This Morning....Some Thoughts

I went to the back fence early this morning, cup of coffee in hand, to look out over the hills that roll back into the distance. They are covered with eucalyptus groves and native plants. In the slanting morning light they were serene and beautiful. Ravens called to one another in the distance with that odd grating sound they make when conversing with one another. It was possible to conceive that the scene was far away from Whittier and that I was where I wanted to be at the moment.

It struck me that I and all others are just a part of the thin veneer of life that is secured to the face of the earth by gravity. We may look up at the tallest trees and feel dwarfed by their majesty, but those forms of life are minuscule compared to the compressed bulk of the rock we live upon. We are very small but we perceive ourselves as the center of all that is around us. I accept that as only natural. It isn't literally true, but it is the way we cope with our position in the order of things. It is how we make sense of our lives. Many never make the effort, unfortunately. I went to a Jesuit university and we discussed issues like this to such a degree that I ended up with a minor in philosophy, whether I liked it or not. I wasn't really ready for most of it to be honest, but that experience left me with an open-minded perspective of our place in the world. But I didn't start this message with the purpose of passing on that Jesuit education. Lord forbid. I don't want to lose my way.

I think we are confronted endlessly by our search for meaning and the distractions of our man-made world of pleasures and created "needs". And life is so short. There is little time to gain the maturity to know what is important and what is not. I don't think this is a bleak view of our existence, but rather a realistic assessment of reality.

As I stood out at that back fence I thought of the present and the past. I thought of those who I loved and who I love. I remembered many of the people who have had a part in forming who and what I am today.
I saw how all that I carry in my memory is my life. I am the sum total of all that I have experienced.

We all are.

I think this message has something to do with "What's Next?"

I have come to terms with my recent experiences and have passed through that gauntlet not unscathed, but in good health and spiritually stronger.

SRH