May 14, 2021

01

Balance and harmony
are the best we can do.

Spirit, energy, vitality 
are traveling companions
with balance and harmony.

Together, they form 
the foundation 
of life and being.
The adamantine rock
of human existence. 

The Five Friends are
the Hope of The World.

Why do we put all the emphasis,
effort, focus, time and attention
on the material aspects of existence,
when it is the spiritual elements of life
that make it worth living?

We think that food, clothing and shelter--
and the more and the fancier the better--
make it all worthwhile.
Even with these things solidly
in our possession,
we still cast about,
looking everywhere 
for satisfaction, completion,
wholeness and happiness,
in a "Not This! Not This!"
kind of way.

First, make a welcome home for
balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality,
and the material accoutrements of life
will show up with enough regularity
to enable us to meet the day.

What more do we need?

"Consider the lilies of the field,"
suggested Jesus,
"and do all you can
with what came with you from the womb,
and you will have all you need
to do what needs to be done every day"
(Or words to that effect).

Balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality
require what?
Flow from what?
Are found where?

Sit still,
be quiet,
and consider fully the matter--
waiting/watching
for what arises,
emerges,
appears,
occurs to you
as realization/comprehension/
insight/illumination/awakening/awareness
to call/direct/compel
you to action
in the service of 
balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality,
and seek first these things,
and trust the rest to be yours as well,
in quantities commensurate with your needs.

–0–

02

What is in it for us?
The joy that lies before us
in meeting the moment
just as it is,
and doing what can be done with it,
just as we are!

We are all Ulysses upon the crashing waves
of the wine dark sea,
and his response is to be our response:
"I will stay with it 
and endure 
through suffering hardship 
and when the heaving sea 
has shaken my raft to pieces, 
then I will swim" 
(Quoted by James Hollis).

What is in it for us
is the pure joy of doing it.
The honor of being able to do it.
The privilege of being asked to do it,
and placed in the position of doing it.

This is our time to rise to the occasion,
to show what we are made of,
to do what is asked of us,
to shine with resplendent glory
in shouldering the Sisyphean task
of doing what must be done,
and doing it with our best effort always!

What? We want chocolates by the pool
and call that living?

Our place is to take the moment as it comes
and turn it into all that it might be!
For the sheer delight of doing it,
again and again,
all our life long!

What is it about this that is beneath us?
Why withhold ourselves from what is before us?
Why hold anything back ever?
Why not meet our life with the best
we have to offer
every moment
of every day?