Sacred Life Sunday: Leave it lay where Jesus flung it

This morning, I woke up, rolled over and turned the radio on. The first sound I heard was the lovely voice of a 70+ year old woman, a former philosophy professor, talking about how she finds meaning in that decade of her life ~ especially now as a widow living alone.

"Taking out the garbage for a neighbor is more important than writing an article," she said. Of course that was not the sum of her message. The message she was trying to get across is that the little kindnesses matter most.

We all know that. I know we do. It's not like it's an original or profound thought but it's worth hearing every now and then, just to know for certain that it hasn't been forgotten.

When she was done, I came out of the bedroom, went to the coffee pot and came here to the computer. A long running thread on one of my email lists was all about "getting it done", producing, having task lists and then the inevitable praise emails coming through, telling each other how wonderful they are for "doing" so much.

You know, I try to keep in mind that everyone has different priorities - and it's not my job to judge it or make it right or wrong. It's where they are. Who am I to tell them it should be any different? And would it make any difference if I did? As the old saying goes, move on .... leave it lay where Jesus flung it. The universe is providing me with lots of "don't judge" lessons lately.

This is a big one for me. Not judging. As a cultural dissident, I have to judge. As a Buddhist, I can't judge.

So .. I can safely speak to the purely feeling level... the thread depressed me. It made me want to cry. I wanted to go back to bed. Perhaps if I turned the radio on, that lovely woman with the lovely voice would still be talking. She sounded so grounded, so content, so wise. Everyone's WishFor Grandma. She's too young to be my grandma. Even a bit too young to be my mother. But she felt like Grandma. I wanted to rewind time, to have a few more minutes in her world.

But.. the radio show was already over. Time had moved past the moment.

Now I'm getting ready to go out for my morning walk. I'll probably stop by Starbuck's to pick up a green tea/lemonade drink to take with me. Maybe there will be someone there who needs to hear a "good morning". Maybe there will be someone there who looks like he or she could use a cup of coffee and I can buy it. I'll stick ten bucks in my pocket - just in case. Maybe there will be a peaceful sound in the breeze or a stray cat to pet. Maybe....

And it won't be a "task" to be "achieved". It won't be on a "to-do list" and it won't have a price tag on it. It's "being", not "doing" - and it has no assigned value on the Production/Possibility Curve.

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