Raccoons
May 25, 2009
The future is no place to place your
better days. Dave Matthews
Many people spend their lives indefinitely
preparing to live. Paul
Tournier
There are no unsacred moments.
Terry Hershey
Behind our house is a small pond, fed by a
meandering stream. I spent a good part of
the morning rearranging the rocks-heaped in a
pile-that once lined the streambed.
Raccoons visit every night, and practice forms of mayhem and destruction. (I suspect it is required education for all young raccoons.)
There are days when chaos doesn't rattle my cage, but there are other days when it doesn't take much to make me feel fragile. This is one of those days. So I stand, cursing delinquent rodents, just to hear my voice bounce around in the Fir trees behind my house. (Yes, I know that raccoons are not rodents, but they are next of kin in my book.)
I was fixing the streambed (a true case of futility or hopefulness, given the reality that my work will be undone sometime later tonight), when Zach asks me what I'm doing.
"Fixing stuff," I tell him.
Then I add some unpleasant things about our furry visitors, cast aspersions about their species in general, grumble about how little fun I am having, how this wasn't on my agenda for the day, and how my life has been most assuredly inconvenienced.
"But dad," Zach says, "everybody has raccoons in their life."
Kids. Go figure.
I laugh and decide to keep rearranging rocks.
And it hits me that life is complicated enough that we don't need to add more pressure by parsing the categories. When we do, we live segmented.
You know, this is me, living inconvenienced.
Now this is me, really living life.
This is me stuck in clean-up-life-time.
Now this is me in celebrate-life-time.
It is as if we are living two different lives. If only one would end, for the other to begin.
It is no wonder we are always looking toward tomorrow. Perhaps I am waiting to finish the inconvenienced part, in order to get on with the good stuff. As a result, I am not present for whatever my life holds today, especially the parts of life I didn't sign up for.
"When I get to heaven," someone told me.
"Good luck with that," I told him. "But I'm pretty sure that if you can't celebrate life here, you'll be hard pressed to learn how to boogie there."
Or to put it another way; if we can't see God here, how will we recognize God when we are there?
Ignatian spirituality talks about "seeing God in all things."
I do believe that. But it's easier when I am walking the lower garden pathway, where the lilacs have just started to flower. The shrubs are filled with incautious lavender bloom, their limbs bowing gently and carefree, and unashamed of splendor.
But in raccoons?
Maybe someday.
In the meantime, my rock project shifts, from drudgery to amusement as I watch the water dance on the rocks, and sparkles from the sunlight's reflection guide the party toward the pond.
Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. Thomas Merton
News and Notes from Terry
1. Coming This Summer: THE RELAX, REFUEL, RESTART RETREAT.
Don't miss it.
Begin making plans to attend.
Sign up now for the early registration special price.
www.loyolapress.com/relax
The Relax, Refuel, Restart Retreat is a great way for parish / church leaders, for your leadership team, for key lay-leaders, for anyone in parish / church ministry to rest, re-energize, and take steps to find balance in their busy lives. Find the city in your area and bring your entire parish / church leadership team! You will not want to miss this day.
Call 773-281-1818 x 287
Register for an Upcoming Event in Southern California
Los Angeles Area
Monday, August 3, 2009: St. Peter Claver Church, Simi Valley
Tuesday, August 4, 2009: Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Ventura
Wednesday, August 5, 2009: Holy Angels Parish, Arcadia
Thursday, August 6, 2009: St. Bruno Parish, Whittier
Orange County
Friday, August 7, 2009: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Irvine
Monday, August 10, 2009: San Francisco Solano Parish, Rancho Santa Margarita
San Diego
Tuesday, August 11, 2009: St. Francis of Assisi Church, Vista
Wednesday, August 12, 2009: St. John the Evangelist Parish, San Diego
relax-refuel-restart-retreat.register
Raccoons visit every night, and practice forms of mayhem and destruction. (I suspect it is required education for all young raccoons.)
