Joy drinks pure water. She has sat with the dying and attended many births. She denies nothing. She is in love with life, all of it, the sun and the rain and the rainbow. She rides horses at Half Moon Bay under the October moon. She climbs mountains. She sings in the hills. She jumps from the hot springs to the cold stream without hesitation.

Although Joy is spontaneous, she is immensely patient. She does not need to rush, she knows there are obstacles on every path and that every moment is the perfect moment. She is not concerned with the success or failure or how to make things permanent.

At times Joy is elusive -- she seems to disappear even as we approach her. I see her standing on a ridge covered with oak trees, and suddenly the distance between us feels enormous.

I am overwhelmed and wonder if the effort to reach her is worth it. Yet, she waits for us. Her desire to walk with us is as great as our longing to accompany her.

-- from The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing, you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allowyour soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

This song spent 16 weeks on the record charts in the fall of 1999. Baz Luhrmann's advice remains as relevant today as it was then.

"Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" by Baz Luhrmann

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99,

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh never mind, you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself?and recall, in a way you can’t grasp now, how much possibility lay before you?and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future -- or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts; don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind; the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive; forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees; you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40; maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can, don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it; it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Brother and sister, together we'll make it through. Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there. I know you've been hurtin’, but I've been waitin' to be there for you. And I'll be there, just helping you out whenever I can.

Get to know your parents; you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Brother and sister, together we'll make it through. Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there. I know you've been hurtin’, but I've been waitin' to be there for you.  And I'll be there, just helping you out whenever I can.

Everybody's free, oh yeah, everybody's free.

"Bittersweet"
by Brian Andreas

She said she usually cried at least once
a day not because she was sad,
but because
the world was
so beautiful and
life was so short

Nothing is more practical
than finding God,
i.e. than falling in love in quite absolute
final way

What are you in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will effect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed 
in the morning,
what to do with your evenings,
how to spend your weekends,
what you read,
who you know,
What breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with
joy and gratitude.

Fall in love,
stay in love
and it will decide everything.

--Fr. Provincial's address to Maryland Providence Jesuits, 1980

One of my favorite songs is by The Eagles, “Already Gone.” The line that jumps out at me is: “...we live our lives in chains and never even know we have the key.” 

So what is the key to life? It could be said to be so many different things. A former spiritual teacher of mine, Kenneth Mills, said that “Awe is the key.” I agree with that but why is awe the key? What happens when I am in awe? I am amazed. Perhaps being amazed (in awe) helps me get out of myself enough to really, fully engage what is amazing me.

Perhaps it could be said that the open heart is the key. Sounds good. But, what is the open heart? Rick Diamond wrote recently: “the open heart is the one in which there is room for God.”

What would you say is the key? What opens up life for you? 

It occurred to me this morning while unloading the dishwasher that I had been ~ for many years ~ thanking God in advance in one small area of my daily life. In an attempt to avoid TMI let me just say that the small area has to do with care of the body. I have no idea why I started thanking God before this particular occurrence or why the habit continued over the decades, but I do know that I am exceptionally healthy in that area, always have been and pray to remain so. 

Hum ~~~~~ could there be some connection between thanking God in advance for health in an area and the actual health in that area? Maybe, maybe not.

Just in case there is some connection the question now is: Why don’t I give thanks in advance in larger areas such as thanking God for the safety of our planet as I watch the fear-based news on television? How about thanking God for the solution to world and local problems filling the front pages of newspapers? How about thanking God for the distributions of ample food to feed the hungry of the world? How about thanking God for the freedom of the 27,000,000 people of our world held in slavery?  How about, how about, how about??

My goodness, if I did that I would be praying all the time!  Duh ~~~~~

Morning Glories have been my favorite flowers
ever since childhood
when Mom grew the Heavenly Blue ones
every year
on a white trellis
attached to the side of our white garage.

I used to stand before the blue trumpets
and talk to God about the things that puzzled me.
I felt that God’s presence was especially close
when I took those dilemmas silently to Him
there at the Heavenly Blue Morning Glory trellis.

Now every year I plant Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds.
(The perennials are too purple.)
A few years ago the Heavenly Blues had an especially good year
out here on Lake Austin where I live.
The morning glories climbed up from the lower deck
to the upper deck of our home ... and kept on climbing.
As they climbed up, I added more and more fish line
and also connected some horizontal lines to two second story wind chimes.

