The launching

Outdoor ceremony --

rain or shine

My nephew graduated from university yesterday.

I saw him enter this world as an infant 22 years ago. He was quiet and just kind of listened, taking everything in. His gentle temperament hasn’t changed much since then, and here he is – graduating with honors in physics and honors in math. Yikes.

His mother has marveled that he could get himself up in time for classes; that he took care of his own laundry, that he could prepare his own meals, that he rented an apartment, bought and sold furniture.

This is not unique to my nephew. Hundreds of thousands of students around the globe reach this plateau each year – and use it as a launching pad for discovering life as an adult.

Pipers practice between graduations.

Freshmen are piped in

and graduates are piped out.

What does it mean to be an adult? My nephew will take his thoughtful and considerate attitude, along with his amazingly mathematical way of viewing the world, and weave them into his new friendships and experiences.

Most of the others will also be bringing their skills and attitudes to new situations. I pray for the fit of specific skill sets and unselfish idealism with those who are looking for exactly these approaches.

What helps me pray for everyone embarking on a new career, is from a chapter on “Creation,” where Mary Baker Eddy writes,

“Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts

into their proper channels,

and unfolds these thoughts,

even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose

in order that the purpose may appear.”

(Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures)

Where God ain’t

This came in a recent email. Thought you might enjoy the childlike simplicity.

He was just a little boy,
On a week’s first day.
Wandering home from Bible school,
And dawdling on the way.

He scuffed his shoes into the grass;
He found a caterpillar.
He found a fluffy milkweed pod,
And blew out all the filler.

A bird’s nest in a tree overhead,
Wisely placed so high.
Was just another wonder,
That caught his eager eye.

A neighbor watched his zigzag course,
And hailed him from the lawn;
Asked him where he’d been that day
And what was going on.

“I’ve been to Bible School,”
He said and turned a piece of sod.
And, picking up a wiggly worm,
“I’ve learned a lot about God....”

“Mmm very fine way,” the neighbor said,
“for a boy to spend his time.”
“If you’ll tell me where God is,
I’ll give you a brand new dime.”

Quick as a flash the answer came!
Nor were his accents faint.
“I’ll give you a dollar, Mister,
If you can tell me where God ain’t."

Making the best of things

Johanna's hobby today --

flowers

My neighbor, Johanna, was a little girl in Bavaria when World War II ended. She was the youngest of her siblings, and the only one who didn’t complain when she went with her dad on errands. She simply enjoyed his company.

One day he said, “Let’s go north to visit my mother.” This was up near the Czech border. The few running trains in the aftermath of the war had no schedules. So they caught a train and took it as far as Augsburg. They spent the night in the station lit by a single dangling lightbulb. The few hotels that had not been bombed housed American soldiers.

The next day they caught another train to Bayern. They still had eighteen kilometers to reach his mother's house. A man with a cart pulled by two horses took them half way. They walked the last nine kilometers to learn Johanna’s grandmother had died the week before. It was a sad time.

However, they stayed for a few days with relatives on a farm, who piled them with hams, eggs, and bread to take home with them.

On the crowded return train trip, Johanna's dad gave his seat to an elderly woman who asked them where they would spend the night. He said they would sleep in the station as they had before.

More of Johanna's flowers

The woman said her place had not been bombed; it stood alone amid the rubble; and they could sleep in her apartment if they would give her some food. So Johanna and her dad slept in their own feather beds and left the woman with ham and bread and eggs. Everyone was happy.

Fast forward to Johanna and Kurt, newlyweds and adventurers. They came to America, worked hard, and here raised their family.

What is spiritual value of this story? That all things work together for good, to them that love God.

I don’t know if Johanna believes in God per se. Johanna believes life has been good to her. I know by how she lives her life that she believes in truth and forgiveness and generosity. These things describe my God. It looks to me like she does a good job of loving her neighbor as herself.

Another look at Stonehenge

Mr. Wally Wallington thought and thought about Stonehenge, and figured out how, with the simplest of tools, an ancient people could have easily (well "easily" is a very relative term) set those monoliths in place.

In this video he shows how his theory could be the answer.

"Reason is the most active human faculty."

"We are all capable of more than we do."

Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader

Communicating

Before my grandson could speak "our language," he spoke an amazingly musical baby language, that I wish now I had recorded.

Here's a delightful little girl, communicating earnestly in her own wonderful way. She expects to be taken seriously. She seems puzzled when the adults find her amusing.






Real communication is from the heart, whatever the language. Dogs, cats, birds, horses, whales -- all communicate. The rest of us have a wonderful opportunity to listen as creatures speak with their eyes and their body language.

