(Something in my email today...)
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright,
No matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
We often wish each other the best of everything, not thinking that growth and maturity come at a price, and that price is often (or always) painful.
I see parents in luxury cars breaking traffic rules and getting as close to the school gate as possible to drop off their 'Pride and Joy'. Yet these same kids are ignoring teachers, misbehaving, smoking, and playing truant, no less (though perhaps no more) than the rural kid who walks 5km to the school gate rain or shine.
Maybe our kids will grow up better if we gave them "just enough" instead of "the best of everything".
2007-06-25
2007-02-05
Something to think and pray about this week
The following reflection was given on Sacred Space today. Beautiful. Go to Sacred Space to see reflections and prayers for the day, every day.
Describing progress towards God, Von Hügel writes of an institutional stage, followed by a critical stage, and culminating in what he calls a mystical stage. This does not mean magic or heavenly voices, but rather this: we oldies have seen it all, and know that good and evil, like the wheat and cockle of the parable, coexist not merely in countries and institutions, but in each of us. Pitch darkness and pure light are seldom the order of the day. We learn to live with both, light out of darkness. We do the best we can, and are ready to renounce the seductions of having the perfect formulation of reality, or the perfect formula for everyone's life.
In the mystical phase we still carry with us the institutional phase: we still love the sights and sounds of worship well carried out, and the sense of participating in a great body of believers. We have not left the critical phase behind, but carry it with us: we use our heads about our religion, and have no illusions about the weaknesses of Jesus' followers -- after all, Peter, the first Pope, had to live with the memory of denying the Lord publicly, again and again. But when we have argued about all the great questions of human existence, especially the mystery of evil, we realise that we rely more on the gift of faith than on clear-cut reason.
Describing progress towards God, Von Hügel writes of an institutional stage, followed by a critical stage, and culminating in what he calls a mystical stage. This does not mean magic or heavenly voices, but rather this: we oldies have seen it all, and know that good and evil, like the wheat and cockle of the parable, coexist not merely in countries and institutions, but in each of us. Pitch darkness and pure light are seldom the order of the day. We learn to live with both, light out of darkness. We do the best we can, and are ready to renounce the seductions of having the perfect formulation of reality, or the perfect formula for everyone's life.
In the mystical phase we still carry with us the institutional phase: we still love the sights and sounds of worship well carried out, and the sense of participating in a great body of believers. We have not left the critical phase behind, but carry it with us: we use our heads about our religion, and have no illusions about the weaknesses of Jesus' followers -- after all, Peter, the first Pope, had to live with the memory of denying the Lord publicly, again and again. But when we have argued about all the great questions of human existence, especially the mystery of evil, we realise that we rely more on the gift of faith than on clear-cut reason.
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