This morning I got up at 6:00, the absolutely last moment possible if I were to complete the several tasks (or at least the majority) before scooting out the door for an 8:30 meeting 20ish miles away. Then I remembered that I had promised directions to a group of people who will be attending a workshop this weekend at The Spiritual Center where I live. I had told them at our evening book group meeting last evening that I would send the information about getting there before I went to bed. When I got home, however, I had no service, a distress for all of us and the electronic devices in our home last night. The upside of that predicament was that I got to sleep a bit earlier, but I was left with that task for this morning – thus the delay in this writing.
The task of sending directions became more complex when I decided I needed to offer alternatives to the normal way of getting to Windsor because of the HUGE construction project going on at the confluence of all the major roads in Binghamton. Since there are people coming from northwest, northeast and west of the city as well as directly in the midst of the many detours, I needed to plot several routes – some with more than one possibility for avoiding the worst late afternoon slowdowns. It took much longer than I thought and I actually had to google a map of Binghamton to help me remember the name of a street that I have known for 40 years! I have confidence now that everyone will arrive safely and in a timely manner. (In case they get lost, I did include my cell phone number.)
This is a weekend that the group has been looking forward to for a long time and I am happy to provide it to them (organizationally). Even happier am I that I am not the presenter but just need to be “one of the girls” involved. I got to thinking later in the morning, as I began to get responses to my message with the directions, that my project this morning could be seen as a metaphor for life. There are times when what is usually seen as simple becomes complicated simply because of an added element – like a necessary e-mail or a multi-year construction project. It takes time to figure out ways around what blocks us. Sometimes the way is also simple but for some situations or for some people it is full of twists and turns that make it almost impossible to figure out. Sometimes we even need to ask for help.
I’ll be happy to welcome the participants to our workshop tomorrow and will be glad when the last one arrives, making that step on the journey complete and readying us for the adventure that awaits us!
Jesus is out and about again this morning preaching in parables – this time Mark’s version of the sower and the seed (MK 4:1-20). I wonder if it was a whole crowd of blank looks staring back at him and then later the questions from “the Twelve” that frustrated him enough to have him ask, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?”
Plants are amazing metaphors, I think, for the seasons of our lives. I have only two green plants in my bedroom now and although I smile at them and greet them as I come and go, I am sometimes rather inattentive. Happily, I know they are both always willing to forgive me. One is a Christmas cactus that is not a great indicator of the coming feast as it tends to flower at Thanksgiving – or sometimes whenever the inclination to burst forth gets hold of it. This year, however, it seems to have heard the Advent cry of “Come!” and, although with only one bud, is right on schedule to flower around – if not on – the actual feast of Christmas. I am always surprised at the budding and never mind whether or not it skips a year or comes unexpectedly because it is strong and requires very little care. Steadfastness is its gift to me.
It appears that we will be snowed in here today. The effort of the meeting facilitators yesterday to finish early today – by noon – was futile as there is a new and complicating wind advisory in the path of most of us toward home. Up early, we have already been checking maps and forecasts on television or computer or both. Nothing changes as we watch. It is only our willingness to surrender to this first winter event that will change anything (read: us!). So what will we do with this time that will likely stretch until at least tomorrow?
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 