In Spite of Terrible Decisions
Marveling at the grace that still follows me around
I am taking heart this year from the meme above (which I am 100% sure was meant to be a joke.) Stick with me…
I was going to start this newsletter where my mind is this morning, with a depressing litany of my past mistakes and present flaws and no doubt future catastrophes, but hey! It’s Christmastime! You came here, I assume, to be uplifted and cheered! So here’s an uplifting photo of our Peter when he was Baby Jesus in our church pageant in 2016:
Feeling better? Me too!
But honestly, as we all do our mental end-of-year wrap-ups, I’m guessing most of us take note of (and perhaps even dwell on) where we went wrong. That’s only natural, but I offer you a different way to look at missteps. Because as I hit age 67 next week, recalling all of my terrible decisions (and there may have been a few), I now find myself exactly where I want to be—with people I cherish, doing work I love—blessings I could never have imagined and certainly did not earn. And I can’t help but feel that my whole life has led me to this moment, and that any one different choice might have affected the outcome.
So, let’s keep moving forward, sharing our stories, doing our best, with faith that there is more joy than sorrow in the future.
ESSAY: Brian Doyle is one of my favorite writers. Irish, Catholic, very funny, and able to beautifully excavate the profound from everyday life happenings. This essay is the last he ever had published, and came out two days after his untimely death in May, 2017. In it, Brian talks about the way stories, and storytelling, can save us. I agree (and highly recommend all of Doyle’s writing):
PAY FIERCE ATTENTION TO THE HOLY OF EVERYTHING by Brian Doyle
MUSIC: GLASS DUO
My dear friend Marda introduced me to this incredible music, played by two gifted musicians on…wineglasses! They perform everything from Bach to the blues (you can find a lot of GlassDuo’s videos on YouTube). Here’s one of their loveliest Christmas songs…
TRAVELS WITH STEVE AND ELISE (DO THIS, NOT THAT):
DON’T: Plan every millisecond of your trip. I tend to do this; you know: 8:45 AM breakfast at sidewalk cafe, 9:00 AM museum timed tickets (presumably that cafe breakfast is scarfed down while running madly toward the museum).
DO: Allow some time for adventure and surprise—and, yes, mistakes, which after all make the best stories. Did I ever tell you about trying to find a Gaudi-designed house in Barcelona that was pictured in our guidebook? We must have asked 10 people as we wandered the streets, showing them each the photo, and not a one of them knew. Finally, person #11 helpfully (and in English) pointed out that the guidebook photo was meant to accompany a blurb about AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PLACE. We never did find the Gaudi house, but boy did we get our steps in that day!)
(The real Gaudi house…believe me, the picture we were pointing to looked NOTHING like this)
POEM: “CHRISTMAS SPARROW” by Billy Collins
Billy Collins is another master of taking ordinary things and making magic with them…
The first thing I heard this morning
was a rapid flapping sound, soft, insistent—wings against glass as it turned out
downstairs when I saw the small bird
rioting in the frame of a high window,
trying to hurl itself through
the enigma of glass into the spacious light.Then a noise in the throat of the cat
who was hunkered on the rug
told me how the bird had gotten inside,
carried in the cold night
through the flap of a basement door,
and later released from the soft grip of teeth.On a chair, I trapped its pulsations
in a shirt and got it to the door,
so weightless it seemed
to have vanished into the nest of cloth.But outside, when I uncupped my hands,
it burst into its element,
dipping over the dormant garden
in a spasm of wingbeats
then disappeared over a row of tall hemlocks.
For the rest of the day,
I could feel its wild thrumming
against my palms as I wondered about
the hours it must have spent
pent in the shadows of that room,
hidden in the spiky branches
of our decorated tree, breathing there
among the metallic angels, ceramic apples, stars of yarn,
its eyes open, like mine as I lie in bed tonight
picturing this rare, lucky sparrow
tucked into a holly bush now,
a light snow tumbling through the windless dark.
BLOG PREVIEW: Is there a connection between Taylor Swift and Easter egg hunts? The answer may be “found” tomorrow at Working Title!
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“I make mistakes; I'll be the second to admit it.”
― Jean Kerr
Confession: sometimes I’m the third or even fourth to admit that I make mistakes. But my mantra for Year #68 is recognizing and embracing the mistakes that help shape who I am. Have a great week, friends, and if you goof up, well, you’re growing!!
