In this, our only moment.
Today I am grateful for a slower-paced morning, the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, and my health.
I wanted to revisit Dani Shapiro's book Devotion one more time before putting it on the shelf.I hope you'll consider getting it off the shelf and reading it. There is much food for thought she leaves with readers. I thank her for so openly sharing her own "spiritual detective story."
These two paragraphs on p. 139 capture something at the heart of faith--trusting in a source of power beyond ourselves; putting ourselves in God's hands so to speak.
"I had begun to feel--and it was a bitter feeling--that the world could be divided into two kinds of people: those with an awareness of life's inherent fragility and randomness, and those who believed they were exempt. Parenthood had created an even wider gulf between these two categories. I was firmly on the shore of fragility and randomness, and I could barely make out the exempt people dancing across the way. They seemed like a different species to me. Honestly, I resented them. They were having such a good time.
I didn't know that there was a third way of being. Life was unpredictable, yes. A speeding car, a slip on the ice, a ringing phone, and suddenly everything changes forever. To deny that is to deny life--but to be consumed by it is to also deny life. The third way--inaccessible to me as I slunk down the halls--had to do with holding this paradox lightly in one's own hands. To think: It is true, the speeding car, the slip on the ice, the ringing phone. It is true, and yet here I am listening to my boy sing as we walk down the corridor. Here I am giving him a hug. Here we are--together in this, our only moment.
It also gets to the heart of gratitude. Staying present and recognizing the blessings that continue to flow if we are only paying attention.
The gifts are found, in this, our only moment.
I wanted to revisit Dani Shapiro's book Devotion one more time before putting it on the shelf.I hope you'll consider getting it off the shelf and reading it. There is much food for thought she leaves with readers. I thank her for so openly sharing her own "spiritual detective story."
These two paragraphs on p. 139 capture something at the heart of faith--trusting in a source of power beyond ourselves; putting ourselves in God's hands so to speak.
"I had begun to feel--and it was a bitter feeling--that the world could be divided into two kinds of people: those with an awareness of life's inherent fragility and randomness, and those who believed they were exempt. Parenthood had created an even wider gulf between these two categories. I was firmly on the shore of fragility and randomness, and I could barely make out the exempt people dancing across the way. They seemed like a different species to me. Honestly, I resented them. They were having such a good time.
I didn't know that there was a third way of being. Life was unpredictable, yes. A speeding car, a slip on the ice, a ringing phone, and suddenly everything changes forever. To deny that is to deny life--but to be consumed by it is to also deny life. The third way--inaccessible to me as I slunk down the halls--had to do with holding this paradox lightly in one's own hands. To think: It is true, the speeding car, the slip on the ice, the ringing phone. It is true, and yet here I am listening to my boy sing as we walk down the corridor. Here I am giving him a hug. Here we are--together in this, our only moment.
It also gets to the heart of gratitude. Staying present and recognizing the blessings that continue to flow if we are only paying attention.
The gifts are found, in this, our only moment.
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