It was a picture of my new grandson smiling, sitting in a hotel room on his first vacation. He is six months old. Without much thought,I said that he doesn’t know he’s in a quaint coastal city or that he’s even on vacation, a meaningless idea at his age. He doesn’t even know what the next minute or the next hour holds. He doesn’t think about enjoying himself because the trip will be over in just a few days. He does know that he is with his parents and being taken care of right now.
After a few minutes of looking at that sweet face, I did think out loud, “We should be more like this little one.” I guess Jesus said that already. However, I never have been exactly clear about what that means for my life. Maybe the reason is that I want too much control or I don’t have that kind of courage.
Reading Embers, a book of meditations, I wondered if what Richard Wagamese says he has observed is related to that child-likeness.
It has been proven in my life that when your prayers are about gratitude for what is already here, creator and the universe ALWAYS send more. When you pray for what you WANT, creator and the universe only hear the wanting, and that’s what you create—more wanting.
Sounds so straightforward, right? Yet, even when I try to disguise my desires, longing and belonging are mostly wrapped up in some form of material packaging.
Right now, I am not on vacation. In this past week, right where I live, on clear days (all but one or two this week) I’ve gazed regularly at snow-capped mountains in the distance. I’ve seen and touched the massive sinewy trunks of ancient Douglas firs that tower toward the sky. I’ve marveled at the gnarled red and green trunks of Arbutus trees and witnessed close up the wonder of the monkey-puzzle tree’s branches, so shapely and painful to touch. I’ve encountered more kinds of flowers and colors of green than one can imagine—stark black lilies and variegated begonias. I’ve viewed the ocean from craggy rocks and from sandy shores and traveled the harbour channel past yachts, rowers’ shells, mammoth barges, and abandoned sailboats currently occupied by shelter seekers.
And yet, in the Sunday newspaper’s Homes section, I thought about how I would like to live in a “house with a view” that I noticed in the seductive image that filled one page.
Wagamese goes on to advise,
Deciding is not doing and wanting is not choosing…move in the direction that brings you closer to creator in all things.
“Know what is in front of your face,” Jesus said in The Book of Thomas.
It is early morning, and I have this day before me. Instead of wanting, how might I live in gratitude for what is in front of my face?
Like my grandson, be in the vacation without even knowing you are there…
Attentive to Joy 