Washing Windows

The real problem of the Christian life comes where people usually do no look for it.  It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.

All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.

And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view…

Letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

And so on, all day.
Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings

Coming in out of the wind. "  C.S. Lewis

I have a file that I keep on profound things that I have read.  I also collect great lines from movies.  I added a few  yesterday from the Avengers.  One of my most favorite was when Coulson is dying and talking to Loci:

Agent Phil Coulson: You're gonna lose.
Loki: Am I?
Agent Phil Coulson: It's in your nature.
Loki: Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky... where is my disadvantage?
Agent Phil Coulson: You lack conviction.

 I have yet figured out what to do with it or how to use or even why do I keep it, but occasionally, like this morning, I stumble across one of those passages and it gives me pause.  To be perfectly honest, I have no idea if C.S. Lewis really wrote that, I did not research the quote.  And it really does not sound like C.S. Lewis, but I had to give credit to someone.  And it is a real problem.  Letting the quieter, stronger life come in.  Not only for Christians but for anyone who is on an honest spiritual journey.  And not having conviction.  That is a real problem too for most.

I hate to wash windows and clearly if you could have seen my old windows, you would have agreed.  We had new windows put in our house last week.  The originals had never been replaced since 1935.  They were pretty dirty.  Okay, that is an understatement.  And I never knew till this morning, how bright the sun was or how green the trees look from inside my house.  I think we all need to clean our soul windows from time to time and sometimes we just need to replace them altogether.  

And we resist doing that.  I don't know why.  Replacing windows.  I suspect because it is a very costly endeavor and if you are like me, I was very attached to my double hung 77 yr old windows.  I was so attached, I saved 6 of them.  They were the only 6 without cracks. 

And real life, the only one that counts is there when we push back from all our natural noisy minds.  If you are like me, your mind is pretty cluttered.  Our minds race rather we want to admit or not, particularly in this electronically connected society.  We take in so many pieces of information that we rarely have time to pause and think about...

how good it feels to hug our children

how warm the sun feels

how blue the sky really is

how sweet the watermelon really tastes

how very, very much despite our frailties and asynchronous personalities,  our families really do love us, not necessarily how we want but they love us none the less

how very, very brief life is and it is meant to be enjoyed and savored

how good mulch smells

how red geraniums really are

how good God is still

how the breeze sounds

how just sitting still really does refresh us

how much I like lime, coconut Rum and ginger ale and why don't I drink that everyday?

how much I really like summer sausage and how easy it is to grill and I love grilled sweet Georgia onions, even if they were grown in Widner, GA.
and I don't know why but popcorn really is better at the movies especially with butter

how good Gain detergent smells and I am so glad it comes in dish detergent and general all purpose cleaner

how good a clean, warm towel feels from the dryer
how cold milk is
how good a glass of iced water tastes
how good a warm shower feels

Life really is in the mundane, everyday stuff that we fail to see through our dirty soul windows. And by in large what we fret, fuss and worry about almost never comes to pass.  We waste so much energy on future things that never will be.  We become so used to  looking through the grime that we miss the real and before we know it, 17 years have passed by and we have not seen sunlight...

And today as I read a blog about a little girl who did not get to see through 7 years of dirty windows much less 17, I was reminded of how very, very important it is to take the time every morning and push back the noise and let the larger, quieter life come through...

Remembering Lily...

all is grace and continuing to number the ways how even when it does not make sense to do so,

kathleen