The Persistence of Beauty

Waking to the blue-gray, early-morning light, I looked out my window and saw several inches of new snow that had fallen during the night.  My first reaction was to groan and go back to bed, wishing I could just hibernate until spring makes a return. But of course, I eventually got up, went outside and noticed anew the beauty of snow, as it blankets the muddy early spring grass.  I pushed back the frosty covering to reveal crocuses, still alive and beautiful beneath the covering of white. 

The birds, still singing, somehow know that this return to winter is only temporary and I breathe a sigh of thanks for them too. There is so much beauty, everywhere, even in the aftermath of a spring snowstorm, if we open our eyes to it. 

I realize that this is a habit of mind that we can cultivate...to see the small nugget of beauty in any situation and that this prayerful, thankful attitude can give us hope and strength in any situation.

I am suddenly reminded of a few lines from an older movie, "American Beauty", in which one of the main characters tries to explain why he likes to film random, beautiful moments as a way to adapt to his difficult life circumstances:

 "It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. Right? And this bag was just dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in".

My thought and my prayer for today is a challenge, really: to find the beauty under the snow and in the way the morning light filters through the budded branches to reveal the hope and promise of spring...to trust in the "incredibly benevolent force" we call God, who assures us that we need not be afraid, ever.

Springsong

Out walking this morning, as the season turns towards spring, my senses are awakened.  I see the sun peeking over the horizon, flooding this patch of earth with light; I hear the beautiful song of a bright red cardinal, perched high in a tree as I pass by. He is joined by the birdsong of what seem to be hundreds in this holy choir...praising morning and heralding spring. I smell the rich, earthy scent of soil newly released from snow and ice.  It all surprises me with the joy of being alive, here and now, in this time and place. 

Whatever else is happening on this planet -- war, pain, loss, sorrow, all those things that are beyond my control, I believe in the power of this moment.  I will join the birds in a song to the morning, a song of thanks and praise for what is, for the good and the beauty that is still here, all around us.

I believe that praise and thanks is what lifts us up and helps to shift the planetary mayhem. To quote Paul in Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things".  This is what will bring about the change we want in the world, if enough of us focus on the power of our thoughts to triumph over darkness and evil.

So, as we pass the vernal equinox and shift towards spring, summer and many things that are excellent or praiseworthy, I hope that each one of us would trust in the power of his or her own prayers to make a difference. Everything we think and do matters; nothing and no one is insignificant.

 So breathe deeply, give thanks and choose joy today.

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Pandemic Lessons

This past Friday, March 11, was of course, the two year anniversary of the Great Pandemic Shutdown. 

Since then, I've been mulling over my "takeaways" from this experience. Although the pandemic is probably not over, it does seem to be winding down, with the ferocity of the virus waning and people's patience wearing thin.

So I ask myself: "What have I learned from this experience?  What have we as a society, as a world community, learned"?

We learned, for one thing, that we are not insulated from the rest of the world -- what happens in China or Africa or Italy very soon becomes part of our experience as well. We share one planet, breathe the same air, experience illness, suffering and loss in the same way.  Many people found that, having exited the "rat race" for awhile brought them a new awareness of the value of time with family and time to pause.

We learned that the human spirit is strong; that we can survive isolation and illness as we find new ways to connect (Zoom!) and new ways of adapting to whatever there is to adapt to.  We learned that when there is no toilet paper and little food on the grocery shelves, we can still somehow survive the inconvenience and go with whatever we can find.

Personally, I learned the value of simple things -- a daily walk in the park to experience the restorative power of nature; the beauty of silence and extra time for prayer; the soul satisfying aroma of fresh baked cookies and bread. Of course, we did our share of Netflix binge-watching to pass the time and we listened to a lot of great music. 

 In fact, as I look back, I realize that, in spite of the churning anxiety often caused by knowing that a mysterious virus was invading the world, it was a time capable of teaching lessons for those who were listening.  If you were fortunate not to have the virus touch your life in a painful, devastating way, it can be seen as a time of personal growth, capable of helping us to see areas in our lives that need changing.  We paused, we examined and we hopefully developed a new awareness -- of ourselves and the world around us.

So, for today, I am thankful for whatever good came out of our time of planetary pausing and will take those lessons forward with me as I continue my journey.

Trust Your Intuition

 Have you ever had a flash of intuition that seems to come like a bolt of lightning: quick and illuminating- providing insight and guidance for some area of your life? It could be the answer to a problem you've been struggling with, a sudden understanding of an idea (an "aha!" moment), or an illumination of your path forward, where previously things had seemed dark. It could just be that elusive "feeling" about someone or something that helps our decision making process.

Personally, these flashes of insight often come just before or just after waking, especially when I have been up praying about a situation or person in the wee hours of the night and then gone back to sleep (a frequent pattern of mine). There is a term known as "lucid dreaming", in which you are dreaming but aware that you are dreaming and so can observe any intuitive messages that come through and record them on waking.  

Of course, intuition can come to us in many other ways. Usually, it's when we are engaged in something that temporarily disengages our conscious, rational mind, like exercising in "the zone", listening to music or becoming totally immersed in a creative pursuit.

In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell  describes two different approaches to cognition and decision making: blinking, when intuition is used, and thinking, when an analysis is performed. He concludes that: "There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis". In other words: trust your intuition.

Clearly, many people do. Phrases like "I'm going with my gut", or "I just had a feeling about that" are pretty common in our vernacular.  But we also know that sometimes people make impulsive, bad decisions based on what their "gut" told them to do. So how do we know if we can trust our instinct in every situation?

I believe that if we are living our lives prayerfully and asking for guidance daily, we can trust our inner wisdom and our flashes of intuition. For most people, God doesn't have an audible voice, but speaks to our hearts and reveals insights through the Spirit.

So for today, let's ask to be better attuned to our inner wisdom, so that we can walk forward in confidence, fully trusting in our God -given sense of intuition.