Mary's Dream

Mary’s Dream
I had a dream, Joseph. I don’t understand it, not really, but I think it was about a birthday celebration for our Son. I think that was what it was all about. The people had been preparing for it for about six weeks. They had decorated the house and bought new clothes. They’d gone shopping many times and bought elaborate gifts. It was peculiar, though, because the presents were not for our Son. They wrapped them in beautiful paper and tied them with lovely bows and stacked them under a tree. Yes, a tree, Joseph, right in their house. They’d decorated the tree also. The branches were full of glowing balls and sparkling ornaments. There was a figure at the top of the tree. It looked like an angel might look. Oh! It was beautiful. Everyone was laughing and happy. They were all excited about the gifts. They gave the gifts to each other, Joseph, not to our Son. I don’t think they even knew him. They never mentioned his name. Doesn’t it seem odd for people to go to all that trouble to celebrate someone’s birthday if they don’t know Him. I had the strangest feeling that if our Son had gone to this celebration He would have been intruding. Everything was so beautiful, Joseph, and everyone was so happy, but it made me want to cry. How sad for Jesus – not to be wanted at His own birthday party. I’m glad it was only a dream. How terrible, Joseph, it if had been real!

Author unknown.

Marriage

"When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain that excited, abnormal, and eshausting condition continuously until death do them part."
- Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw

Beginning again

"When God created us, God gave Adam a secret and that secret was not to begin, but him to begn again. In other words, it is not given to us to begin; that privilege is God's alone. But it is given to us to begin again - and we do everything we choose to defy death and side with the living." - Elie Wiesel

Inner voice

"We would be wise to listen intentionally to the voice of our own lives and to discern what our very soul is saying to us in the depths of our being, there where truth abides. As we listen to ourselves, we can become ourselves." - Parker Palmer

Failure and success

Baskeball star, Michael Jordan once said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost more than 300 games, and 26 times 've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. Throughout my life and career I've failed, and failed, and failed again. And that's why I succeed."

Easter hope

What gives a widow hope as she stands by the grave of her husband? What gives a war-torn amputee hope as he lay in a hospital bed? What gives parents hope who have just lost a child in childbirth? What helps parents when they find out that their kidnapped child was found murdered? The answer to all the above questions is the same - hope, Easter hope. Vaclav Havel said, "hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."

Food for Thought

One of my favorite authors is Paula Coelho. "The Alchemist" tells the story of a shepherd boy who goes in search for a treasure. Along the way, he encounters various obstacles. Eventually, he discovers that the treasure is within himself. One of Coelho's other books, "Veronica decides to die.," tells the story of Veronica who searches for meaning in a culture that is based on secularity, routine and conformity. "The Devil and Miss Prym" reflects a village's struggle between good and evil when a stranger enters the village and challenges their sense of right and wrong. In that particular book, he shares some insightful quotes. One is, "God's hell is His love for humanity, because human behavior makes every second of His eternal life a torment." Later in the book, he says, "Man needs what's worst in him in order to achieve what's best in him."
I wonder how we can tease out the above quotes and see their implications!

God's call

"The place God calls us to is the place where our deepest gladness and world's deep hunger meet." - Frederick Buechner.
What is the world's deep hunger? What is our deepest gladness? What does it take to have a happy marriage between both?

Slow Dance

This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask how are you? Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?
You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.

Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time to call and say "Hi!"
You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift... Thrown away.
Life is not a race. Do take it slower
Hear the music before the song is over.

Rage

"Do not go gently into that good night,
Rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light." - Poet Dylan Thomas

We live in times of destructive rage - from road rage to person rage. How do we rage constructively so that we can believe what is wrong can be righted; what we see as injustice can be made just; and what we see as indifference can be turned into commitment and change?

The problem with change

W.H. Auden once wrote, "We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die."
We are creatures of habit. We are comfortable with routine. Routine is predictable while chaos may not. It seems life always brings us to crossroads where we may be challenged to journey on a road less traveled.
I wonder what would happen to us if we changed some of our early morning rituals. How would it affect the rest of our day? Would we feel that we had missed something along the way? Any thoughts!

A Child's Christmas Gift

In an age when we are very conscious of being politically correct, it is wonderful to encounter someone who transcends such, especially at Christmas. This Christmas, a little child left a surprising gift for the Christ Child at the manger in our church. The gift - a green topped cup cake with one candle. Perhaps Christmas is best understood, experienced and celebrated by a child. Maybe God got it right that first Christmas.

Introduction

We all need traveling companions along life's journeys. We need someone we can share our innermost thoughts, our feelings and our journey. We all need a companion who will help us transcend the superficial of life and the mundane to the sublime and the inner sanctum of our lives. A traveling companion helps us discover our own spiritual path and joins us on it. They understand where we are coming from and that understanding nourishes us.
Any journey demands both a challenge and a risk; an act of faith, in what is to come because of the assurance of what is past. Yet, the challenge and risk always leads to a homecoming. And the journey home is always shorter and full of special memories because it embodies the reality of a happy ending.
All journeys are journeys of encounter with the Lord who walks with us in the cool of the evening. Sometimes, they are deadly silent; other times, they are full of travail. But all times, no matter what the occasion or circumstance, they are journeys with rather than against; journeys to rather than from; journeys indwelling rather than dissipating.
This blog is an opportunity for bloggers on a journey to connect with each other; maybe, to discover a traveling companion along the way and journey with them. Maybe, a thought, a reflection, a sharing here may become a signpost for a fellow traveler on the road of life.