Gotta share a couple of very different inscriptions from this book that was given me as a thank-you. I’d directed a little show as a young person (probably my first), and the company surprised me by making a bigger deal of it than was merited. First, there’s: “Thanks for your patience…” and then there’s: “Thanks for yelling, hollering, and screaming your head off at us.”
Uh. I don’t mind telling you that it was a little disconcerting this past weekend to come across evidence that my volatile teenage self is still alive and well. The truth is I find myself in these days-of-craze vacillating between feeling generous, tolerant, and big-hearted towards my fellow man and…uh…well, there’s no better way to put it than “yelling, hollering, and screaming” at you all.
But it’s not my show. I’m not the director.
That’s why I’m going to read this old, precious book again. It’s going to take some tender handling on my part cuz it’s starting to yellow in the corners and fall apart at the seams but I just gotta hold it, feel it, smell it as I digest it. Better word: INGEST it.
At 7.5 pages a day every day (in between all my political and professional readings) between now and Dec. 31st, I intend for this book to feed me a steady diet of PEACE. Of FOCUS. Of CALM. Of POSITIVITY. Of HOPE. Of CHARITY. Of FAITH. The title is simply “Jesus The Christ”.
I know I’m not alone in feeling occasionally askew, out of balance, threatened, afraid. What might happen if more of us consistently focused our minds and hearts on infinity over the finite, on spirituality over the storm, even for just a few minutes a day for the rest of this year???? You know, I was in a big youth choir at the same time I was directing the aforementioned stage show, and I remember one number in particular from a concert that year:
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me…let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be… With God as our Father, brothers all our we…Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony…”
I guess I’m saying that it’s come home to me in a very personal and timely way that what was true in 1976 is true now. Of me and my fellow man, unfortunately, yes. But also, so much more, fortunately, of God. Starting today. I’m intentionally lessening my focus on the former and putting more on the latter. Join me?
Image: Cozy Woman covered with warm soft merino wool blanket reading a book by glisic_albina. Adobe Stock.