"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms



"Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on, and later we may touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life, neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey sequence of bumping into's and tumblings apart."
~ Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet



Friday, January 15, 2010

My Place Today...




In North Branch this morning but soon will be heading north to Two Harbors. This has been a wonderful week for me, being with friends and being surprised by grace in so many ways. How can we possibly be alive and human without community, family, and friendship? Some of these thoughts have been on my mind for awhile and interestingly when I was reading Buechner’s Listening To Your Life this morning; his reflections were on a similar theme,
“…when it comes to putting broken lives back together – when it comes, in religious terms, to the saving of souls – the human best tends to be at odds with the holy best. To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do – to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst – is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.”
I believe, and now even more so through experiences that “…steeling yourself against the harshness of reality…” leads to a debilitating desperation and it is through being open and in relationships with others and God that life, the abundant life is at all possible. As Buecher wrote, “…you cannot be human on your own…” it takes being in the dance of life – even if it may be difficult, messy, painful because not to dance, not take the risk means there will be no happiness, joy, or love. Grace is manifested in life, in the dance and regardless of what may happen either horrible or wonderful grace will be there – often in a place and/or a friend - another human on a similar journey looking for eyes to behold, ears to listen and a warm hand to hold and be comforted by and when this happens the moments become sacred and transforming as Jesus is there and by him being there it becomes eternal. Grace is beautiful…
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