Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: January 22, 2005
Good Sabbath
January 22, 2005
The fog left my morning walk damp and slick. Because of bad knees and matching back, I gave up jogging years ago, but a strong walk feels good. Now I have gone up to 175 run-steps at the beginning of each uphill walk and feel even better. To Southern Californians, Winter is a channel on TV where we sit and watch what the Midwest or northeast are going through, with movie-like sleet, snow, rain and bitter cold, but it's still either a childhood memory when we lived in the east, or a made-for-TV, digitally inspired fiction.
Last night, Fran and I attended the President's Dinner, at the University of San Diego. The last two presidents have been women of great skill and charm. Mary Lyons is the relatively new President who personally walked to each table and welcomed each of us. She is an educator, also a former Navy Captain and a very specially endowed person. USD was founded as a Catholic university which has become more a catholic--all inclusive place of higher education. The Student Body President, Erica Lovano, gave the invocation, welcoming speech, filled with beauty, sincerity, a passion for the university and people; she was exceptional. President Mary Lyons explained the meaning of humans' dreams, which were then offered in appropriate song by four-most excellent singers, culminating with "Climb Every Mountain"."Dream has several meanings going from fantasy when sleeping, to reverie and hope. We do not know if animals have dreams, but all of us do. I cannot remember my dreams after they're over--sometimes they stay with me, but that is rare.
A new definition would be what your fondest hopes are, your aspirations which would bring you fulfillment--total accomplishment and happiness. So, most present-day dreams are done when awake. Neither darkness nor sleep are the necessary environment for dreams. They become the hoped for reality so that they do not remain fantasy or impractical hope-bathed in sleep.
It became a special evening with a group of charitable and loving people, not burdened by politics. Conversation is often especially interesting when hardly known people approach Fran and me and share thoughts that they usually (they tell me) keep secret. Most are done because of the politics of San Diego, muy conservative. The sensational climate brings out a laid-back physical/mental state which postpones serious thought about solutions. This always results in a divisiveness where even charitable people look to escape the plight of others. This is not conducive to solutions.
Hello, dear God
I think You were there last night
Delighted by no tower of Babel vices
But rather neighbors sharing ideas, thoughts and yes, solutions
As all worried about Iraq
And what will the next four-years bring?
You had to be there, dear God
For the music stirred mortal souls
And the love of place and face were manifest
And no matter which religion,
All of Your creations were welcome.
Thank You.
This week's trip to LA was much better, as the skies had dried and the sun had shown-off, and the train was almost on-time; I met with old friends, like Harlan, who was off to scale another mountain, with age no barrier. His love of life was no TV fantasy, but living each day, exploring new places, physically testing himself, and becoming a creative giant as a homebuilder, with his angelic son, Jeff, running the show. Jeff is legally blind which just makes his insight sharper, no handicap, but just a background for special blessings as he tries to solve the need for housing less-than-rich humans. He is one of my favorite people-always!
A new week races towards the end of the new month of a new year. Time is not a handicap when one learns to utilize each waking moment, not as a workaholic, but as an effective instrument of a kind God of us all.
Embrace your love on this Sabbath, for sharing is the ultimate gift we can bring to our friends and loved ones.
sandy
