Universe of Infinite Good

Image from “Children Who Chase Lost Voices.”

“…we live in a universe of infinite good–good so abundant that it far exceeds our wildest dreams and most daring leaps of imagination…”

– Pierre Pradervand

Wounded Healers

“We are needy people helping needy people. We are wounded healers offering cool cups of water to thirsty people.”

~ Jeff Blake, The Seven Last Words of Christ

Creating Transformation

To speak of a world that does not exist yet. This is creation. To compose words in our heart and mind that reveal truth. This is prayer. May we all create our own prayers. This is transformation.

Learning To Dance

“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”

― Anne Lamott

Seeing Double

Double Vision. I feel like exploring some feelings and experiences I have had living with double vision. Not sure what I am going to say about it. Might even change my mind. Is it worth it to write it down and rehash old memories? Maybe. Could be good to look back with a different sense of understanding. Gain some perspective. Funny how all these phrases are vision related.

I have spent most of my life pretending that I did not have double vision or trying to hide my condition from people. It is exhausting. On top of double vision I also have no lens in my right eye. It was damaged in the accident. If I close my left eye what I see through my right can be best described as what it looks like underwater without goggles. Most people don’t understand what it’s like. In the simplest terms it is an ever present challenge to stay in the NOW. A literal physical symptom of living a life of “duality,” to borrow a word from Richard Rohr. I guess it’s no mystery why I’ve been drawn to Rohr’s understanding of Christianity. I actually SEE the physical manifestation of it depending on where my mind and focus is at any given moment.

I think that’s all I want to write about it right now. Anyone else out there live with double vision?

Know The World

“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”

~ Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House

Painting by Isaak Levitan (1899)

Gentleness

“Always respond with gentleness.”

~ Gerald Jampolsky, Teach Only Love

Painting by Félix Vallotton (1925)

This Is The Way

“Let us remember each day, each minute, each second—and let us remember especially in the morning as we rise—that when we accept peace for ourselves, peace is received to some degree by all others. This is the way the world will be transformed, not by our attacking those who favor attack.”

– Gerald Jamplosky, Teach Only Love

Painting by Hans Maurus

Did I Offer Peace Today

“Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.”

~ Henri Nouwen

Painting by Gerald Harvey Jones

Let There Be Light

In this amazing documentary, director John Huston explores the diagnosis and treatment of what used to be called “battle fatigue” or “shell shock” among returning servicemen. This condition is now know as PTSD – post traumatic stress disorder. “Let There Be Light” wasn’t released to the public for 30 years for obvious reasons, but it’s a story is still highly relevant today.