NEW LIFE IN SPRING

Easter eggs.

I don’t make them because I don’t like to eat hard-boiled eggs.  The eggs you see in the image are raw eggs colored electronically.

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Why the tradition of Easter eggs?  Well, I don’t pretend to know why the first person who dyed eggs did this, but I’ll tell you what I think it’s all about.  The shell shapes the chick within until it is ready to emerge.  My life shapes me until I am ready.  I keep trying to change the world.  It keeps changing me.  Will I break free of my shell the way the chick does?

The metaphor of the butterfly may be more pleasing to some.  I spin my cocoon day by day.  I live my little life.  And when I’m done, I emerge as a colorful and beautiful creation, capable of taking flight.  The butterfly leaves its cocoon behind; it doesn’t carry it along. 

Do I believe in an afterlife?  Well, whatever put me here, can certainly put me somewhere else.  Do I believe in reincarnation?  Why not?  If once is good, then more is better.  But the Christian message of “once is enough” is cause for hope when life is less than enjoyable.

Why is there pain and suffering?  Well, when I draw, I need not only bold, bright colors; I also need deeper, darker defining colors.  Will my life look like a beautiful design someday in retrospect?

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I’m looking forward to Spring, lovely flowers of yellow and purple, chirping birds, butterflies, and working in my garden.  But what garden experience is complete without sweat, toil, dirt under the fingernails, clothing stained, ugly bugs, slimy worms, wasp stings, heat and thirst, weeds, stinking compost, aching bones, and at least some Agony in the Garden?

What will I remember of my time in my Garden?  “You can’t take it with you,” they say, but does anything remain?  Perhaps the flavor of Love recorded in the deepest recesses of Mind?  If I could take the memory of only one moment into my afterlife, what would it be?

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Will I “live again” with this body of mine?  I hope not – as I enter further into decrepitude, I get more and more aware of the limitations of my DNA.  Some ideal DNA perhaps?  And what would be ideal?  No more need to floss my teeth?

Did Jesus zoom from his tomb with his earthy body?  Is he actually sitting “at the right hand of the Father”?  (Does God have hands?)  Of what use is an earthly body in heaven?  Will my first words after resurrection be, “What’s for lunch?”  Just some questions I know you’ve all asked yourselves.

I’ve puzzled why the Gospel writers portray Jesus passing through locked doors, yet still eating with friends.  Is his body substantial or not?  A tomb miraculously empty, yet a body still retaining the wounds of crucifixion.  Why isn’t his resurrected body completely healthy?  I suppose the writer thought that wounds would be an appropriate accessory for someone characterized as a Sacrifice to appease a Higher Power – marks of honor even (John 20).  But does God have a need to be appeased?  Anyway, I take these various attributes of Jesus as a message of hope – that even in the great Beyond, we still retain some pattern of our existence.  We will not be shadows but have a wholeness of experience.  We will not be just a memory, but a Presence.  We will be renewed in a glorious Springtime.

Could it be that in this life, I am the artist and the Drawing and the One who views the drawing.  I am the gardener and the Garden and the One who walks in the garden where all are branches on the same Vine.  I am the dreamer and the Dream and the One who wakes from the dream in the Morning Light.

And how many dreams are there?  I guess the answer is, “In my Father's house are many rooms.” (John 14:2).

Can I imagine what the afterlife is like?  Just about as well as a clam at the bottom of the ocean can imagine the Eiffel Tower.  But I like to think that nothing good is ever really lost.

And why can’t I see that Morning Light right now?  Well, I’d miss the fun of just being a clam.

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2008-

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ON LOVE

Love. 

What is love anyway?

People say, “I love spaghetti” when they mean “I like spaghetti.”  Like?  Love?  What’s the difference?

I thought a bit about some other words that start with the letter “L.”

>Longing for love

>Loneliness

>feeling a Lack of love

>mourning love Lost

>feeling Love-sick

>Languishing for love when love Leaves

>having your heart Lacerated

>Lamenting

>treading the Labyrinth of relationships

>Losing yourself and your troubles in a sort of worship of the other

>Latching onto another because you are drowning and need a Life preserver

>being driven to Lunacy by your Libido

>writing Lyrics to the one you adore

>and last but not least, Lust, Lewdness, Licentiousness, Lechery, and illicit Liaisons

With these words in mind I had to ask myself - what about love that is self-centered or even selfish?  When it’s all about me and whether I possess love?

If I try to fill a perceived need in my heart, there is no end to that need.  It is a bottomless pit in my heart.  Trying to fill that void becomes an exercise in futility.  It leads to fear – fear of loss. 

I gave up trying to figure out love for a while and went out to the woods behind my house.  Last June two giant trees were destroyed by a storm.  Perhaps a microburst (sudden downwind).  Both were broken well above ground level but not completely broken apart.  Now that the leaves are off the trees, the bent outlines of these broken trees are stark reminders of the power of the storm.  Reminders of the uncertainty of our lives.  Reminders of the impermanence of it all.  Soon the trees will rot enough to fall all the way to the ground where they will dissolve away into the forest floor.

How do I deal with uncertainty and impermanence? 

I had a sudden inspiration that I can anchor my center with words that begin with the letter “C.”  Words like Caring, Compassion, and Commitment.   These flow from the heart.  And when I make my heart a fountain of caring, compassion, and commitment, then I am giving love, not seeking love.  With this giving as my central focus, the storms of life fade to insignificance.  Maybe.

I should Cherish the gifts of love I receive.  And I do.

It is confusing that in English the verb “to love” can mean so many different things:  to like, to have platonic love, to be infatuated, to be sexually attracted to, to care for, to cherish, to sacrifice for, etc.  The noun “love” can be my beloved one or a score of zero in tennis, and more.  Some say the grace of Divine Providence is pure love.

Here’s something to contemplate from the September 4, 2007 Daily Word:  “The blessing we give to one another is a love that can never be depleted, for it is from the spirit of God that indwells all.”  What an interesting idea.

Have a lovely day.

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2008-

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