Order

I have a belief; there is order to life. Events and circumstances are an integral part of a pattern to which we are too close to discern. In Portugal, I stood before a ten-foot wall. I saw the hand-wrought details on each of the six-inch square tiles as individual pieces of art. It was not until I stepped back about eight feet that I realized that the tiles comprised a vast and beautiful rendering of a Calais lily.
So it is with life. When life delivers a blow that seems too hard to bear, one asks, “Why?” When we stand too close to the mosaic of our lives, we are limited to a myopic view defined by the immediacy of our suffering. If I stand too close to tragedy, I see chaos. I see an unjust universe, a careless god. I must force myself to step back and see these events as part of a picture that includes the abundant magnificence of nature, the rich warmth of loving friends and family, and all the other sweet pleasures of life.

Dawnings August, 1989
Memorial Service January, 2010