Human greatness

Today was the last of this year's EfM exercises. We met at the Bishop Jones Center here in San Antonio for a day of contemplation, prayer and good byes. It was bitter sweet for the group for four members graduated this year and, for me, it is the mark of leaving EfM for an uncertain time. It is not only saying good bye to the group and the course for me, but possibly turning by back on a path that I might have taken. A path that my heart still longs to follow. Of course, for ever destination there are any number of paths, so I know that one day I will reach the end of this spiritual journey and the starting of another. Time, only, will tell what that jumping off point will be. But what ever it is, I pray that it is planted in firm ground with rich soil.

The first part of today's retreat involved walking the grounds in silent prayer and meditation. At each point of rest, there were passages from the Bible placed there for us to contemplate. For some stops I journaled and for others I merely sat in quiet joy surrounded by cool grass, fresh breezes, the scent of flowers and the lilt of bird song. It is an easy place to touch spirituality- our very own thin place in the heart of San Antonio. At some points you can hear the rushing waters from the spring that forms the headwaters of the San Antonio river. For a girl raised in the deserts of West Texas dancing waters have always held a special fascination and thankfulness. There are many things that came up today which I will probably spend the next few weeks fleshing out and recording for my devoted audience of one (have I mentioned today how much I love you?). But the following passage has, I think, been rolling around in my head for a long time now and I think its time I set it free. To provide a setting, it was the second stop in my spiritual walk: the small chapel of the Center. It, like the house, is decorated in Spanish colonial splendor- white washed walls; dark and rich wood; a classic simplicity of line and space. It was there I knelt at the alter rail and contemplated my life. Here is what appeared in my journal afterwards.


As I knelt before the alter I gave thanks- something I do not do nearly enough. I praised and thanked God for me. I think him for being perfectly imperfect and worthy in my unworthiness. For sometimes, somehow, I think it is our flaws, our weaknesses that make us great. Not even that we overcome our weaknesses to achieve greatness, but that our weaknesses are our greatness, that they define us. Not in a sense of negativity- but in a sense of freedom. My flows are what makes me- anyone can be a good nurse, any one can cook as well as I do, any one can be as good of an artist. But my inability to be straight forward, my constant shifting of all things to an oblique angle- that is what defines my art, my love, my sense of humor. For each great person we admire, we admire them for their flaws. If Julia Child had not been so delightfully and naturally shallow- interested more in the sensuality of the world then the intellectual, would she have been a great chef? If Patton had not been such a rigid bastard, would have then the great general? If I were me without my flaws, would I be me at all? In the end, if I were to remove all my flaws and be only my strengths I would be no one in particular. It is our flaws that define us. It is our weaknesses that make us great.

Psalm 71 16-34

An exercise from In Dialog with Scriptures. As one of the last exercises in EfM we were required to read Psalm 71 in the following manner.
1. Read it out loud as a group
2. Answer: What speaks to me?
3. Read silently on your own
4. Answer: What are the authors tensions or concerns addressed in the Psalm, what are my tensions and concerns addressed by the Psalm.
5. Read aloud
6. Answer: What insights have I gained? What have I learned or relearned about God? About myself? What is the Psalm calling me to do? Can I? Will I?
7. Read aloud entire Psalm as a prayer

I find myself wishing to record the answers because I think that what I scratched up from the depths is something I will need to be able to return to. We all have mental, spiritual and physical places that we must, periodically, return to in the effort to touch base with ourselves. I think that this might be one such spot.

2. I often feel like my life is full of adversity, that I take two steps back for every one step forward, though I know this not to be true because I can see m path behind me when I turn. Perhaps this feeling of working against the grain comes from being risen up, for the act of climbing is more exhausting the that of walking the flat path and your is often obscured by the narrowness of the path and the height of the trees. I may toil, but I do make progress though the price is dear. But always the summit is worth the effort. Perhaps you are the places in the path where my progress is clear, the points in my travel where I can see for miles and know the joy of being surrounded by and one with something so much greater then myself. You are the pauses and the clear view that puts my journey in perspective.

4. The writer is concerned about being forsaken when aged- of not having a purpose of reason. I often fear a meaningless life. I fear a life in which no one can say my being here or my passing affected anyone. Even more then family and love I have and do crave meaning. But more then just having a life where people think well of me- but having a life which people can look back and say because of her a thing was created or discreated. I have always felt a sense of great purpose to my life and fear that it is nothing more then vanity on my part. That this is the course of my life and the extent of my effect upon the world. I fear being useless. I fear impotence. And I fear the vanity that is inherent in that very fear. That my ego will answer the call of the Devil from my greatest strengths, my most sacred compulsions. That I seek my duties not for God nor for my fellow man, but for myself.

6. I have been recalled to the knowledge that Gos is with me, through my hardships and doubts, Gos is with me. He holds me in the palm of his hand and he is the quiet space of my soul that knows the rightness and wrongness of my actions and desires. I have learned that the snake in the grass is myself- my need for greatness and a life less ordinary. I have learned that the arrow that pierces my Achilles heel is also myself- my ego which seeks to glorify God for the sale of myself.
Deeds done well for the wrong reason are still ill deeds, for they bear the fruit of the soil they are planted in. If I am to bear good fruit, then I must tend the soil that nourishes it. My ego is like salt in the soil, withering the fruit- preventing its seeds from sprouting. I am the gardener of my soul and I have been lax. It is time to resume my charge.

Long Time...

Well, its been a long time since I have felt the need to put finger to key, as it were. Life has been going very well of late. I am seeing a wonderful man and am starting to slide into that comfortable rythm of a new relationship. Of course, this is made easier by the fact that he is half way across the world and stationed in Afghanistan. But he will be returning home in a few months.

But I am left to move alone. Thankfully I have completed nursing school, though at times I have doubted myself more then I like to admit. But having him there, even if by over the phone, telling me that I could do that he was proud and believed in me. Well, that was just the push I needed to get through that last semester filled with stress and apathy.

I consider myself very, very fortunate. Not just to have met him, but also because I have so many blessings. Its funny how often we forget just how blessed we are. I have been given so much in this life. But then I forget that, and I start looking with envy at the lives of others. And I am ashamed of myself when I realize it. Ashamed and saddened. So, I have begun to pray about my blessings. Counting them every night- I am well, my family is healthy, my 86 year old grandmother is recovering well from a severe shoulder injury and has even started to drive again, I am in love and I am loved, my dogs are all healthy, I have a home, I have a job, my brother is returning from Afghanistan soon and he and his family are all healthy, my car has yet to break down, my knee is healing well from dislocating it playing tennis, my friend Jenny is getting married to the love of her life and my best friends have just bought a new house.

So many blessings. So many things that are so wonderful. And yet I can become blind to them. We weren't placed on this earth to desire that which we do not or cannot have, but to celebrate the life that we are given. To want and love what we do have.

Perhaps that is the best that we can wish for eachother- to pray that we all want and love what we do have in our lives.

Project Graduation!

Well, it's (semi) official! I just heard from my clinical instructor and I passed my acute care final. I am officially graduating!

I cannot BEGIN to express the relief I am feeling now. I am so very excited. I have been wanting to put off all the things I need to do to graduate as I was actually afraid that I wouldn't make it. Now I can feel free to send out the announcements and to look for a place to live in Abilene.

In a little while all that I need to get done will start crashing down on me- but for now, I am just happy that I can continue on with the rest of my life.