Monday, February 15, 2016

The Need to Know

I am beginning to think that it is not an attachment to
"being right"
that I am giving up for Lent. 

Age, experience, loss and reality have taught me
oh so well
how rarely if ever I am really "right",
whatever "right" is.
In fact, it is becoming more of a relief to be reminded of that.

No, my attachment
(could that be "sin" as Fr. Rohr suggests?)
is more related to having knowledge than necessarily being right.

It is an attachment to 
"knowing"

(i.e. figuring out, understanding, answering why, making sense
...all of which somehow seems to make me feel
more secure and in control--
Knowledge Is Power, "they" say)

that I allow to get between me and
LIFE
just as it is
(i.e. contentment/MYSTERY).

Hmmm...I'm going to let that thought just float on out there...
no need to know for sure.

Stay tuned.
Well, that didn't take long!!
Look what appeared when I started reading Jim Powell's book,
THE CORNER ROOM:
"Regardless of how long I live, I will only have limited understanding of many of my experiences.  The children at the hospital are validations that understanding life is not always possible. They modeled the importance of living through challenging events with integrity--living fully in the present and focusing on relationships. If any understanding is possible, it may come through the hard efforts of reflection.  Otherwise, I learn to live with partial knowledge and ambiguity."

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