We’ve had an amazingly mild autumn in Colorado. We’re within days of the winter solstice, and it’s 60 degrees today, as it was yesterday. We’ve had a little snow, and a couple of cold spells, but overall it’s been incredible.
I was chatting with a friend the other day, and we were fretting over the fear that this mild weather now might mean some really nasty stuff later on. As-if there is some sort of cosmic balance of “rotten daysâ€, and we might now have gotten on the wrong side of that balance.
It’s an interesting tendency, isn’t it? We look at many things in life within the context of this “ledger sheet†view of the universe. As-if someplace up in the cosmos, there’s an accounting clerk hunched over a ledger book with his green eyeshade on, making sure that we’re each enduring our fair share of misery. If we’re blessed with some good fortune, or unseasonably great weather, or a string of particularly good luck, we automatically look for “the catch†– the other shoe that must be going to drop.
It comes back to our desire to look at everything in life as a “payment†or a “barterâ€. There’s no free lunch, right? If it seems too good to be true, it probably is, right? There’s always a price to pay, right?
When we’re dealing with each other – with other human beings – it’s probably a good idea to maintain a wary approach. Since this is how we see the world, this is how we deal with one another. It’s safe.
But when it comes to Creation, the cosmos, the universe or the multiverse, or just plain Mother Nature, there’s a healthier way to let ourselves be part of the world. That image of the accounting clerk and the green eyeshade not only limits our capacity to receive the gifts of Creation, but also limits our capacity to be the source of gifts.
Every single day is filled with gifts. Sometimes the dice fall in our favor for several days in a row, and the gift is even sweeter than we expected. Sometimes our perception of “luck†or “fortune†limits our ability to see the gifts that fill the path around us, and we’re challenged to build the wisdom required to share and experience gifts in a new way.
Our fear of “the other shoe†or the “price to be paid†can consumes so much of our energy that we’re prevented from savoring the beauty of what’s been laid right in front of us.
For Christians, we’re approaching the final Sunday of the season of Advent. It’s a season of preparation – of opening ourselves to Spirit and anticipation. It’s not a time to worry about ledger sheets. It’s not a time to worry about whether or not we’ve received our fair share of misery. It’s a time of simple and hopeful beginning. A time to rejoice in the gifts that are laid all along the path that we’re on. A time to celebrate all humanity, all Creation, and all wonder.
Ad-vent: The arrival. The beginning. Especially of something momentous.
Every single day is momentous – every day is the advent of yet another gift.
Seek it, feel it, and enjoy it.
It’s a wonderful day outside today. Tomorrow might be another beautiful day, or it might not, but I think I’ll deal with that tomorrow. Today is waiting for me – I think I’ll not make it wait any longer…
