On my walk at White Rock Lake this morning, I was enjoying the peaceful serenity, feeling all lovey-dovey, soft and spiritual and began to approach a small construction site. It was loud and dirty and disruptive to my peaceful landscape. I thought “stupid construction site!” to myself, walking toward the abrasive, annoying obtrusion.I thought about turning around so that I wouldn’t have to pass it. I tried to look the other way and find something ‘better’ to fix my eyes on. I scoffed at it.
Then I plum had me a God-Moment: I responded to my resistance by thinking “Even this is God.” “Even this?” I answered. “Even this.”
As I opened my mind a little, and observed the construction site more closely, I could see past the dirt and the noise at the group of men that were busily constructing a lovely walking bridge. For me.
And, as everything is a metaphor to me (I call myself a meta-whore.) It made me think of my life, and how I approach my own inner construction sites. How quick I am to judge them as inconvenient, messy, unwelcome. Yet each construction project has a purpose, and eventually, I get something beautiful out of it: a bridge to the next step. Healing. Beauty. Growth.
I invite you this week to look at the inconveniences and annoyances life puts on your path in a broader perspective: “Even this is God.”
Whether it’s a construction project of the heart that you’ve bravely taken on, a remodeling of the soul you’re pushing through, or a totally radical life makeover that showed up uninvited, whatever you’re facing and perhaps considering messy, annoying or inconvenient is, in fact, a construction project. And from that project comes something beautiful for your soul’s development, with patience and openness, something miraculous is built - a bridge.
(c)2008 Lisa Olson
"There is only one journey. Going inside yourself." Rainer Maria Rilke
Upcoming Sacred in the City events:
Sacred Start "Walking Prayer" Gatherings: 9-10am, Sun., 9/28, Mon., 9/29, Behind the Bath House, White Rock Lake, Dallas. More Info.
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2 comments:
Know what I hate about construction sites? the noise. Know waht I hate about change? All the noise in my head...all those internal voices clammering for attention. 'You need to do THIS! You need to do THAT. If you don't do THIS you'll DIEEEEEE!" Like swimming through sharks. Which one of those voices is God? I know God's in there somewhere. ....Or, maybe he's busy constructing and my job is to ocver my ears......
Your metaphor of the internal construction projects and your Rilke quote reminded me of this poem.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-juan-at-the-winter-solstice/
To Juan at the Winter Solstice
by Robert Graves.
Even good poetry struggles to express the mystery. Graves' poem comes close because of what it does not say. It lists many images, but does not say what is the "one story" in so many words.
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