Sabbath Messages | Sabbath Message: April 24, 2004
Good Sabbath
April 24 , 2004"But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Visited the wine country and said "hello" to forested mountains, clear lakes of Calastoga, proud mountains sharing millions of years of "being there". It was the all too rare a trip that combined business and extreme pleasure. I visited yesterdays that taught lessons for today; the future is in the core of trees--the rings of history--giving evidence of climate, catastrophe, fires and wonder. We tasted wine at Lillie Langtry's vineyards, where the famed Victorian actress had lived and loved. We ate in a tiny Chinese restaurant, in Hidden Valley, as good as any famous kitchen, where humor, neighbors, and strangers came together to share their opinions and observations. It seemed the best of Northern California, New England and the Midwest where trees spend their Springs, mixing their palettes in anticipation of colorful Autumn.
Thank Thee, O Lord
For wildflowers
Golden carpets of poppies, blue lupine, Douglas iris
(and of course, adventurous lilies)
All crafted by Thee
Awaiting our notice
in between political and moral wars.
What a waste
for as we search for miracles,
If we fail to bed to sniff the joyous blossoms
Then we ignore the miracles
of the everyday!
Just being with my beloved brother, Lewis, amplified my pleasure, for we see each other so seldom. Those I've loved--except for Frances--I see so seldom and memory is no togetherness.
Another place of fame and beauty is Malibu, where actors form colonies as they wait for the next fire, but just being there makes the wait tolerable. I joined my fellow board-members in meetings at Pepperdine University which had been moved from their historic urban campus, to a magnificent Malibu environment. The students and faculty could now look down at the Pacific, sit in sun and mist, and grow into their fate. One wonderful man-made garden and sculpture was dedicated to those lost in 9-11, so reality, fantasy, and Mother Nature partnered to allow poets inspiration and youngsters goal-tending.
This and the University of San Diego are two wonderful campuses which allow appreciation for knowledge and nature to form the infrastructure of soul. I told a friend that if I had gone to school in Malibu, I would have sought this memorial-place and written non-stop poetry and psalm, for we must thank God or we overlook all miracles.
This is the time of discouragement as we watch reported bad news and coffins to occupy our TV screens. How can there be hope in tomorrow if we are preoccupied with all that is bad in human and mother nature. Do we look forward to the next earthquake because experts are always predicting that "some day" the big one will crash us into the Pacific? Is the future God's search for a modern Noah or Jonah or Job? Fear is a strident conqueror of our minds if we allow it. But fear has no nobility, no future, and seldom predicts tomorrow.
One of my favorite quotations is "to remain a recipient--and be grateful. Grateful for being allowed to listen, to observe, to understand." (Dag Hammarskjold)
"But wisdom, where shall it be found?" In our ears if we will listen; in our nostrils if we will sniff the blossoms; in our fingertips if we but reach for it; in our minds if we search for truth and clarity. Then, indeed, we will have found the most precious jewel of all, wisdom.
Then we wended our way through terrific traffic as Murray drove me to my car. And conversation and sharing of who we were and are, our adventures in business , life and philanthropy and I knew I had more fodder for my legacy, for to assist the mentoring of community leaders and the investment in deprived communities made my soul soar. When my soul takes wing, I gain perspective; I can see perpetual Spring through clouds and misfortune; I can ignore the news and gain a sense of history, through which I may learn analysis and gain orientation to tomorrow.
I think of Bob, still loving his departed Carole, and Tim uninhibited and unfearing about cancer; and Tom fighting the good battle against another invasion of big "C"; and Aunt Rose, ever pretty, always in pain,The heroic are their own legacy for politics has no place in a mortality; you live, you love, you learn, you gain wisdom and perspective.
Thank You, O Lord
For the friends and the lessons
and the beauty
and the eyes to see it, and senses to feel, touch and hear it all.
ThankYou for the bounty of everyday miracles, O Lord.
Thank You.
Amen
And on the 7th Day, there was time for rest and love and noticing the goodness that we can share with our Maker. Please share it with those whom you love.
sandy