I believe the Mind of the universe intended us to communicate, that is, listen to one another for the purpose of understanding.

Stress relief

An office worker urgently needed a few days off work, but realized the Boss would never give him time off. So he hung upside-down from the ceiling in his office and made squeaking noises.

His equally over-worked co-worker asked what he was doing.

He explained that he was pretending to be a light bulb, so, that the boss might think he was crazy and give him a few days off.

A few minutes later the boss came into the office and asked, "What in the world are you doing?"

He told him he was a light bulb.

The boss said, "You are clearly stressed out." Go home and recuperate for a couple of days."

The man jumped down and walked out of the office. When his co-worker followed him, the boss asked her, "And where do you think you're going?"

She said, "I'm going home too. I can't work in the dark."

____________________________

There is a deeper peace than pretending to be a light bulb, that transcends pressure. It's found by connecting with the higher Authority -- God, Allah, Goodness, Truth.

Peace is discovering life is not all about us. Life is about serving this greater Authority; peace is finding that unselfishness is natural to us.

Intelligent caring about others yields peace. Then, either circumstances change, or we leave for something more suitable.

Roto-tillers and good gardens

Vast wheat field

Christ Jesus told great parables – metaphors. Many described the Kingdom of Heaven.

One of these stories tells about a farmer planting seeds on different types of soil and the resulting crops – why they did or didn’t grow.

My friend John Imrie has done enough gardening to know that though some soil is bad – hard and un-hospitable, you can use a shovel or a roto-tiller to break up the hardness.

Then you can mix in good soil to amend it, and eventually that soil becomes hospitable for plants.

So our difficult experiences, John noted, can be like the roto-tiller, breaking up the hard places in our hearts. When we add the qualities from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – unconditional love, peace-making, kindness, mercy – we can become the good soil that brings forth abundantly.

John pointed out that just adding the humus and manure on top of hard ground doesn't do it. To transform the soil, to help it become productive, you still have to break up the hard clods and thoroughly mix in the good stuff.

Good black soil and happy spring flowers

If our hearts have grown hard, it’s sometimes a struggle to let the clods of criticism, resentment, or hurt feelings be broken up. Trials and difficulties have a way of encouraging careful self-examination.

When we’re willing to let honest self-examination improve the soil of our attitudes to purity, listening, unselfishness, there’s no limit to the good we can do.

Meeting the challenge of restoration

Nature refreshes my soul.

The 23rd Psalm says as much:

“You make me lie down in lush meadows near quiet pools… You let me catch my breath and then send me in the right direction.”

A heron fishes in a success story

The photo above tells a thousand words of water restored. The heron is finding dinner at the edge of what used to be a dirty barge canal.

Nearly two decades of focused aeration projects along the 16-mile waterway now attract herons, kingfishers, and ducks, as well as pleasure boaters.

People come from miles around to Palos Heights’ Lake Katherine. Recycled from an old gun club situated among rock piles left by the canal builders, Lake Katherine is a tiny jewel. The uninformed would never guess how effectively the waterfalls and lake pump healthy water back into the canal.

A green heron about to stab a tiny fish
in Lake Katherine

It’s an environmental success story that gets little attention.

With planning, care and commitment, slushy lives also can and are being restored to beauty, usefulness, and self-worth.

Patience - embodied

Patience is truly a virtue -- and one we all have.

It grows and blossoms in a love-filled heart.

Here's a great example.

Life - a team sport

Almost-summer is an interesting season.

The heat-absorbing black top warms bare feet as the evening air cools. Boys working together discover how electric circuits can make light bulbs go on and off, and how electricity can make things fly.

Setting up the disk to fly

Boys play baseball on Park District teams. Some get the idea of teamwork, functioning as a team, sooner than others.

Life is kind of a team sport. When the team wins, everyone wins. In our condo association, for example, minor repairs need to happen on the driveway before it can be sealed for the winter. It’ll be more expensive than simply sealing.

But in the long run, a well-maintained driveway will last longer and require less costly maintenance in the future. Because the association has set aside funds for this in the budget, there will be no special assessments. Everyone benefits.

I help my neighbor weed her flowers. Later in the week, she shares with me a delicious dinner she has cooked. Teamwork. Goodness reciprocated.

Supporting your teammates

After the ball game, all the boys on the team help clean up, collecting the bases, gathering paper cups and throwing them in the trash can. Teamwork. Everybody gets to go home sooner.

Life is about helping one another. With appreciation and reciprocating kindness, everyone wins.