There are days when chaos doesn't rattle my cage, but there are other days when it doesn't take much to make me feel fragile. This is one of those days. So I stand, cursing delinquent rodents, just to hear my voice bounce around in the Fir trees behind my house. (Yes, I know that raccoons are not rodents, but they are next of kin in my book.)
I was fixing the streambed (a true case of futility or hopefulness, given the reality that my work will be undone sometime later tonight), when Zach asks me what I'm doing.
"Fixing stuff," I tell him.
Then I add some unpleasant things about our furry visitors, cast aspersions about their species in general, grumble about how little fun I am having, how this wasn't on my agenda for the day, and how my life has been most assuredly inconvenienced.
"But dad," Zach says, "everybody has raccoons in their life."
Kids. Go figure.
I laugh and decide to keep rearranging rocks.
And it hits me that life is complicated enough that we don't need to add more pressure by parsing the categories. When we do, we live segmented.
You know, this is me, living inconvenienced.
Now this is me, really living life.
This is me stuck in clean-up-life-time.
Now this is me in celebrate-life-time.
It is as if we are living two different lives. If only one would end, for the other to begin.
It is no wonder we are always looking toward tomorrow. Perhaps I am waiting to finish the inconvenienced part, in order to get on with the good stuff. As a result, I am not present for whatever my life holds today, especially the parts of life I didn't sign up for.
"When I get to heaven," someone told me.
"Good luck with that," I told him. "But I'm pretty sure that if you can't celebrate life here, you'll be hard pressed to learn how to boogie there."
Or to put it another way; if we can't see God here, how will we recognize God when we are there?
Ignatian spirituality talks about "seeing God in all things."
I do believe that. But it's easier when I am walking the lower garden pathway, where the lilacs have just started to flower. The shrubs are filled with incautious lavender bloom, their limbs bowing gently and carefree, and unashamed of splendor.
But in raccoons?
Maybe someday.
In the meantime, my rock project shifts, from drudgery to amusement as I watch the water dance on the rocks, and sparkles from the sunlight's reflection guide the party toward the pond.
Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. Thomas Merton
News and Notes from Terry
1. Coming This Summer: THE RELAX, REFUEL, RESTART RETREAT.
Don't miss it.
Begin making plans to attend.
Sign up now for the early registration special price.
www.loyolapress.com/relax
The Relax, Refuel, Restart Retreat is a great way for parish / church leaders, for your leadership team, for key lay-leaders, for anyone in parish / church ministry to rest, re-energize, and take steps to find balance in their busy lives. Find the city in your area and bring your entire parish / church leadership team! You will not want to miss this day.
Call 773-281-1818 x 287
Register for an Upcoming Event in Southern California
Los Angeles Area
Monday, August 3, 2009: St. Peter Claver Church, Simi Valley
Tuesday, August 4, 2009: Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Ventura
Wednesday, August 5, 2009: Holy Angels Parish, Arcadia
Thursday, August 6, 2009: St. Bruno Parish, Whittier
Orange County
Friday, August 7, 2009: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Irvine
Monday, August 10, 2009: San Francisco Solano Parish, Rancho Santa Margarita
San Diego
Tuesday, August 11, 2009: St. Francis of Assisi Church, Vista
Wednesday, August 12, 2009: St. John the Evangelist Parish, San Diego
relax-refuel-restart-retreat.register
Poems / Prayers
For those who missed these last week.
What a Wonderful World
www.youtube.com
Music to lift the spirit and the soul.
playingforchange.com
New Terry Hershey videos
http://www.terryhershey.com
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.
Henry David Thoreau
Dear God,
Our problem is not simply that we work too much,
the problem is that we are working for the wrong reward.
We are paid in the wrong currency.
Help us to expand our definition of wealth to include those things that grow only in time
-time to walk in the park, time to take a nap, time to play with children, to read a good book, to dance, to put our hands in the garden, to cook playful meals with friends, to paint, to sing, to meditate, to keep a journal.
Amen.
(Adapted from Lynn Twist)
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth,
or bury my face in the pillow,
or stretch myself taut,
or raise my hands to the sky and want,
more than all the world, your return.
Mary Jean Iron
Peace,
Terry Hershey
