June 20, 2021

Someone was the first person to say, “Life is a bowl of cherries.”

W.C. Fields is quoted as saying, “Life is a bowl of pits.”

Perhaps they are both right, in that life is a vast bowl of seeds, each moment being a seed for the future. 

The context – the covering – of the seed may be beautiful and delicious or it may be ugly and distasteful.  Covered or not, there is a seed in each moment.  We can just throw it away.  Or we can do our best to appreciate its potential and to use it in the way that seems most likely to bear the sweet fruit of love, growth and contribution.

June 13, 2021

Suppose that one is convinced that there is within every human being a part of a vast Holy Spirit of love, truth and peace – a part of God by any name - and thus, perforce of logic, within oneself.

Suppose that one feels bound to protect and nurture that part of the Holy Spirit within oneself and within each person one meets or ever may meet.

Suppose further that one comes to perceive a call, impossible to ignore or to refuse, to represent the Holy Spirit within oneself and to serve that Spirit in every other person; to become the best agent of that Spirit one can see to be.

How could being an agent of that Spirit be a part-time job?

Why would one want being an agent of that Spirit to be a part-time job when doing so quickens one's awareness of the presence and guidance of the Spirit and that awareness in turn brings such confidence and peace?

Battling evil one moment at a time

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

Triumph isn't once and for all. Triumph is incremental. And the battle against evil can appear suddenly, subtly, and close at hand. In our daily choices, in our discernment of what our values call us to do, let us be alert to the fact that, hour by hour, step by step, the only thing necessary for evil to advance can be for one person to do nothing. 

Let us stand ready to ask ourselves, "What us going on here? Is it for me, here and now, to do nothing?" 

To stop evil can be as simple as identifying it and refusing passively to tolerate it. To stop evil may be as simple as realizing, and saying, "that doesn't seem right to me." It need not require judgment of anyone else's character, let alone creation of conflict. Indeed, love, patience, compassion and courage are, and always will be, essential to stop evil.