The only miracle there is

For Lyn


  So very often we attempt to reduce life. Today is the longest day of the year and I hope you have enjoyed every minute of it.  I heard Davis explaining to a friend today what summer solstice exactly was.  He said ESPN was celebrating it today.  He gets most of his news from SportsCenter.  He said to his friend, "It has something to with gods because Percy Jackson talked about it."  He told me, "This day has felt kind of long.  Mom, I am really serious.  I was sitting eating lunch today and I had sat down for what seemed like 45 minutes but I looked at the clock and it had been only like 15."   Frederick Buechner (and if you have never read him...DO), said, when asked to define life:

The temptation is to always reduce it to a size.  A bowl of cherries.  A rat race. Amino acids. Even to call it a mystery smacks of reductionism.  It is THE MYSTERY.  As far as anyone seems to know, the vast majority of things do not have in them whatever life is.  Sticks, stones, star, space-they just are.  A few things are and and are somehow aware of it.  They have broken into Something or Something has broken into them.  Even a jellyfish.  Even a butternut squash.  They are in it with us.  We are all in it together, or it is in us.  Life is it.  Life is with.  After lecturing learnedly on miracles, a great theologian was asked to give a specific of one.  "There simply is only one miracle," he answered.  "It is life."

I realized again today, and yesterday and the day before that most of the time I am not giving myself time to savor life.  It is not that I need to simplify.  Actually I need to engage more and more deeply. Like Davis.  So enjoy my lunch that only 15 minutes have gone by when it feels like 45.   I had lunch today with a dear, dear friend.  I guess some would say we gossiped the whole time.  But, I think not.  We encouraged one another, pointed out to each other our "inner" voices were very, very accurate, ate pizza, laughed and generally shared each other's "pointless" drama.  But I think it not pointless at all.  That is our LIFE.  I found myself fully doing "lunch."  I was "fully" enjoying her company, laughing, listening (I hope well), and we both lamented we should do this more often and why don't we.  The same reasons.  We are busy moms, employees, wives, friends, daughters, etc.  But in the taking time to enjoy a long lunch, I found my Self doing it.  Take time this summer to be with the larger whole...the blades of grass, the lightening bugs, the butternut squash, the watermelon, the homemade ice cream, spending time with friends you don't see often enough, BECAUSE LIFE is really the only miracle there is...the whole of it.