12-7-09

 

In your latest newsletter, Seasons of the Soul, you wrote an excellent article titled "Nurturing Nature." It inspired me to develop some thoughts on this subject, too. In the enclosed "A Different World", there's a sentence that states, "It's hard to give up our cherished pleasures and comforts, but nature is beginning to foreclose on its loan." What is happening right now is a powerful wake-up call, but maybe, just maybe, it's exactly what is needed to help us to remember that we are connected to each other, to every other thing, to animals, to the plants, and trees and flowers, to the mountains and the seas and deserts, even to the distant stars. Every human being is connected to every other thing and if we know and respect this, we do this to ourselves. And it is all beautiful and sacred.

 

In a previous mailing to you, I sent "The Eternal Hoper." You and I fit that description. We've had so many broken dreams and false hopes it would be easy to become cynical, but as "eternal hopers", even if we're knee deep in manure, we're "looking for the pony".

 

Sometimes I remind myself of being like the fellow who jumped off the top of a high-rise building. As he passed each floor on his way down, he could be heart to say, "So far, So good!" (how's that for optimism and hope?)

 

Seriously, this season asks us to move past our fears and anxieties and to focus on the wonder and the mystery of it all. It emboldens us to feel joy and be hopeful.

 

I have an eight-year old neighbor named Bob who puts it this way - "Any day my eyes pop open is a great day." Every morning our first thought should be, "Thank You." In this latter part of my life, I have attained a deeper understanding of how sacred life is. I have come to fully appreciate how fragile we human beings are, and I feel a profound sense of gratitude.

 

And so...may we feel the joy of "opening our eyes" to the wonder of another day, may we never lose the hope of a better tomorrow, and may love and blessings surround us all.