grace – …my temporary assignment.

And it is gonna be great.

Daily writing prompt

What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

Longevity ebbs and flows in my family. I remember my grandpa driving at 97, before he thought Uber was a better mode of transport. Well, maybe not Uber, but “Uncle”. Then there is my younger brother that just passed two years ago.

So it is what it is.

As far as I am concerned, for the purposes of today’s assignment, it comes down to being fully intentional about making the most of what you have been gifted.

Experience tells me that allocating the precious resources granted for this moment towards resentment, regret and retribution of the past is not what it is cracked up to be. Then, if you embark in advance of the here and now predicated on the approach of, “…that didn’t work, so I will cut this corner and use that short cut this time sround”, you pretty much added to an already sorrowful past.

The past is what it was. The future is what it may be. The present is just that, a present like Mr. Keane said a few days ago. That being said, I have no clue as to what living a long life is to me. If I can make the most out of every hour of every day going forward, then that will elongate my stay here.

When it comes time to give my notice, my only desire is that I can rest in peace knowing I gave it my everything. We are all gifted this position here on earth. Toiling in the dirt and debris of the past or buzzing about in the ether of the future would make me a worm or a fly. Nothing against them, but I like to think my focus needs to be on living life, not looking for feces.

So perhaps my longevity ends up somewhere between my grandpa and my brother. So be it.

Whatever the case, I have a lot to do today.

And it is gonna be great.

Or if you prefer, a circus.

Daily writing prompt

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

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“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”
― Bil Keane

He is the creator of “The Family Circus” cartoon, one of the first places I ventured, growin’ up, when the Sun-Times or Tribune was delivered on Franklin Street. Mr. Keane said that his name was spelled “Bil” because his parents knocked the “L” out of him for using the walls as his easel when he began to draw.

The past has its place. Back there. A resource like that spot in the library where the records of all the books, stories and reference material being stored was kept and maintained. While it has its function, living in the Dewey Decimal System is counter productive. Going back now and again to better understand how you got to be where you are now is a healthier way to employ the past.

Tomorrow is truly a mystery. All you can do to get an unkling as to what is to come the next morning, is to do all you can, to the best of your abilities before your noggin hits the pillow the night before. You could awake to calm waters, a steady tail wind and nothing but clear skies ahead. Or, you could face a tempest that will do its best to wring you out and question your own existence. Either way, you are meant to adapt and acheive. You just have to keep the short and Raybans next to the rain gear and boots.

Today is a present.

His gift to each of us. Opened at our discretion, used to the fullest we choose and then granted a decimal to keep the events in order for future reference. We are granted the grace to make the best of what we have been given. To create profound yesterdays and once in a life time tomorrows.

Or if you prefer, a circus.

“The gift that keeps on giving, Clark.”

Daily writing prompt

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

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To answer this, I have to first share another aspect of my forthcoming answer. I know, this is totally out of character. But because of the biggest influence, I am better able to embrace many others that just appear and touch my life.

For the longest time, I have had to somehow touch everything in my life. Be totally involved, manage, tend to every aspect, control, contend, bark, direct, etc., etc, ad nauseum. Effectively squeezing out anything or anyone that could have made an impact for the most part. If the guard came down, there would be those epiphanies, scattered far and wide. And many of them remain to this day.

But when I got to the point where none of that worked for me, in fact only worked against me and to my detriment, I simply accepted things and learned to become efficient and effusive with mea culpas. Let go. Lived for this moment. Then the next ten minutes. Another ten. And so on.

A true sense of peace and serenity found me. Once I accepted its gradual but all persuasive and positively pervasive appearance and influence, I just rolled with it. The more I loosed my grip on things, the deeper and wider it grew. Things I read now made sense. What others shared gave me courage and strength. Each moment became an entirely new experience, never knowing who may, what would, justhow or where I might be reformed and re-formed.

No matter how much I thought I could do just because it was me in charge, I couldn’t, wouldn’t or didn’t. But once I just honestly capitualted and let go, I could, would and do. Guided by the influence of all those that somehow just happen to be there, say what needs to be heard, do what I cannot and offer to share what I cannot carry alone.

Like me, they too must have waved the white flag and let go. To experience this level of influence by those that have embraced it too is an altogether different level of peace, serenity and security.

Makes this time of year even better.

“The gift that keeps on giving, Clark.”

I see.

“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch; like me!

I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.”

– John Newton

This hymn swells my heart, fills my soul and wells up my eyes with true gratitude. Speaks to the twin blessings of both a divine and self forgiveness. How the sense of being saved rings true in a new found presence for life.

Whatever the source of one’s wretchedness, state of sin, spiritual need, distress or desperate need for rescue and redemption, His presence, love and loop of grace leads one to a saving source of repentance. Bringing forth an entirely different sensory affirmation of life in the world about us. An unmistakable melody of gratitude heightened by a new found vision.

Being lost is an orientation far more than simply geographical. It may not be readily apparent from an external perspective. But internalized, it can assume an excruciatingly painful and perilously winding nature, replete with false starts, stops and changes in direction. Dishonesty, self righteousness and a self absorbing sense of ego leads one to isolation and a perpetual nonexistence. Being present, engaged and invested are exchanged for absence, disconnection and apathy.

With renewed vision and a truer recognition of this existence born of His grace, that blindness gives way to an awareness of life and all it is meant to be. That loop born of His mercy for you is such that when you witness and receive it for yourself, you cannot help but to embrace the thoughts, words and deeds that can be freely given to those around you, so they might too live it for themselves.

Given the circumstances of the author of this replenishing hymn and that of the author of this post, we can all enslave others or enslave ourselves by and through sin. No matter our origin, that we all share in common. That is what gives us our original nature.

And as such, He encircles us with true redemption through grace in a heavenly embrace. A gift that once received that is intended to be given back. Not in terms of or in the form of a transaction. But just as freely as we ourselves were compensated as such. As a gift.

So that we all may know the sweetness of its sound. And follow its path leading our way back into His light.

Was truly blind.

But now?

I see.