As this arrangement became full
I gasped when I looked up from the lake level
and saw that they had formed a perfect
larger-than-life ~~~ cross!

Just in case I missed the symbolism,
one strand of white morning glories
came from ~ Heaven knows where ~ and
climbed up past the second story, entwining the center of the cross.

It was truly, meaningfully glorious!
Now I need to go outside and train the seedling
Heavenly Blue Morning Glories onto fish line.
Wonder what God has to say this year!

Prayers ~ the steady kind ~ influenced my life at the core. What’s a steady prayer? To me, a steady prayer is a prayer that has continuous movement (like the breeze) yet is stable but also recurring, unfaltering, sure. Here are four steady prayers that shaped my young life and probably continue to guide me more than I realize. But first a little background.

Old West Austin, Texas, was where I was born and where I grew up in the 1940s. It was there that my mother and father kept a steady stream of prayers around our family of seven. We five daughters and our parents said the same prayers at approximately the same time every day and night. Those prayers are so engraved in my heart that it was not too difficult to remember them verbatim as I wrote this story. 

Yes, we prayed a lot! The prayers were short ~ like the attention span of a child ~ but they were steady and reliable adding strength to the spiritual and material fabric of our lives together. 

The most often repeated prayers were those said at mealtimes. There was a prayer of blessing before each meal and a prayer of thanking after every meal. These were referred to as the “Knippa Prayers” because Mom’s parents were named Knippa and they said these prayers in their home a few miles down the road. (They lived in a big house in Pemberton Heights. We lived in a little house in Bryker Woods.)

Before meals:

Heavenly Father bless this food
to Thy glory and our good.  Amen

It was always important to thank. I can still hear my mother training us by frequently quoting her mother who taught her the importance of gratitude.  My grandmother would say to my mother: “Don’t forget to thank!” My mother never did forget even at age 94 near the end of her long life. In her last years Mom made a deep impression on many of her caregivers because she thanked them for everything they did for her, even if it were painful, all of this while being entrapped by advanced dementia.

After meals:

We thank you Lord for meat and drink
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

After breakfast there was a prayer said before we were allowed to go outside through the front door to begin our play or school day. Mom kept her steady hand on the screen door latch which she did not release until we had prayed this prayer:

Oh, help me Lord this day to be
Thy own dear child and follow Thee
and lead me Savior by Thy hand
until I reach the Heavenly Land 

At bedtime Mom read each of us our favorite story and then patted our backs until we relaxed into ~ or at least toward ~ sleep. This was our bedtime prayer:

Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me.
Bless Thy little lamb tonight.
Through the darkness be Thou near me.
Keep me safe ‘til morning light.

I think that I will end by doing what my mother taught me as her mother had taught her. In remembrance of both mother and her mother I pray:  Thank you, Lord, for the guidance my parents gave me and my sisters in the form of simple, short, sweet, steady prayers. I learned that I can always talk to You, that You are always present, and that You will answer me ~~~ most of the time. For this on-going conversation with You called prayer, I am truly thankful.  Amen.

The death of my mother happened recently. She was almost 95 years old. I and two of my four sisters were with her when she finally got rid of her worn-out body. I had learned from depth psychology that the second-born child carries the unconscious pain and desires of the parents, especially the mother. Being the second born, I was always aware of what my mother was feeling ~ even when she was not aware of what she was feeling. So, I was curious about what it would be like when she no longer inhabited her once-lovely body. 

This is what happened. A few hours after Mom passed, I became aware of a space inside my chest. I had never experienced this space. I could breathe a little more deeply and freely. It was the strangest thing. There was a new and unanticipated freedom inside of me. I no longer was feeling her unconscious pain and desires. She was free of them and so was I.

Although I missed her presence, I was truly happy for her to be free to move on as she had wanted to for such a long time. She had always taught us about Jesus and Heaven. She had taken us to Lutheran elementary school and church. We prayed before and after meals and at bedtime. She often hummed hymns as she did her housework. Yet here was the stark fact that her body lay there on the bed but she was ~~~ gone. I had always believed in Heaven but now I just have a hope that Heaven really does exist. Strange to doubt Heaven for the first time. 

As may be evident by now, I am still processing this passage of the most influential person in my life. I had never doubted the existence of Heaven before Mom died. I wonder what other lifelong beliefs are being shaken up in this new land of orphanhood.