Inspirations and Illuminations

I'm sure the title will be misleading, but everything else I tried just served to take away the power of that one word.  This is not a discussion of the Jim Henson film starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, and I apologize if that is disappointing to you.  As it evolves, though, there may be some parallels. This morning, my family and I walked the labyrinth at Glendale United Methodist Church, here in Nashville.  It's a cold and gray morning, pretty typical of Tennessee in early April, so we weren't able to really savor the experience as I'd have liked, but for a first very short labyrinth walk, a surprising number of thoughts came into my head.   To back up a little, I first learned of labyrinth as a spiritual discipline in a Spiritual Formation class I took last spring.  As the only 50-something in a class full of late teens and early 20-somethings, I had gotten used to the reactions of my classmates to things they'd never heard of.  Most of the class enthus

I heard this Lana Del Rey song this morning for the first time, and it hit me right between the eyes.  It's such a beautiful metaphor for what I am going through right now, and I've been haunted by the song's message for several hours now, particularly the first verse, which immediately caught my attention. "Do you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard? Mosaic ceilings, painted tiles on the wall I can't help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul Handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls" That is precisely how I feel about myself most of the time:  nothing much to look at on the outside, but possessing an inner beauty that is just dying to be seen.  A diamond in the rough, but the rough is so hard to break away so I can let that beauty see the light of day.   To use yet another metaphor, I think a lot of us have developed something of a callus around that inner part of ourselves.  The friction of careless words spoken to us by other

This morning, my work monitor started acting up.  Suddenly, the screen went dark and I got an error message having to do with the resolution, which I had not changed.  This happened twice, so I called tech support, and a guy came over and looked at it.  Of course, while he was in the office, the problem fixed itself, so it's kinda like taking the car in for a knock, and the knock doesn't happen while it's in the shop.   While I was waiting to have it looked at, I had to figure out what I could work on that didn't require my monitor.  For the record, there were two free computers in my outer office, as well as my laptop, so it wasn't like I would completely run out of things to do.  But I had planned to get certain things done first, and had to adjust the sequence of things in order to stay at my own desk. Thankfully, it was only out for about ten minutes, and I was able to resume what I'd intended to do, but in the interim, I was able to clear a pile from my des

 I was listening to Cathy Heller's Don't Keep Your Day Job  podcast, as I do all day, almost every day, at work.  In June of 2020, she had Jason Mraz on the show, talking about his career and offering words of wisdom in the midst of the beginning of the COVID pandemic.  Something he said triggered a thought:  the fact that so many people are dissatisfied with the way things are right now is proof that there is hope.  Stay with me for a minute.  Dissatisfaction is an indication of hope, hope that things can actually get better.  If we have no hope, we may be disillusioned or resigned, but if we're dissatisfied, we know that improvement is a possibility.   If we find ourselves dissatisfied with a purchase, we ask to talk to a customer service representative, in the hope that they will make it right.  The fact that we don't just throw away the item and buy it elsewhere or do without means we have hope that there is a solution.  If we're dissatisfied in a relationship,

I never know where inspiration will come from.  I love watching things like The Waltons  or Little Women  or anything with Anne Shirley (the Anne of Green Gables film series; Anne with an E) , because of the insight I derive from seeing where writers, mostly of memoir, as it happens, get their ideas.  John Walton, Jr. (aka, John Boy) is the characterization of Earl Hamner, Jr., who wrote the stories that became The Waltons (and who, by the way, is the narrator for the show).  Jo March is Louisa May Alcott herself on paper, also writing the stories that became Alcott's most famous work, about herself and her sisters.  Anne Shirley, though fictional herself, is really a depiction of writers in general--avid readers, lost in imagination, writing what they know.   I'm also drawn to read memoirs.  Not autobiography, which is a more factual account, but memoir, which may or may not be chronological, but is more concerned with themes than a timeline.  For example, if I write an autobi

This morning, my Bible reading included a passage from 1 Kings, in which the prophet Elijah is in a cave on a mountain, waiting for God. There is a terrifying wind, tearing apart the mountain and breaking rocks, but God is not in the wind. Then there is an earthquake, shaking Elijah's surroundings and knocking him to the ground, but God is not in the earthquake. Following the earthquake is fire, consuming everything in its path, but God is not in the fire. Finally, all was quiet, so still Elijah could hear God's voice, soft and soothing, reminding Elijah that amid the chaos and upheaval, God is there, present and speaking. This reminded me of a story I heard once. The sun and the wind were having an argument about which was more powerful. Not being able to settle the question, they looked to earth and saw a man walking with his coat on. The wind, confident of his powers, said, "See that man down there? Let's see which of us can remove the man's coat."