Tuesday, September 26, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Birthdays at Salty Sow
Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
We are establishing a birthday tradition with our friends Mike and Diane, a night out in September for their birthdays on 9/2 and 9/15, and a night out together in October and/or November for Margaret’s birthday on 10/9 and mine on 11/17. Diane found a place called the Salty Sow in East Austin (named after the owners ate at the Purple Pig in New York City), and we had a nice meal together early last night.
I suppose most of us are “creatures of habit;” why else would that phrase be so familiar? But good habits are hard to find, and those that involve fellowship with others especially. How many calendars do you have to consult when you and two or three others want to get together?
The four of us are all retired (sort of). I think when I was working more on someone else’s schedule I put off doing some of the activities I wanted to explore. Now that more of my time is my own, I don’t put those off so much. My friend’s career as an anesthesiologist fulfilled her in many ways, but when she retired and returned to the art she left behind as a med student, she rediscovered a deep bed of joy that fills her up now every day.
That’s probably true for many of us, and so we tell each other, “I’m busier now than I ever was when I was working.” Well, of course. I’m finally doing what matters more in my life – with God, with my family and friends, with everyone.
I have thought and written often about what the monks and nuns called a “rule of life.” My friend Tom said he kept his “rule” taped to the frig on a post-it note. I re-wrote my three page tome and ended up with six words:
READ
WRITE
LISTEN
PRAY
EVERY DAY
As with any budget, a “rule of life” works better and faster when I look at what I’m already doing and adapt that to the new plan. And so it is: not a day has passed when reading, writing, listening and praying weren’t part of it.
Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
After returning from the Salty Sow, I joined our virtual centering prayer group for the tail end. We talked about a passage from Henri Nouwen’s writing. What do you think of this?
I know that the fact that I am always searching for God, always struggling to discover the fullness of Love, always yearning for the complete truth, tells me that I have already been given a taste of God, of Love, and of Truth. I can only look for something that I have, to some degree, already found.
So, do I search, struggle, yearn … or do I encounter and enjoy the taste God has already given me? Both, of course. So … what do I do most? Search or be satisfied? No, this is not an either-or; it’s a both-and. I had to ask the question to realize that.
Patty talked about how kids naturally bend their knees to pick something up rather than bending over, as adults usually do. Why do they do naturally what we are told to do by our physical therapists? Kids, in fact, discover God with their bodies more than with their minds. This adventure often seems effortless. They tumble and cuddle and wrestle and snuggle with each other and with their family, and … with God.
I can only look for something that I have, to some degree, already found.
Many of us would like to be children again, because looking isn’t the same as having. If I haven’t lost it yet, then I don’t need to look and find. What part of that mostly physical experience of union with God can I have now, with my wearing-out body, which seems to demand so much attention. Eckhart Tolle (in A New Earth) brilliantly calls this demanding and complaining “me” my pain body. It can be insatiable, and it will be if I don’t call it out. STOP IT. Go find somebody to cuddle and snuggle with! This is a personal kind of tough love.
In Transactional Analysis (TA), we are asked to recognize our “warm fuzzies” and our “cold pricklies.” Those transfers of energy within us and between us can make or break our day, our relationship, our self-concept, our life. God deals in warm fuzzies. Even when he is cross with me, he is gentle and lowly in heart.
Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
As I write I think of Brad and his trainee at the restaurant, just getting into the shank of the evening. I’m glad I can sit at home, rest a bit, sleep. Know God’s warm fuzzies and pass them on.
(Ezra 6, Psalm 122, Luke 11, Luke 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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