The Whole Enchilada

Ever since the king of burgers told us that we could have it our way (OK, maybe even before that!) we've gotten a bit spoiled, don't you think?  It's really hard for us to accept those package deals...we want control over all the details.

"I like the color of THOSE and the style of THESE and the shape of THIS ONE..."

"I like THAT model, THIS year, THAT feature..."

"I'll take that one over there, but with THESE, and not THOSE...."

Options, options, options.  If we can't have it OUR way, well, we'll just head over to the Golden Arches, right?

We run into a bit of a problem, though, when we're dealing with people, don't we?  We may prefer certain features over others, and get a little frustrated (or worse!) when we have to take the package deal.  So I might enjoy my friend's good humor, for example, but when she needs to let off steam because her marriage is in a shambles, I'm no longer entertained.  You might like to be entertained by Uncle Harry's story-telling, but when he has one-too-many at the party (which happens more often than not...) you soon lose patience.  We're good with good listeners, until they want us to listen to them.

Can't we have the parts we like and leave the rest behind?

The answer is "yes....and no."

Yes, we can just enjoy the pieces of others we like and leave the rest behind.  But the consequence, for us and for them, is a fast-food diet of shallow relationships.  If we're willing to go deeper, though, and to accept people completely for who they are, we'll discover a deep, rich, complex blend of flavors and textures that is mutually nourishing and, in the end, far more satisfying....

It's the whole enchilada, which is probably what we've been craving all along--and maybe what we all really need.

"Love one another as I have loved you..."

True Colors

There's a purple church in Hollywood--you may have seen it--just off the 101 at Hollywood Boulevard.

Yes, it's purple.

Now, from what I gather it wasn't always purple.  Something about the sun shining on the tile and the weatherproofing that was used that turned this house of worship a light purple.

It's subtle.  It's also unmistakable.  

The original designers and builders didn't intend for that church to turn purple, you know.  And I can imagine that the congregation of that purple church, at one point, found themselves in a state of dismay over the color change.  But do you know what they've done?

They've embraced it.  Check it out: www.hollywoodsda.org.  Their website pops up in varying shades of purple.  Their online blog is called "The Purple Journal."  

All of which makes me wonder how those of us who call ourselves a "people of faith" deal with change--the unexpected surprises that seem to develop out of nowhere sometimes.  What do we do when life turns us purple?

Do we then turn black with rage?  Green with envy?  Red with shame?  Blue with sadness?

It seems to me that we have a choice.  And how we choose to embrace an ever-changing world reveals what you might just call our "true colors."

Don't put your trust in the things of this world "...where moth and rust destroy" 

(and occasionally things turn purple)

Blooming Dirty Laundry

Not long ago our washing machine started to make a funny noise.

My reaction?

I started shopping for a new washing machine.  I worried about how much it would cost, and how we would get it delivered, and whether it would fit in the same spot, and how the hookup would work, and, and, and....

Yesterday I did the laundry.  I loaded up the machine, added a little bit of environmentally safe detergent (that's a plug!) and went about my business.  After a while I unloaded the clean clothes...and then I remembered.

But did the machine make that noise?  Honestly, I don't know.  I'd forgotten all about it.  And apparently those clean clothes don't really care.

It reminded me of something I've heard more than a time or two--something about borrowing trouble.  So this week I'll try a little harder, and spend my energy on something more productive than worry.

Here's to new beginnings!

"And why do you worry about clothes?  

See how the flowers of the field grow.

What Can You Do?

It's another beautiful day in LA.  But as I step out into that brilliant sunshine, I wonder about the rain...we haven't had any for a while, and it's becoming a problem.

And then I think, "What can I do about it?"  People like me, of a German-Rationalist bent, generally don't put a lot of stock in rain-dancing as an effective tool for bringing about needed precipitation.  So what can I do?

Have you ever noticed that it's the things over which you have no direct control that you get the most anxious?

Is there a link between your anxiety and your lack of control?

So, what can you do?

