Exuberant Life!

2 September 2012

God is good all the time!  Celebration marks a turning point today.  Hooo Ahhh!!!  Our dear daughter is nine years old and the wisdom God granted her shines through her smile.  Life contains these tiny, timeless moments that offer us the beauty of life.  Yet, all too often, they are squelched by time constraints, schedules, commitments, pressures and efforts to become God rather than rely on God.  A child's sparkling smile, the wind sweeping through fall leaves, the rising harvest moon, the humming bird's dance over sweet nectar... all await our presence.  God resides in each moment.  Taking time to savor God's goodness is what church-y types call sabbath.  Another way to describe this is holy rest.

Holy rest is a practice of residing in the eternal presence here and now.  I begin realizing that today (again) as pain decreases as I refocus each breath.  (I must be a slow learner!)  The reality that each breath is precious was brought home by my Aunt T last night.  She almost took her last breath on earth.  Her lungs have a disease that makes her more fragile.  The history of her life could fill a book easily. Heartache, pain, violation, death, widowhood, rebirth and reflection along with a lot (a LOT!) of sassiness endears her to most anyone.  Her crusty bark is louder than her survivor soul.  And death becomes the teacher once again as our breaths are numbered on this earth.

Why does death end up being our teacher so often?  We spent so much time and energy keeping death at bay.  Appearances dictate our commitents more than ethics.  Words like Republican or Democrat, right and left, male or female too often creates lines in the sand...especially during this election year.   We set our focus on keeping things up so that rust, becoming outdated or out-"tech"ed, deterioration or delapidation doesn't settle on our identity.

Take a holy rest, batman!  Is it possible that we could realize in the here and now that we have eternal life today!?!  Could I/we ever wise up long enough to carry that reality and let it show in our daily awareness?  It lightens the load when we do.

So, even though this earthly body that houses my spirit has bruises around incision sites, scars on the emotional heart, pain that has me acting like a rechargeable battery both gearing up and slowing down, and lungs that are very touchy due to asthma, (and heaven forbid I lift anything that weighs more than a gallon of milk...) I take a holy rest instead of a flying leap.  Why don't you do the same...at least for a moment.   After all, what else are you going to do right now?  Let the moment pass?