FALL REFLECTIONS
Exhaust the little moments. Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold, it will not come.Again in this identical disguise.
-Gwendolyn Brooks-
How often do we miss God's many blessings because we do not notice and celebrate the little ordinary things that are given to us! Our eyes may have been focused on our myopic pre-occupations and conditionings that set our hearts on accumulating, on possessing, and even immortalizing more of gradiose things around us. During this fall season, I believe, God has a special way of reminding us that it is just wise to be reflective and mindful that everything that we have is God's gift to us and that we should be grateful for the seeming little moments and things around us!
Recently, I have had the privilege to be in solitude to notice and savor some quiet times for few days while on retreat at the Gethsemani Abbey. I have had the chance to look back and hold my experiences during the past few months that I have been away from religious life.
What I was initially suprised to notice during my retreat were all those little blessings that I have been given - like the hidden beauty of nature around me and the hidden graces that I have not claimed in my experiences. As I remembered the little acts of friendships and warm companionships of the people that I have met amd mingled with in my new ministry, I was in awe in recognizing the God's greatness. How do we miss these beauty when they are in the background of the most ordinary! How these beautiful trees seize our imagination in the fall when their real vibrant colors begin to appear, just before they die and fall unto the ground.
I remembered and prayed for several friends of mine that have come to terms with their life struggles and have decided that their chemo and blood product transfusions are now over. I remembered one friend specifically who calmly said that he was finally ready "to cash everything in." I can only relate to how he felt. How beautiful our lives must have been when we are finally broken open! That is, when we finally have accepted who we are and and have recognized what it is that God has always called us to become, i.e., to be one with the one who Created us.
But I was mostly in awe in discovering the other "blessings in disguise" that I have received. I recognized the unwanted interruption to my well, smooth and comfortable life in my community and in my life as a religious. Life would have been a lot simpler if all I have been after is the reassurance that my body with be lying down with the privileged few and God does not care about what happens in the here and now.
But I thanked God for waking me up to respond to something deeper and beyond the promise of the life here after. There are just so many blessings that I would have missed had I have not opted to live my life to its fullest potentials.
I prayed for the "saints" who chose to be meek and mild, i.e., those who chose to gaze heavenward as they were fed by the perpetrators to the wild hungry lions. But I remembered also in prayers those who have chosen the "roads not taken." Also those who have chosen to jump off the ship just when they see that the ship they were on, like the Titanic, was about to sink. The pains and struggles must have been unbearable for these people who chose to embrace these alternatives. I am now sure that they enjoy the grace that come from their choosing to walk with God in the margins of life.
Finally, as I looked again at the stunning fall color all around me, I sensed how it must have been a delight to watch how the trees let go of their treasured leaves. There are just so much promises in believing that our life comes back fuller in our many "letting go's." Life renews itself in the process of dying because everything is blessed and grace by our Ever Loving and Abiding God. He is the "Emmanuel" who has always been with us and are always in us in all of our life experiences. Always sustaining us and nurturing us to a fuller life.
What I was initially suprised to notice during my retreat were all those little blessings that I have been given - like the hidden beauty of nature around me and the hidden graces that I have not claimed in my experiences. As I remembered the little acts of friendships and warm companionships of the people that I have met amd mingled with in my new ministry, I was in awe in recognizing the God's greatness. How do we miss these beauty when they are in the background of the most ordinary! How these beautiful trees seize our imagination in the fall when their real vibrant colors begin to appear, just before they die and fall unto the ground.
I remembered and prayed for several friends of mine that have come to terms with their life struggles and have decided that their chemo and blood product transfusions are now over. I remembered one friend specifically who calmly said that he was finally ready "to cash everything in." I can only relate to how he felt. How beautiful our lives must have been when we are finally broken open! That is, when we finally have accepted who we are and and have recognized what it is that God has always called us to become, i.e., to be one with the one who Created us.
But I was mostly in awe in discovering the other "blessings in disguise" that I have received. I recognized the unwanted interruption to my well, smooth and comfortable life in my community and in my life as a religious. Life would have been a lot simpler if all I have been after is the reassurance that my body with be lying down with the privileged few and God does not care about what happens in the here and now.
But I thanked God for waking me up to respond to something deeper and beyond the promise of the life here after. There are just so many blessings that I would have missed had I have not opted to live my life to its fullest potentials.
I prayed for the "saints" who chose to be meek and mild, i.e., those who chose to gaze heavenward as they were fed by the perpetrators to the wild hungry lions. But I remembered also in prayers those who have chosen the "roads not taken." Also those who have chosen to jump off the ship just when they see that the ship they were on, like the Titanic, was about to sink. The pains and struggles must have been unbearable for these people who chose to embrace these alternatives. I am now sure that they enjoy the grace that come from their choosing to walk with God in the margins of life.
Finally, as I looked again at the stunning fall color all around me, I sensed how it must have been a delight to watch how the trees let go of their treasured leaves. There are just so much promises in believing that our life comes back fuller in our many "letting go's." Life renews itself in the process of dying because everything is blessed and grace by our Ever Loving and Abiding God. He is the "Emmanuel" who has always been with us and are always in us in all of our life experiences. Always sustaining us and nurturing us to a fuller life.
During this Fall Season, when everything around us seems to be all dying, may we find our hearts and the hearts of all our loved ones,
closer to the firm embrace
of our Ever Loving and Abiding God!
With Sister Joyce, let us offer up in prayers all our experiences, including the little ones, by joining her poem for this Fall Season.
closer to the firm embrace
of our Ever Loving and Abiding God!
With Sister Joyce, let us offer up in prayers all our experiences, including the little ones, by joining her poem for this Fall Season.
GRATITUDE FOR THE LITTLE MOMENTS
Gratitude, yes, for the big things that stand tall,
thick with abundance, joy, fruitfulness.
I cannot help but applaud their presence.
But deep thankfulness for the bite-sized pieces of my life?
I had not thought of them,
those little snippets of time so easily consumed
in the hurry and blur of pretentious days.
The little moments, assumed and presumed,
slip quickly though the fingers of my busy life.
November gestures, with a wrinkled brown hand,
beckons me wisely to consider
those fleeting moments of grace, in things quickly passing:
a walk on a musky-wooden path,
a cup of coffee silently savored,
a birdsong in the squeaky hours of dawn,
the gentle touch of a liver-spotted hand,
a loving letter from a grateful stranger,
a fading crescent moon on a royal blue sky.
I turn to gather finely layered remnants
like these in the come and go of my days,
and discover, with surprise
how quickly my inner room is a harvest of gold.
-Joyce Rupp-