One is never lacking in opportunities each day to be happy,
as the wonderful G.K. Chesterton reminded us in 1908:
The test of all happiness is gratitude.
Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets.
Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he puts in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs?
photo nevit dilmen
Even in the midst of great pain, Lord,
I praise you for that which is.
I will not refuse this grief
or close myself to this anguish.
Let shallow men pray for ease:
“Comfort us; shield us from sorrow.”
I pray for whatever you send me,
and I ask to receive it as your gift.
You have put a joy in my heart
greater than all the world’s riches.
I lie down trusting the darkness,
for I know that even now you are here.
Psalm 4, from Stephen Mitchell, A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew.
Stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course
Tao Te Ching, 19
Every morning
I surrender to being here
I let go into gravity
It takes practice
To give up habitual holding on, holding in, holding back
Every morning I open myself
And invite grace to have its way with me
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
photo joolz
Sometimes things happen that we do not understand and we wish were otherwise. Rumi offers some solace:
Give up to grace.
The ocean takes care of each wave until it gets to the shore
Rumi
photo CC-BY
Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.
I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright….Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock – more than a maple – a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
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