The first few days of 2022 were rather gray and cloudy, so when the skies cleared on Monday and the first visible rays of sun cracked the horizon, it was amazingly beautiful. Add this to the fact that the days are getting longer with sunrise at 7:44 AM and sunset at 5:09 PM and you have a really slow but natural beauty in the unveiling of the new year. This slow unveiling has started our household off on a different yet familiar and enlightening path. We thought we’d share some of the things we have encountered so far on this path in this week’s post.
“Self-improvement, squared, is enlightenment, which is what life is about.” –Keith C. Burris
Theme of the Week: Epiphany Ease
Our theme of the week aligns with the celebration of the Epiphany, observed in remembrance of the sighting of the star in the east by the Magi when Jesus was born. An epiphany is an illuminating discovery, oftentimes occurring with striking or natural simplicity. Sunday morning this week started off with issues in our household, which forced me to miss going to church. As I was running later that morning, I thought about how the mass usually begins with the announcement of what Sunday or feast is being celebrated and pictured the lector saying, “We celebrate today the Feast of the Epiphany…”
The inner eight-year-old in my piped up, “Don’t we do that every day with God?”
Oh, the beauty and wisdom of that inner child!
Next thing I knew we had ditched our prayer intentions and started a conversation with God, marveling at the offerings of the day in nature. Given it was overcast, raining, and not all that wonderful looking outside, along with what I had been dealing with all morning at home, I thought it was a pretty nice diversion. It was also a challenge of sorts, to see the light in the dark and dreary and remember as well as be thankful for every dawn of every day the opportunities that await us. We have the choice to choose on most occasions (though we may initially feel or view it otherwise) and the grace of God to be our guide in and with and through it all.
That’s pretty special, and all we really have to do is say yes to it all. The rest falls into place (though we may need to be very, very patient with the order of the events) and somehow we wind up at another day and more opportunities. This cycle goes on no matter what else is going on in the world around us. Time takes us along without us asking.
So many times in this fast-paced, more modern world of technology, we forget that behind all the algorithms and computerized programs there lies the simple building blocks of life. These building blocks turn on or turn off the actions required to perform tasks or processes. On or off, yes or no, light or dark, it is that simple. And behind it all are the powers of nature and God.
So with all these thoughts in mind, the eight-year-old and I had our own little epiphany. This allowed us to come up with a poem to share with others we know and a new way to view the first days of the new year. Our first light was not a physical, visible array, but rather a mental, spiritual awakening.
“Another year is dawning! Dear Father, let it be, in working or in waiting, another year with Thee…Anther year f progress, another year of raise, another year of proving Thy presence all the days.” –Frances Ridley Havergal
Lesson of the Week: Action Please!
Our lesson of the week stems from our insatiable appetites for activity in our household. Though Leo and Lena enjoy a few moments lounging on the couch or the floor, they really prefer to be moving or doing something, even if that something is staring off into the fields around our house or skies above and barking their heads off at whatever it is that caught their attention in the first place. As my mother can attest, I have never been one to sit still. Combine the three of us in this little pack and you have one really flowing (albeit not poised or graceful) poetic motion that takes the words life experience to a whole different level.
We started off this year with the intent to learn and grow more physically, mentally, spiritually aware of life. The only way we know how to do this is to live it, and living to us means doing. Doing whatever, whenever, however, why ever, with or without whomever may choose or not choose to join us. This does lead to some consternation at times, sort of a paralysis by analysis, which frustrates all of us. (Honestly, I get the most frustrated because I really do not like wasting time).
This year, we are also trying to prioritize some projects and goals, which is a little difficult given our active lifestyle and my work schedule. However, while looking at our list, the enlightening thought came that maybe we don’t necessarily need to change the priorities, but rather our approach to them. Bingo! Really big difference between what we view verses what we do.
There is a science behind this, a number of studies that indicate our choices and priorities in life are based more on what we feel than what we know or are capable of. So if we can alter how we feel emotionally or even physically, we have a better chance statistically and in reality of achieving what is required, desired, and all points in between. Where we humans fall short on all this is our patience and tolerance levels. Today’s society of I need it now with every thing in life does us no favors. However, if we can separate ourselves for just a moment and focus on needs first, we soon find the rest drops out of the picture. This is not to say we become self-centered or egotistical, but rather we recognize the value within us that helps the values of those around us, which in turn has the power to add value to all of life.
