"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach -- waiting for a gift of the sea." Anne Morrow Lindburgh
Gift from the Sea, is quickly becoming part of my sojourn to summer; long forgotten on the bookshelves, I tripped over it while well underway in a search for something else. Lucky for me, it was just what my soul was craving.
Never you mind that it reminds me of a young America -- as we sit, with nothing better to do but reflect upon our search for self, as a people, as to our future, as if unable to read, or write, or do anything but decompress into ourselves -- the rapture of meeting the opportunity of that which has presented itself, overcomes me.
We are venturing into a new land, a time when we are returning to the self-realization of what made America, meeting with that which might save America from utter disaster.
Initially, like the sea, we must not be 'too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient'; the answers must come to us, naturally, and without fear -- knowing that the faith to support a young America, growing through the pangs of adolescence, can come out of it all right.
We must have patience.
For we are experiencing the rush to judgement far too much.
We are experiencing the rush to fix, liberally and recklessly.
We are experiencing the rush to immediate gratification, with everything from what goes into our mouths to what comes out, with everything from what we buy to what we sell, with everything from short term gains to long term disaster -- we are a wreck.
Do we teach our children the art of patience anymore? Do they understand the agony of waiting for a returned letter from a pen pal? Do they anticipate a hearty homemade dinner after a day in the fields or the family store, or a long and lazy afternoon at the watering hole or sandy shore? Do we represent a nation of patient believers in a country filled with opportunity -- with effort, time, will power, failure, perseverance, pain, frustration, and great reward in the end?
IS this who WE are anymore?
We have an administration swept in with the tide of growing frustrations, frustrations so great, we were desperate for anything that promised hope and change.
We said, all together, come, take, take of my body which is given for you -- for we have lost our way, absent of our inherent strength and faith on our own; we said, come, take. take what you want, we will turn ourselves over to you, and be grateful and satisfied; lowering ourselves to a nation ignorant of our own undoings, enthralled by more the possibility of a sudden, collective and fundamental transformation rather than taking the time and effort of circumstance to bury our heads deep inside ourselves, beginning with the foundation of life itself -- allowing for our own responsible duty to ourselves, first and foremost -- and then in turn to each other.
All good things begin at home and alone.
Yet, we have no time for that...
Lindbergh makes the observation, it is of no use to make the good come to us under duress, to force the perfect whelk or moon shell to come out from under the sand before it's time, or under coercion; no, we must stumble upon it; that perhaps, all good things come to those who wait.
But it isn't in the waiting, is it?
For it is the what we do in the wait -- in the preparation, in the learning, in the responsibility, in the growth, in the understanding -- that we realize what we have, and of course, of what may be of risk to lose without knowing it.
A quick reality check will tell us, if only we are each responsible to ourselves, if only we do what is right and honorable, if only we act in accordance to the law of attraction -- akin to a basic understanding that we get what we give and better for it in the end -- we will see that the principles that made America are every bit essential and poignant yesterday, are every bit as important today; as we stand with toes poised, feeling the stir of the water running underneath them, and ready to dive into another realm of realization, the core values and the inherent responsibility to ourselves, is the only thing we should be concerned with.
But, as unconscious as we may be -- we made this America, too.
"[at first, the beach...] Too warm, too damp, too soft for any real mental discipline or sharp flights of spirit. One never learns. Hopefully, one carries down the faded straw bag, lumpy with books, clean paper, long over-due unanswered letters, freshly sharpened pencils, lists, and good intentions...At first, the tired body takes over completely...One is forced against one's mind, against all tidy resolutions, back into the primeval rhythms of the sea shore...One falls under their spell, relaxes, stretches our prone. One becomes, in fact, like the element on which one lies, flattened by the sea; bare, open, empty as the beach, erased by today's tides of all yesterday's scribblings.
And then, some morning in the second week, the mind wakes, comes to life again."
We are in the second year, the second week of awakening. Yes, in order to save the whole, we must first save ourselves; we must recognize our individual duty to the spirit of rebuilding in faith and function our entire world in which we live.
Only by our personal journey to make ourselves better, stronger, and glistening in the afternoon sun -- enough to catch our eye in-between the rippling waves and the tossing of what appears to be only a shell -- we find the real treasure of our own making. Collectively, then, we can return home in the accompaniment of others, and become truly great, ripe with potential, with a spirit of renewal and a sense that altogether in this commitment and faith and re-enchantment of what makes us good, will be what saves.
There is no such thing as someone doing the work that only we can do, and remaining all the better for it; there is no such thing; there is no such thing as the government doing the work for us -- that is surely not the way we were made. That is a thought, a hope, a change, a way that is sharply in-congruent with everything that we have ever been or will ever be.
We mustn't get greedy or anxious, lazy or apathetic; we must have patience to make it, and do it, and be it all on our own.
Martin Luther King said, "the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek."
Make it a Good Day, G
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