5.07.2005
Dandelions
Yesterday I was speeding down the same freeway I've been travelling for years now, seeing the same things I always see but somehow transformed. I worshipped and praised God for the beauty of the trees, the ponds, the grass, the clouds, the vultures circling lazily and gracefully, the hawk waiting patiently, the kestrel hovering busily over the median....
And then I remembered reading a travelogueist tell about how boring the interstate highway system is. His complaint was that it misses all the quaint, interesting things on driving tours like towns, and villiages.
I reflected that that sense of boredom was a diaffection with what God had made and the interest is in the trinkets and tchotchkes that man has made.
So life isn't about finding interesting things to see but finding interest in the things you do see.
One of my favorite lines from The Mask of Zorro is where the Alcalde asks the Antonio Banderas character what he seeks in Mexico and he replies, "A sense of the miraculous in everyday life." Maybe we need to sit in our gardens, unfinished though they are at this time of year, and notworry for the moment about how we can "fix" it but how it is alive and vibrant and working even while we do nothing. Life is blooming all around us right now. Bury your hands in the soil and let the sense of life travel up your arm and let God's peace rule in yourheart. Watch the bees. They don't care if they have sweet peas that you've planted or sweet clover that comes up on its own. It is all beautiful and good to them. Find a peace in the untilled soil, the unworked ground, the undisturbed fields and woods and when you find it, then you can participate with God in the good work that he has made.
My neighbor grieves when he mows his yard full of dandelions because it is covered with weeds.
I grieve when I mow because I am chopping up beautiful yellow flowers.
May God bring many dandelions into your life,
And then I remembered reading a travelogueist tell about how boring the interstate highway system is. His complaint was that it misses all the quaint, interesting things on driving tours like towns, and villiages.
I reflected that that sense of boredom was a diaffection with what God had made and the interest is in the trinkets and tchotchkes that man has made.
So life isn't about finding interesting things to see but finding interest in the things you do see.
One of my favorite lines from The Mask of Zorro is where the Alcalde asks the Antonio Banderas character what he seeks in Mexico and he replies, "A sense of the miraculous in everyday life." Maybe we need to sit in our gardens, unfinished though they are at this time of year, and notworry for the moment about how we can "fix" it but how it is alive and vibrant and working even while we do nothing. Life is blooming all around us right now. Bury your hands in the soil and let the sense of life travel up your arm and let God's peace rule in yourheart. Watch the bees. They don't care if they have sweet peas that you've planted or sweet clover that comes up on its own. It is all beautiful and good to them. Find a peace in the untilled soil, the unworked ground, the undisturbed fields and woods and when you find it, then you can participate with God in the good work that he has made.
My neighbor grieves when he mows his yard full of dandelions because it is covered with weeds.
I grieve when I mow because I am chopping up beautiful yellow flowers.
May God bring many dandelions into your life,
