A Beautiful Disagreement

When it snows,you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.

To give credit where credit is due, my family is pretty artistic.

One of my grandmothers is a seamstress who also paints and makes porcelain dolls.
My other grandmother writes comedic stories and reads them dramatically.
My father grew up singing and is an aficionado of antiques.
My mother scrapbooks,taught me piano, and sang on the radio with my father.
My older sister plays three instruments and is a beautiful operatic soloist.
I play the violin, perform theatrically, make crafts, and am a bit of a culinary artist.

All of that is to say that my younger sister has the keenest of eyes for naturally beautiful opportunities that make for splendid photographs. The photograph shown is one that she has called "Find the Simple Things in Life." First of all, the title itself is intriguing, not suggesting that life is simple, but rather that simplicity can be found...and finding it is so much more enjoyable than if simplicity was just normal. I doubt she put that much thought into it, but it is great nonetheless.

Take a look at her picture. About a half of a second after looking at the photo, you will see the snowy smile that the wind has blown onto the old brick wall. But at first glance, all that this photo is made up of is

snow and bricks,
white and red,
soft and rigid.

Snow. White, wet, soft, silent, pure, fresh snow.
Bricks. Red, solid, imposing, unwavering, old bricks.

The snow falls fresh each time, and coats the earth with something new; snow unifies the world by making it seem that the whole world is made of one substance. Its whitness whispers of purity and serenity, the result of being made clean and new. Snow can be formed, shaped, played in, and caught on the tongue.

Maybe the bricks are a fortress, a boundary, a guard that we have put up to protect ourselves from the elements. Maybe their color symbolizes trouble, pain, and calamity...wearing the old bricks down little by little. The bricks exist for function, not fashion, and have existed so for years.

On the day the wind blew the pure snow onto the dirty wall, a beautiful disagreement was formed. The new befriended the old, the silent conversed with the imposing, the ever-changing changed the changeless.

And together, they smiled.

Aprons: Oracion Mental

Be who you are and be that well.
- St. Francis de Sales

This is the essence of oracion mental, or the Prayer of Quiet. Everyone needs a good rest, but often we fear that stopping to rest would cause us to neglect our work, appear lazy, or miss deadlines.

Being is what we do when we "do nothing." Being is healthy. Being is essential to maintaining inner peace, serenity, and most importantly, sanity.

If you subscribe to Biblical wisdom, then let me call your attention to the oft quoted verse in Psalm 46:10:

Be still and know that I am God.

BE still. Or in the aforementioned words of St. Francis de Sales, "BE who you are." Be. Be. Be. What is the importance of all this being? The ability to "be" is an amazing opportunity. When we rest, we are then given the chance to return in freedom to the crazy world.

Perhaps my favorite story of escapist rest is one of the famous evangelist John Wesley's mother, Suzanna Wesley. Mother of nineteen children (wow...), Suzanna never neglected the need for retreat and solitude. As you can imagine, she didn't exactly have the time to go for a long walk, or to escape to a chapel to pray.

Instead, she simply tossed her apron over her head. A simple and creative escape, really. From behind her apron, Suzanna was free to contemplate, rest, and be. Then when the apron came back down, Suzanna was renewed and ready to go back to her unending tasks of cooking, cleaning, and caring for her brood of nineteen.

Your ticket to escaping reality for a few minutes? As simple as digging your apron out of the closet and putting it over your head. (And when the apron comes down, I personally recommend finding some new recipes and cooking up a storm! But that will be a topic for another day.)

So may you find your quiet. May you rest in the oracion mental. Creatively uncover your own method of respite. "Be who you are and be that well."

Orange Peels

Our world hears

too much analyst and too little artist.

Robert K. Greenleaf wrote this in his article Servant Leadership. So many people are apt to complain, analyze, and criticize. I have these tendencies as well, but I've begun to realize that cynicism accomplishes...nothing, really. Political tensions, ethics debates, and injustices on all sides certainly give grounds for skepticism and pessimism. However, I issue you a challenge to creatively view the world positively.

A very wise, witty, and philosophical friend of mine - during an amusing rant about joy - once made a great comment about peeling oranges.

He decided that we should be fully able to be astronomically joyful and thankful 24/7. Not just when we get a good gift, or when somebody makes us laugh or smile...nope. All the time.

"It's like peeling an orange," he said. He continued with something like: "When you hold it in your hand, think of how it got to you. Be thankful for the rains that made it grow. When you peel it, be thankful for the workers who picked it. With every bite, be thankful for the complex naural, supernatural, and human network that has given you that orange."

Enjoy the wonder and majesty and hugeness of the universe. Enjoy the happy little smiling feeling you get (really, don't deny it) when you drink a cup of tea. Cynicism knocks the joy right out of life. So be creative. Think of ways to change situations rather than analyze the heck out of them.

So take a sip of tea and stop ranting. It's a little bit like peeling an orange.