THE VAST SMALLNESS

Why is it when that sometimes the most annoying simple things can manage to interfere with your plans so often? Like when you have a flat tire. It isn't the end of the world, but seems to always happen when you are the most pressed for time.

I wish when the stress pounds in my throat that my response was one of being totally calm and mature. It isn't. I fret, I complain and that is hardly a source of pride.

It is too bad there is no existing balance to live whereby the good times were as equally good as the bad ones cause unhappiness. I suppose there are some that could claim that, but it hasn't been my experience.

Which is why in part I think we are so prone to craving distraction. How many times can you go to work and tend to all the chores of life and find someway of seeing it as exciting? I mean without the help from some artificial means?

Spirituality is hardly to me the absence of monotony. Some might claim that it is related to being happy all the time.

But I haven't noticed that being the reality. I have been with some who I considered to truly be spiritual, yet have noticed they get bored like the rest of the planet.

The thing I do understand is that the Lord isn't insensitive to this reality. I doubt he expects us to act totally excited when we are feeling so sullen and moody.

What we can't do is try and make dull shine. Forcing a luster on what has only a tarnished tint will never help us make gold from what is less.

Some will try of course. And in the process sometimes we risk missing the intended message and meaning God might help us to see in the ordinary and trite.

I'm not speaking of trying to hear the voice of god in a drinking fountain or any other such silliness. I'm talking about being receptive to letting God show us how and why the routine serves a purpose we might have overlooked.

It is amazing how easy it is to miss details when we take so much for granted in life. There are so many stories where we can miss something essential and meaningful to us just because we are busy and distracted.

So I think at times, God taps us on the shoulder and reminds us that beauty and truth are far more presence that we accept at times.

When we hear, it doesn't mean what is boring suddenly has new life. But it does mean we might see some sparkle we missed before.

That is what to helps forge a smile in the darkness and lift our day beyond a yawn.