ELEGANT

The mind's eye tells its tale of what is opulent and what impresses. We can't always see the treasure and embrace its meaning as another will regard it.

But we do know when it touches our own lives. We can feel it and touch it. At least within the confines of our own reality.

To me there is a big difference though between seeing gold in terms of this life and its trappings and those for God's view and heaven. That may not even work for some of us if we can't rise above a given perception.

It is amazing at times how one can dialog in such spiritual terms in all the trite ways we want to regard ourselves as only thinking in heavenly terms. It is so wonderful to dredge up all those wonderful pet phrase like, "being in the world, but not of this world." Or the other popular term, "being dead to this world."

There are others too, but no point in weighing down one posting trying to list them all. They reality is unfortunately that even though our desire might be to only think of heaven, we do have to pay the bills.

Balancing that reality with the needs of the soul can be challenging. However, as long as we live we will not be able to divorce ourselves from such demands regardless of our desires.

Some people do try in their own way. They can retire to some monastery or convent and wall the world away.

The only problem is that it doesn't cure the self inside. We can fast and prayer, but you can't stop thinking.

So retiring from life might seem like an easy way out, it just never honestly works. That is just an artificial implant of restraint.

Although we don't have to throw up our hands and just say, "if I can't stop sinning, I'll just do whatever," neither do we have to think we have to live as if sin doesn't exist. By that I mean acting as if we are so above it all that we will never sin again. Heard people make that kind of claim and it is truly sad when they do.

What truly is elegant to me is when we are totally honest about who we are. That can be so difficult to achieve. Some never will.

It means living each day, walking among the ruins of dreams some call life, but letting ourselves cling to our vision of eternity. It means embracing who we are, but not forgetting that we have a destiny too.

Then perhaps we face the day, not seeing it as hell or heaven, but life.