SIMPLE ABUNDANCE

Simple abundance is a meaningful expression for me, but it does not come near the gratitude I have to express when I reflect on the blessings I know in my life this fall. To begin, I would name the very fact and act of breathing – something I do without thought, worry or pain. Another blessing is the large number of people with whom I associate each day: co-workers, friends, apartment tenants, and any others I may meet in the course of my waking hours. But more often I find myself thinking about and looking at the earth through the changes in nature these days. I am reminded how I am tied to and dependent on this earth, my home in this life. When I remember all of this to be true, and hold with care and deep respect all the forms of life around me, I cannot help but be grateful. Extremely grateful might be a better response!

In her book, Radical Gratitude, author Mary Jo Leddy says that “gratitude involves some radical satisfaction with life, with oneself, and with our world”. I mentioned my life and the world above, but I also want to name a more personal area of gratitude for me this year. I have a new appreciation for health and the innate healing power in our bodies. In August I fractured bones in my elbow in three places. Never having broken a bone before, I did not know what to expect and I certainly had no idea about the pain. Surgery was needed to repair the damage done. Observing how my body has healed from this has been no less than amazing . . . and painful at times, too! Knowing that I needed simply to get adequate rest and be patient as the healing occurs has been a learning experience as well. The body knows what to do and does it without my guiding it. Because of this I have met some wonderful health care workers and also known great generosity from my co-workers in ministry who have covered and filled in for me. There has even been some delight in seeing what I can and cannot do with just one hand and how creative I could be to accomplish the tasks of daily living!

In all of this I see again how God is faithful and sustains my life. God treats me, too, to new ways to learn of the abundance surrounding me. This experience has brought me a new and gentle appreciation for life. And I am grateful!

What is the particular experience that has brought you to a new appreciation of who you are and of life? How would you describe the gift this has been for you? How does the expression simple abundance manifest itself today in your life?

Carol Marie Hemish, SSND

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

Do you ever find yourself now and then asking, "Is that all there is?" As we make the journey of life, how much is enough?

You know, nearness to death can bring what's important in life into much clearer focus. It did for Professor Morrie Schwartz, who was the subject of the best selling book, Tuesdays with Morrie. Dying with Lou Gehrig's disease, Morrie shared much wisdom about life and about how much is enough in it. He says, "There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need. You need food; you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car; you don't need the biggest house. The truth is you don't get satisfaction from those things."

Benjamin Franklin put it this way, "The best things in life aren't things!"

As Christians living the journey of life we seek to be responsible people, to do what we need to do while at the same time seeking to not get so caught up in what we think are the "have to's" of life that we become controlled by them. Our tradition calls this DETACHMENT. Morrie's term for it is, "an open heart". This DETACHMENT is not from life; but, rather, from my desire to control it. In the words of one man, "For peace of mind, I need to resign as general manager of the universe!"

We strive for DETACHMENT so that we can let go of the false gods, the idols of power, prestige, and possessions, and meet the one true God anew each day. DETACHMENT helps us to let go of anyone or anything that takes the place of God in our lives, the false gods that we can cling oh so tightly to but that do not fulfill us and cause us to keep asking, "Is that all there is?" Perhaps we've all heard the expression, "Let go and let God." This is what we mean by DETACHMENT. We need to "detach" whenever we get all too possessive or overly concerned about anything.

It might help a bit if we think of "letting go" as "entrusting to". DETACHMENT means not that we drop this person, this plan, or this situation as much as it means that we ENTRUST them to God. One person put it this way, "DETACHMENT means that we still have plans, goals, and ambitions and we carry on the responsibilities of our lives, but these dangle loosely." We know that we are not the final word on the matter because God, and not these things, has become our bottom line.

We are a people who are on the journey of life. But the journey is not about getting and having. The journey is about being and becoming, becoming what we are not yet with the help of God and each other. Throughout the journey God is continually inviting us out of that self-centered place of control where life is seen as a commodity and no person, place, or thing is ever enough. Gradually, our God is helping us to see through our own life experience that the fullness of life is not about having what you want as much as it is about wanting what you already have…God's active, loving presence with you always!

Fr. John Mark Ettensohn, OMI

WALLS

If you walk through the woods of New England, you will, in what seems like the middle of nowhere, come across miles and miles of stone walls. Two or three hundred years ago, these walls were very important. They marked off property lines, defined roads, and kept the cows and sheep within the pastures and the other animals out.

Now, these walls are irrelevant. Trees have grown up in the middle of them, the wind and rain have tumbled them down, little streams and brooks run through them, leaves and pine needles cover them. They are relics of a bygone time. They no longer have a role to play in the forest which has grown around them.

I come across them, and think about the polarization that seems so evident in our world. Whoever isn’t with us is against us. Who’s in, and who’s out. Who really belongs, and whom do we exclude? We’re still building walls.

Seeing these walls in the woods gives me hope that perhaps sometime in the future, if life and nature can take their course, the walls we build today might become irrelevant in their turn. I make my own the prayer of Jesus: “That all might be one.”

Fr. Roger Lamoureux, OMI