Lost and Found: The Journey to the Authentic

“A tree gives Glory to God by being a tree. For being what God means it to be it is obeying Him .It consents, so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea, which is in God and is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.

The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him. If it tried to be something else which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore would give him less glory.”

-       Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. “

-       Isaiah 55: 10-11

 

So there they were, the three almost wise men, gathered for their ritual communion.

“Peace be with you.”

“Good to see you.”

“Good to be seen.”

The requisite reports on the status of offspring and the supersonic unbridled passage of the collective and idiosyncratic existences are swiftly shifted. Transitions and potential transformations, discerning the Odyssean passages of the pilgrimages of self identity and work evolved as the unspoken focal points for the theme of this concelebration.

What was that road not taken? Was it fear? 

“What would you be doing if you had the choice?

The new Irish writer of the purple sage questioned.

Passion, talent, and  desire are surfaced as overriding factors. Filling up the siloes meant nothing as the trio understood that gifts were given to be nurtured and used…life would take care of itself. It was an easy conclusion since a semblance of faith fueled their fire.

The survey said

-       Two for music

-       Two for writing, (the senior one stuck to his split decision and would acquiesce to the flip of a coin if necessary. However, if time permitted sailing and baseball would have made what his father called the proverbial  “jack of all trades” list. )

Regret  was not a condition explored. Their journeys, a series of accidental vocational circumstances, had brought them together on the way to their Emmaus. Each as a Sherpa, mentor and wizard –in-training behind the curtain, they had encouraged other pilgrims to discover the universe within and without. Yet, their own sanctified gifts that had been dormant in the recesses of their souls were insistent on making way to the surface and great light. Bliss does not sleep.

The older one shared

“The encouragement by a member of the band helped me become a channel for words from some unknown spiritual spring and placing them in some type of pre-ordained construct. This same companion immersed me in re-baptismal font of  the ineffable sacred joy of filling the silence by creating music. “

He continued with a secret smile

“ These transformational resuscitated creative experiences are blessings and when I am channeling them as all sense of time is lost. However, in this losing I have found my self again. “

He didn’t say, “ ’ where your heart is there is you treasure.’  That is the heart of the matter, isn’t it?” They all knew the truth.

As they all readied themselves to depart their temporary safe harbor to resume their own passages the wind whispered dialog of a pair of real wizard voices in the wilderness

BILL MOYERS:” Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands? “

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: “All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. “

It begins to rain again and the three hug….

“Peace be with you”

“Until next time”

“I pray there will be a next time”

and somehow they know whatever path they chose it will be the right road .Nothing had changed.

                                                                          When I write my book

                                                      EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK

                                                                     Paperback writer

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By learning you will teach;
by teaching you will understand.
 - Latin Proverb

“I write to discover what I know.”
- Flannery O’Connor

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
- Lao Tsu

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
- Aldous Huxley

“Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 – (Ulysses, Alfred, Lord Tennyson)           

"If you write for God, you will reach many men and bring them joy.

If you write for men, you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make noise in the world, for a little while.

If you write only for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted, you will wish that you were dead."

   - Thomas Merton

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

    - Robert Frost












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