Trees

 There is a non-profit in San Francisco, “Friends of the urban Forest.”  They plant trees in neighborhoods in tandem with City and neighborhood approval.  One objection to having a tree planted in front of one’s home or business is that they will never live to see the tree grow to full bloom.   But that is not the point.  We don’t plant slow growing trees for ourselves alone.  We plant them for those who will follow us.  Recovery people and people in religious building refurbishing and expansion don’t so much think everything they do is for the present.  Recovery meetings are kept going, functioning, not just for the present membership but for those who have not yet entered the door.  The same with places of worship, and monuments.  

The Whisper

 Grace, that spiritual Power, energy, gift to the heart, does not shout out for our attention.  Grace respects our will to accept or reject.  So grace comes as a whisper.  This is why we need to have meditation in our life.  It is a prayer of quiet, so that we can be open to that whisper who will energize us in a direction for our good and those around us.  Grace gets us out of ourself by getting into ourself first.  

Urgent

 We can get so busy that sometimes important things don’t get done.  The important things too often get buried in the “urgent.”  Ego, fear based life, the self-important focus make some things urgent, that in fact are just getting in the way of the important.  Important things don’t always appeal to our self-interest, or quiet our fears.  People in recovery skip meetings because of a sense of urgency.  Then they drink and so it goes.  People skip worship services, prayer, spiritual practices because they don’t seem to wear the “important” label.  They become optional, or “later,” which rarely comes.  Doesn’t God know how busy I am?

Control

Why worry about things over which you have no control?  You worry about tomorrow?  We don’t even know if we will be alive tomorrow, much less control it.  What if San Francisco has its inevitable earthquake before that?  Or your neighborhood gets washed out by a flood?  Death?  Not tomorrow!  I got plans.  Silly.  Just work on today and check in with some spiritual power to keep you out of your own way.  Surrender will not happen as long as delusion rules.   

The Outsider

 What is self-will run riot?  How do you know when it is active?  Well, one way to know it is running your life is when you treat God as an intruder, an outsider.  You are at best inviting God into your plans, such as to help you get what you want, deserve.  I try to counter this by praying to God to show me a will that might not be mine, but is best for me.  I have preferences rather than musts.  It keeps my resentment list short.  

Happy People

 One of the things that attracts me to some work or effort is happy people doing it.  I might have become a plumber if I actually saw someone happy when they were plumbing.  There might be happy people who are plumbers, but just not when they were plumbing.  But my narrow experience of plumbers does make me look at what I do.  I am a priest.  Am I a happy priest?  That is, am I happy being a priest that people can see.  Or do they see whining, resentment, anger and self-pity?  No one will want to become a priest if that is what they see.  One of the best ways to evangelize is to show that you are happy with what you believe and practice.  This goes for people in Recovery too.  It is attraction not advertising that catches people.  My god-father was a priest.  He was happy.  Fr. Bernard Corrigan was a key to who I am today.  

Violin

 Watch someone just learning to play the violin.  Then watch someone who is a master of it.  The newbie is struggling mightily and you can see it and feel for the person.  The master seems not to struggle at all.  The difference is practice.  Both persons want to be violinists.  The desire is there but the practice time is vastly different.  So why should it not be so with a spiritual path.  We get attracted to a path because we see an adept at practice.  No one is attracted to someone painfully struggling.  But prayer life takes practice if we want our lives to seem “effortless.”  The effort will always be there but it will eventually flow and attract others.  No one is attracted to a Recovery Program if everyone in the room acts insanely.  They might have all been insane at one time, but Practice of a spiritual way made a difference.