•Today, I stood at the window and watched a redbird dance on the porch handrail. I searched but I could not see a female anywhere. Still, this scarlet plumed male pranced and preened in full color and feather even if I were his only observer. I relished the luxury of being in the moment and enjoying the antics of this brilliantly clothed creature until long minutes later, he flew away.
•When asked what I planned to do when I retired, I flippantly replied that during the first month, I would just sit on my back porch and watch the tide ebb and flood. I did spend much of that allotted time mesmerized by the movement of the water. Five years later, I’m still drawn to that same spot to watch the sun set, the colors of the marsh change, the birds roost and build nests - always the same, but always different.
•One of my favorite lessons to teach evolved out of a Helen Keller story, “Three Days to See.” In it, she asked friends to name their spouses’ eye color. So often, they could not. After we read that passage in class, I would ask my freshmen to close their eyes and visualize the face of one person that they knew they would see sometimes during the next 24 hours. Then, I would ask them to write a description of the face so that having read it, I could recognize the person should I encounter him or her.
For homework, I ask the students to study the face they had described. The next day, I ask them to evaluate their first writing. I always knew who completed the assignment. Those who said that their memory had been perfect had not looked closely enough nor at all. Those who had studied the face always discovered a new freckle or a scar they had forgotten.
Then, I asked them if their school picture this year looked identical to last year’s. Of course not. As each of us ages, our face subtly changes. And while we may not notice the change daily, over time, we can see the difference.
•Long after he was famous, Frank Sinatra once told a preacher that he would always have a voice coach. He explained that as our bodies change, so do our voices. With the expert advice of a coach, the singer learns how to adapt.
•Woody Allen never attends any of his movies after they have been released. He explains that he made that mistake with his first movie. As the title and credits began to roll, he realized at that moment how he could have made it better.
•As a man edited an article of interest to him for the fourth time, he shook his head. “I guess I could read it every day and still see changes to make.” He has discovered the beauty of editing.
•Everyone in my family has a rather large painting of roses by my great aunt Velma. At one point in her life, she decided “to paint roses until she got them right.” To her critical eye, the blossoms she created with oils on canvas didn’t fully capture the beauty she saw in the garden. She painted roses until the day she died and so many of us have benefitted from her determination.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow explains this mystery of being able to look at something old and seeing it anew. He says that although those around of us may have come to take life and all its nuances for granted, “the fully mature adult has the ability to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”
We don’t have to look very long to see how much of life all of us take for granted; just let the electricity go off for a long period of time. Benedictine Monk David Steindl-Rast reminds us that much of our language is about taking: we take a vacation, we take a drive, we take an exam, we take a drink, “and finally, when I am worn out by all that taking, I take a nap.”
However, he goes on to say that we can’t take those things without at the same time giving - giving our time, our attention, our thanks. “I will hardly fall asleep until I give myself to the nap and let the nap take me.”
Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, has used the Maslow and the Steindl-Rast quotes in his latest book, The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-Third Psalm. In this book, Kushner offers a little secret for keeping us young at heart even in aging bodies. He calls it “The Gift of Gratitude.”
“Gratitude is the fundamental religious emotion...Gratitude is a way of looking at the world that does not change the facts of your life but has the power to make your life more enjoyable. The grateful heart understands that gratitude is a reciprocal process, giving and receiving at the same time...Gratitude is rooted in the sense that life is a gift.”
Kushner doesn’t recommend just counting our blessings. Instead, he promotes giving thanks for each one. Using the age-old visual of a glass with liquid to the midway point, Kushner says that this symbol is far more than the old optimist-pessimist routine of determining whether it is half full or half empty. Rather, it is the understanding of what to do when, like the psalmist of old, we can claim, “my cup runneth over.”
According to Kushner, the answer is so simple. “Get a bigger cup.”
And how does he propose getting that bigger cup?
He explains that each time we look at the same old thing and childlike, revel in a new discovery and express our gratitude for this gift, our cup automatically expands.
“Our ability to enjoy God’s blessings is more a function of our capacity to receive them than of any limitations on God’s ability to bless us.”
Do we want to experience a miracle during this Holy Week? With a grateful heart, let us look around us again. For when we really look anew at God’s world, we, like the hymnist, can sing, “I once was blind, but now I see...” Then, our cup really does overflow.
2007
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