In this season of life there is so much more time to remember. And for me, I have a constant background hum of reflecting on what has gone down in the past, either recent or distant. And then there are days when my pull toward reflecting is unusually high and a desire to sit in a philosophical frame of mind and write is upon me. Today is such a day.
Normally I would be on my 8 mile walk. And that is no small thing seeing that Dr Panek has returned my right knee to service and 40 - 45 mile weeks are again the norm....so grateful to Jesus for this gift of restoration! Pure gift! But this morning, I am going to give the joints a break as certain parts have made it known they could use some down time.....37 miles will be enough for this week.
So yes, reflection and being in a philosophical mind-set are all fine and well but I lack a focal point today. I'm just aware of the desire to try and capture some little tidbit, an insight, an observational breakthrough that brings that satisfying sigh (much like I hear horses do when they finally relax and surrender to the moment).
As I sit in my inner sanctum, so lovingly provided by the love of my life, I am surrounded by the mementos of a Santiago life. I wrote a rough draft of a haiku just this morning that relates to this citadel of peace that Father has provided through my beloved. It goes like this:
My inner sanctum
A 3-D bulletin board
Full of life's tchotchkes
It's true, there is no more wall space. There are pictures, shelves and things hanging chock-a-block everywhere you look. And I love it! It so suits me although it drives Sandi crazy in it's Moulon-Rouge- Hollywood set motif. The Israelites had a difficult time remembering the things for which God had delivered them and provided for them as they were lead to the promised land. My room is essentially one big cairn of at least some of the bigger things that have gone down in my sojourn. Yet still, I often need reminding and re-framing to remember with right thinking the grace and mercy I have experienced.
Another haiku of this morning:
2020,geesh!
So much pain in just one year
Does 'normal' ever return?
Sandi and I were going along relatively unscathed by all the covid fallout as recent as ten days ago. But then December 16 arrived with a scheduled tread mill test because of some symptoms Sandi had been having. Within 24 hours, an angiogram, a 99% blockage, squishing it back open and a stent deployed and Bam!, your better half is now known medically as someone with coronary artery disease.
And so today, we quarantine in our house and from each other for a ten day stint. This unwelcome task is based on the prudence of assuming Sandi brought back covid from United Hospital's covid-dripping halls and walls. Thus, we are taking it a day at a time as we get our arms around a fresh life message of life as finite, of being in a canoe with an unknown flotation life cycle. No matter what 2021 may have in store, there are certain realities that are inescapable. That we are in the 7th inning, that we have just touched or rounded third base. These are not the thinking of a depressed or negative man. They are simply the facts of a life that now provides time to think and reflect. And the bottom-line hope that shapes and re-directs such sobering thoughts?
Just this: "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, for you have died and your life is hid with Christ. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." "Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death- even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So thank you Jesus! Thank you for gently ushering us through the twists and turns that make up the swirl of life. As we peer through the darkened glass of our observation deck, we take our rest in you, we trust in you, not in our sight, and we surrender ourselves afresh into your hands with which we were created. Jesus Christ, elixir of life! Maranatha!!