These days I'm doing what I can to live joyfully within my limitations.  I'm doing what I can, and working to let go of the rest.

What that means is that I'm asking lots of questions.  What that means is that I'm living with less so that others can have more.  What that means is that I'm picking up trash and doing the dishes and tending to the garden and sharing my thoughts and trying not to get really angry when strangers take oranges off of our tree because they are hungry...because those are things that I CAN do...and in some small way it all makes a difference.  And a lot of "small differences" add up to big change.

And because TOGETHER there is a LOT that we can do.

Think it.  Say it.  Do it.

All the best,
Steve

"...all things are possible."

Inside Outside

The other day I stopped to think.

"There really are two realities."

Inside there's lightning, synapses firing, a conscious me only aware because I read about it somewhere.  Of what I am aware, well, most of that is a guess--those brain cells making some kind of sense--linking arms in some crazy evolutionary chain that keeps a me I hardly even know going.

Outside there's lightning too, a complex world of which I'm only partly aware, some arms linked and some aimed and here I am, this tiny sliver of consciousness plunked down right in the middle of two vast landscapes.  Inside and out.

The other day I stopped to wonder.

"What is real?"

Great Faith!

I know that in the grand scheme of things it's not a very long time.  But fifty years, for me, is practically a lifetime.  

Fifty years ago I was barely two.  My parents had a mortgage payment of $116 and talked on a party line.  Fifty years ago no one saw Dallas coming and 9-1-1 wasn't even a distress call yet, let alone a date gone down in infamy.  Fifty years ago the Beatles were just warming up and there were, as yet, no footprints on the moon.

Not long ago, as we waited on line for our marriage license, my partner and I met a couple.  They'd been together for fifty years.  In that fifty years they'd shared a life together.  They'd seen it all, lived it all, celebrated it all.  They could finish each others' sentences like any couple together for so long.  But unlike many other couples, this was the first time George and Manny had the opportunity to "make it legal."

You know, I've met a lot of couples in my time.  But meeting George and Manny, I really had to stop and think about faithfulness.  From where does that kind of enduring love come?  From where does the faith to stick with someone through thick and thin--in sickness and in health--come?  

A lot has changed in fifty years, that's for sure!  But one thing stays the same.  The Spirit of faithfulness continues to draw people together in the bonds of love.

That's for sure too.

Round and Round

Copernicus posited.  Many refuted.  Galileo saw.  We finally understood.

Have you ever wondered why you're here?  Have you ever wondered what, on earth, you were supposed to think--to believe--todo?  Have you ever longed-for, even hoped, that one day you would be vindicated?  That your life would make sense?  

Have you ever had an idea?

Have you ever expressed an opinion?

Have you ever discovered that you were wrong...or maybe even right?

One day, someone will.  Will it be you?

Burnt Offerings

It was classic 1970's horror...kind of schlocky--and scary as heck!

First, the palatial but dilapidated old mansion won them over with its charms...then it (literally!) sucked the life out of its caretaker family.  In the end, the house got a complete makeover (new roof, paint, even flowers blooming in the garden!). The unwitting summer vacationers, who sacrificed their lives in the process, were added to the photo gallery that had seemed so curious to them upon their arrival.  Only mom (played by the late Karen Black) survived...transformed into the attic-dwelling old matron of the estate.

Think Psycho meets Flip that House with a little Poltergeist thrown in.

Thing is, it's not really that much of a stretch.  If you think about it, it's actually a metaphor for what happens to many, when we allow our possessions to possess us.  We break our backs and our bank accounts, pouring our hearts and souls into things that don't last.  In the end we wind up in the photo gallery...and our possessions wind up outliving us.  Isn't there something wrong with that picture?

Maybe 2014 will provide us with an opportunity to do what Timeless Wisdom has suggested all along, and we'll store up treasure in places of eternal meaning instead of chasing after material perfection--a fiction we can all live without.

Try something new in 2014!

"...where moth and rust do not destroy."