Thursday, August 6, 2009

Dear God,

As I drove to the monastery early this morning, the bright white full moon shone to my right as the sun's orange, pink and purple stripes were rising to my left. What a magnificent view of creation's morning.

I should have pulled over to the brim, got out of my car and stood to watch this display of change. I should have ooed and aahed, even clapped but I was too busy driving in traffic. I didn't want to be late.

I am convinced that beauty is on display all around us. I believe that magnificence is happening before our eyes but we are missing it because our focus is elsewhere. It doesn't mean that our focus is wrong but rather that we do not anticipate anything but what we see.

If all we see are our problems, then we will miss emerging goodness. If all we see is our own way, we will never be privy to more around us. If all we see are the negative forces in the world, we will never notice what positive things are taking place.

I vividly remember a broadway play where the main character shouts: "Stop the world. I want to get off." I've said it myself many times just in the last few weeks. The world will never stop. It will go on. BUT with just a tiny minor adjustment we can see more, experience more, know more. Not because more is better but rather we are open to more of what you want to show us. It is like being on vacation anticipating the next beautiful vista. Perhaps we need to let out our ooos and aaahs more often.

You are
always willing
to show us
evolving goodness,
O Lord.
You call out
our name;
you prod us
to look
and see.
Forgive
our lack
of attention,
Good God.
Rattle us,
shake us up;
enable us
to look
your way.

Love, Andrea