I am again quite reminded that we can't do this life journey alone. Actually we can do it alone but what an absolute waste of the magnificent creature that God has placed on the planet. I takes a lot of work to try to do it alone. Sometimes in the midst of a particularly difficult challenge our responses make it appear as if we were isolating. I find some of the time this is a result of being absolutely overwhelmed by the specifics of the challenge. We don't always see it because we are in the midst of the forest and all we can see are the trees. We can't get in touch with our Buddhist observer because we are just trying to survive. It is at this point that we sometimes need to do something that makes no sense.
I have a dear friend in that place. I know he was so involved with his challenges he could not find any way to return my phone calls. So I put together a no sense program. I started sending him cards by 'snail mail' on a daily basis. The first card notified him that he had been enrolled in the "annoying friend club" and I had been chosen as his annoying friend. It was my job each day to send him a card. In addition each card envelope was adorned with hearts of different colors along with a theme word. The word I started with was 'grace'. I numbered each card and send one each day. Tomorrow I will send card number eight.
It took him only a few days to realize there was no place to hide. He called me and in the end we set up a time to go to his house to play music. When we got there he had taken the cards and placed them on display on the coffee table along with the envelopes. He now looks forward to each day's mail because after all he is in the "annoying friend club."
Again we don't need to do this alone. We should be able to look around and be filled with gratitude for the support systems around us. It is there even if we haven't noticed it before. God has given us such a team. It really is as if there came a time in the 'big room' up in heaven when it came time to send Dave Lyman down to the planet. But in the end it wasn't just Dave who went down. It was his entire support team. It was his fraternity brothers; it was his work mates; it was his doubles partner in tennis; it was his first two wives who only had a limited exposure to send him to enlightenment; it was his mentor and partner in the construction company; it was his friends who support him. I look around and realize what a goofball idea it was to think I was in charge of the whole thing on my own. Rev. Michael Moran used to say with his partner Rev. Faith Moran that they made one good minister. I'm the same way with Rachel, my beloved. Without her yang to my yin, we would be out of control.
She tells the story of going on a church outing to a nearby lake where the crew sculls operated. She had never done anything like that so she sat on the ground in her rubber boat with oars. When she got into the water she got one oar going really good. But one oar only meant she was going around in an endless circle. It is the smae in my life. I need her balance to keep me on course and filled with purpose. Today I don't remember my life 'BR.' That stands for 'before Rachel' when it was a hazy time. I know I had accomplished much and I was shining my light. But then Rachel arrived and everything was differen t. It was as if Rachel was my microphone to give me full voice and I was her microphone to give her full voice. Now realize she was going to shine anyway but I have been honored to hold sacred space and watch as she takes it to the next level.
I've often said that Rachel is a pioneer woman. While I go into town for supplies she negotiates a peace treaty with the neighboring Native American tribes; she butchers a cow and puts the meat into the cold room; she adds a second story to our house; she has a baby that she delivers; and she cans an entire crop of produce from the one acre garden next to the house. Meanwhile I'm picking up supplies. WOW!
So take a moment this Memorial Day weekend and thank our veterans but make it more. Stop for a moment and give thanks for your support team, here to help you along whether you know it or not. This is not a group of people who brag about what they are doing. they are just there and they have your back. They are your wingmen and wingwomen. We watched a show about The Blue Angels. Their diamond formation is four planes approximately twelve inches apart. Each member of the formation is critical and vital. So it is with your support team.
Sit back and recognize them and this coming thank them...........
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