The
Mystery
“This
life journey has led me to love mystery and not feel the need to
change it or make it un-mysterious. This has put me at odds with many
other believers I know who seem to need explanation for everything.”
Richard
Rohr
Beautiful Spring has
arrived! As Richard Rohr puts it, “Nature is the one song of praise
that never stops singing.” After last year's record heat and
drought that caused the death of three trees in my yard, I've been
watching the others timidly—glancing out of the corner of my eye to
see whether they're showing signs of leafing out. Old trees are like
old people—it takes them longer to recover. But most of them,
seemingly with great effort, are squeezing out a few leaves. Tenacity
is a great mystery. My old friend, Ethel, now 92 is moving into
independent living at a local retirement community. Until a couple of
years ago, she was backpacking through the Sipsey Wilderness with the
Audubon Society for the annual bird count. Like the trees in my yard,
she has staying power.
A woman in my church told
me about her neighbor, whose twenty year old daughter was just found
dead from an overdose of prescription pain killers. So young, so much
to live for, cut short. We don't know, do we, how the dice are
rolled? Why it is that some live long, and some die young? Yes,
lifestyle is a huge factor—but some people, who abuse their bodies
for decades, still end up living long, and some do not. Life is a
mystery.
In Spirituality Group
last night, we talked about change; about this being a time of great
change on many levels—climate, politics, religion, migration of
peoples—all in flux. When we track back through Earth's history, we
know this has happened many times before. It has even happened in
some of our lifetimes. Is this movement from light to dark, from
peace to war, from feast to famine, the natural ebb and flow of the
cosmos? Is it to be expected? Are we humans making progress, moving
forward, moving backwards? Lots of big questions. Lots of unknowns.
This life journey is one
of capricious events—of celebrations and disappointments, of all
manner of things that are not within our control, and that we can not
predict. We must be content to live within the mystery. Hopefully, we
learn to be at peace with it, and even look forward to what it
brings. That forward looking gaze may very well be the secret to longevity.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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