So by being active, we learn to focus and can build better (or worse if we focus on the wrong things) habits. To change a habit, one must change the mindset, and to change the mindset, one must take action. In other words, change takes work, but this work can buy a lifetime of growth to fill the inner needs of all.
“As long as we’re in honest and loving relationship with what is right in front of us, the Spirit can keep working in us and through us and for us.” –Richard Rohr
Song of the Week: Dust Only
Our song of the week is one of my all-time favorite Patty Loveless songs. Written by Tony Arata, the song reflects on the fact we are just dust, but if we add one thing to that dust, we have life, and when we have life, we have light.
A Handful of Dust
Break us down to our elements
And you might think he failed
We’re not copper for one penny or
Even iron for one nail
And a dollar would be plenty
To buy twenty of us
Until true love is added to these handfuls of dust
Handful of dust, handful of dust
Sums up the richest and poorest of us
True love makes priceless the worthless
Whenever it’s added to a handful of dust
However small though our worth may be
When shared between two hearts
Is even more than it would ever be
Measured on its own, apart
And our half what it could be
Is now twice what it was
When true love is added
To these handfuls of dust
Handful of dust, handful of dust
Sums up the richest and poorest of us
True love makes priceless the worthless
Whenever it’s added to a handful of dust
Handful of dust, handful of dust
Sums up the richest and poorest of us
True love makes priceless the worthless
Whenever it’s added to a handful of dust
The song never released as a single or received radio play, but it is part of the album When Fallen Angels Fly, which was a CMA album of the year, making Patty only the second female artist to win this award at the time (mid 1990’s). (The first female to receive CMA album of the year was Barbara Mandrell). Loveless also included a bluegrass version on her later album, Mountain Soul II.
Science Lesson of the Week: Cardinal History
Our science lesson of the week actually came from sighting a blue jay that reminded me of a prior reflection reading about cardinals. Cardinals are songbirds, able to sing up to twenty-four different songs. Named by colonists in North America due to the similarity of the male birds’ crests with that of the biretta, or Catholic cardinal’s red cap, these birds came to symbolize both the birth and death of Jesus.
The male cardinals are bright red with black around the eyes and bill. Females are brownish-yellow with red on the wings, tails, and tip of the head. Originally a southern bird, the habitat has extended northward and westward in the United States, from Florida to Texas and Maine to Michigan. Their songs consist of alternating whistles in different pitches. Like many other natural manifestations, they take a simple element of a whistle as a building block to construct masterpieces. This whistle requires them to do something, to work, to take action so that their inner beauty and value can be fully appreciated.
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” –Pablo Picasso
Words of the Week: New Year’s Speak
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional are clarity, joy, protect, prosperity, and epiphany. We often obtain clarity in life from the light around us. This clarity leads to a sense or acknowledgement of joy. Our gratitude for such joy leads us to feel protected and obtain prosperity not necessarily of a financial form, but rather of a life value form. When we recognize the lights within others and ourselves, we come to the epiphanies of life.
“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing your inner self is Enlightenment.” –Lao Tzu
May the first lights of the new year, be they visible or of other forms, lead us onward. May the trials and tribulations found upon the journey make us stronger and more compassionate, and may we find the true light of life in time.
First Light
Frist light of the dawn
Stretching wide the yawn
Of the day starting anew
Full of faith in what time views
As an exercise in the necessary
To get all of us in life where we
Are to become us
Though God’s love.
First light in the lesson learned
Opening the mind as it turns
Through and within time’s seas
Across the labyrinth that comes with activities
To reveal all life has to offer
Deep inside time’s coffers
Where mysteries and drama, art and science collide
To lead us upon the adventure of a lifetime.
First light in the here and now
Sometimes a gee, I wonder how
I missed that in the first place,
Other times a gift given for work gave,
Still other times a whistle in the wind
That collides with the thistles of life given
So that the music that is heard
Becomes the foundation to which we turn.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Our thanks this week goes out to our friends Loretta, Beth, Joyce B., and Michelle T. for sharing their life experiences and knowledge to help us as we navigate through our challenges of the year. We appreciate and value these women for who they are, not only intellectually, but down-to-earth in thinking with a twist of fashion and modern art, creating the wonderful science of life through the positive light they offer everyone.
-Lisa, Leo, and Lena
Natural Deltas 