, the priest thought it more central to see them leading the blind man forward.  They were his advocates.  Actually, they had done both.  Followers do not always understand, but sometimes they do.  We get in the way, but sometimes we do not stay there.

Putting in Time

At what point did he start putting in time, tolerating life rather than living it?  It was probably far sooner than it seemed.

The Sadness

People who would overlook or diminish the sadness have not understood, and if they would say the past is over they have not seen it alive in our hearts.  We are the sadness and sometimes we are it more than anything else.  The past, at least on some days, is more vital than the moment.  They seem to be what anchor us.  It is not that all that is good and valued is over, or that happiness is not allowed to be real.  Rather it is that we have a part of our being in events that form us, and when time has covered them over the present times will not be any more over than in the history we already carry.  It means too that at the center of the core there is emptiness that rises up.  In the terrible sadness we can find more real than what surrounds it on other days, but there are those days, and there are times when the sadness does seem over.  There is happiness, too, and it is in its moments as real as anything else, but it seems more fleeting and less able to compete.