Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: March 4, 2006
Good Sabbath
March 4, 2006
Wow! March already; how can that be? 2006! How can that be? Are there really 365 days in a year? How can they fly by so quickly? Do we waste any of it, most of it, all of it? Do we recognize the fragility of time, how precious it is to use well, how time cannot be recycled, re-spent, lived again?
Time is like a virginal forest, filled with trees to nest birds and animals, land to love, nature to nurture. It, like time, is filled with possibilities with which humans and human kind can create dreams, or leave in a natural state, or lament when squandered through neglect or stupidity.
When you were growing up, did you ever build a tree house? I did. It gave me a perspective to look down and see things that eye level could not; my friends and I loved it so until a neighbor made us take it down. I can't remember why except the loss of it. When we are young we are allowed to be immature, adolescent, and waste time. We are allowed to experiment with life and hopefully learn from those experiences. Somewhere in those early years we can be imbued with manners and sensitivity to others' needs and deprivation. We can learn how to care for each other, whether stranger or friend. The Golden Rule is learned as something passed from God directly to each of us, to treat all others as we wish to be treated. It becomes the foundation for our lives, forever.
That is what is possible if we but have one teacher, a role model.
"Fear not; the miles to heaven are but few and short." (Rutherford)
"Emulation admires and desires to imitate great actions; envy is moved only to malice."
(Balzac)
Our lives go on after tree house, our senses seek other pleasures to see, to hear, to touch, but most of all, to appreciate. Being aware is the first step. When a child holds up a flower and learns that blowing on it will send its seeds into flight so that they can find land to embrace and invest in the coming Spring. As I've begun to take shorter walks, but at least, walking again, thank God for each tree that has shed its leaves, the vines in hibernation preparing for Spring ,when the world comes alive, again, no matter the foolishness of humankind that seeks others' blood to nourish their love of some god or tyrant.
The movies try to humanize them, to give reasons for hate and slaughter. I always imagined Larry King interviewing God and the Devil, giving them equal time and equal credibility, for balance is the new "ethic"—the blood that will flow out of their foolish equilibrium.
"Man never fastened one end of a chain around the neck of a brother that God did not fasten the other end round the neck of the oppressor."
(Lamartine)
It is up to each of us, as we mature, to sow the seeds of tomorrow's forest, for tomorrow is the creation of humankind-not fate. We are fate living and acting within the values we have learned thus far in life. We must grow to value others, the environment, creativity, sensitivity, and kindness, for these are the tools with which we can construct all tomorrows, waiting for our attentions and awareness.
Teach the young as you grow your own sensitivity and senses.
sandy
