Blog 617 – 04.29.2017

Life Is A Lesson In Loving

Louise Hay’s calendar pages are always thoughtful and uplifting, two things that I strive for in this blog along with trying to be entertaining. The page I picture today “know that all experiences are opportunities for me to learn and to grow.” I cut off the “I” in the beginning of the quote and the date off the calendar page picture not on purpose but I like the result. Often life is like that not exactly the way you planned it but even better. A dear friend and brother had a terrible car accident recently. His car was totalled but he was miraculously uninjured and was as I like to think of it “Guided, guarded, and protected.” Sure there is the car, and replacing it, finding the money, all perhaps a bit unplanned and disheartening but even this a lesson in loving, life is full of them. My friend and brother said as we all have from time to time, “I am having trouble seeing the ‘blessing in disguise.” Not me for he is the blessing in disguise as Rick Nelson sings in the Garden Party song, “Over there in Dylan’s shoes wearing his disguise.”

We are all and each of us a lesson in loving in disguise. Sometimes it even surprises me the direction some of these pieces take. I mean often I have an idea and it flows pretty much as I thought it might and at other times the thought stream changes courses and I like you am just along for the ride. That to me is when life is most fun. Predictable can be rather boring at times. Some people enjoy being able to figure out the movie before it ends but I prefer plot twists and “Wow, I never saw that coming” movies. Sometimes we just have to think about it a bit to see the lesson, to see the gift. But we are the gift. And though sometimes people might try to shame us with the line, “You act like you think it is all about you.” It is all about you and if you or they don’t see that you are the blessing in disguise you both might be missing the lesson, the point really. Did you ever wonder why God made you. Simple really, because God, the Universe, would be and all of us incomplete without you. I think a lot about that very familiar Bible verse that begins, “For God so loved the world he gave…” What did he give? He gave his child. Who is his child? You are. I am. We all are. Jesus came into this world disguised as a baby. So do we all. He grew, us too. He learned, us too. He learned that he was God’s child and that he was here to do something big for his father and ours. Are you seeing a parallel here? Jesus said, “As I am so are you in this world” and later “Greater works than I have done you will do because I am going home to Dad.” Jesus lived but thirty three years. I have already been here twice that long. You might say it is high time I got busy figuring out my mission. Oh, yeah, I already did, same as his, Jesus’ that is, and no not the dying on the cross thing – he already did that, I, we, as he, are here to learn to love.

Pretty simple really just find someone or something that or whom you have trouble loving and start there. But don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time, that person or thing will keep showing up in your life till you learn how to love them or it and then you can move on to the something or someone tougher. Folks used to sing, “Give me that old time religion that makes me love everybody.” I have a sneaking suspicion that we all are going to get religion before we are done here, even Bill Maher. Sorry Bill, I couldn’t resist.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White