Trombiculidae

        A few weeks ago I was invited to go for an impromptu walk in the woods.  The company was good.  The conversation was light.  I found humor in watching the tree tops sway in the breeze while the dense foliage prevented my enjoyment of such refreshment. The path was well marked, though not well traveled.  Spiders often shared their creativity with me as well as their ability to blend as I would sometimes admire their webs and other times run head long in to them. The 7 mile stroll went largely without incident.  The bear scat was fresh but not steaming ... the snake was colorful but not poisonous.

       However amazing and peaceful this particular stroll through the woods was for me, the real adventure began when I returned home. Entirely unknown to me was the stowaway -- several in fact. They are called trombiculidae by those with initials before or after their names.  I call them chiggers.

      Typically I am better prepared as I walk through the woods.  This trip, as I have mentioned, was impromptu and I failed to apply any insect repellent to my shoes, socks, and legs.  My oversight was not soon forgotten as the itching began from the waist down and would not subside for several days.  I have discovered that chiggers are opportunists. They don't bury themselves under the skin as I have always been told. Truth be told, fingernail polish, (however colorful) has no greater negative effect upon these creatures than a spider web in the way of a charging bear.  I have no idea why God made chiggers.  But I do know the lesson the Rabbi has taught me through the recent experience.

     Chiggers have learned to put themselves in just the right position and then wait -- wait for some unsuspecting person or animal to walk through the grass and then -- at just the right moment, they let go of the grass and grab hold of "dinner".  Amazing.  Consider the tenacity of the chigger.  Consider the extensive planning (or instinct) these creatures possess.

     And yet, here's the question that has me (forgive the pun) bugged.  Why aren't we at least as tenacious and intentional as the chigger? Moreover, why don't we plan to be near whatever it is that we want/need?  And when by chance we end up in the right spot at the right time, why are we so unwilling to let go of what we have to embrace the gift that has come?

    The TV show asks, "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Jesus seems to be asking something even more profound.  "Are we as smart as chiggers?"

     You ponder that.

Tragedy

Sometimes things happen in our lives that we cannot explain and have difficulty even surviving. Such is the nature of tragedy.  Tragedy can occur in our lives with no apparent rhyme or reason.  Or tragedy can happen by our own fingertips.  Either way, no matter how much we may try to do so, we can never go back and change a single moment of our lives.  Someone famous has said, "Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live." Rich thought.  How many of us have our sights set on a tragedy contained within our past?  How many of us have grown so comfortable with the event that we carry it with us wherever we go?  How many of us have begun even to use it as a guide?  Forrest Gump recalled, "Mama always said, "You have to put your past behind you before you can move forward." I think, once you have learned from the tragedy, Mama was right! Is the tragedy in YOUR life a tool or a guide?  You ponder that. 

Emotions

As a counselor I have discovered emotions often present as nebulous creatures.  The extreme between love and hate is often separated only by unmet desire. Someone famous once said, "From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate." Truly hate, in its most base form, becomes deadliest to the one in whom it resides.  It is from there that hate festers and warps the life of an individual.  Today we should each consider checking our deepest desires and ask ... "Are my desires driving me to become a better person, or are they becoming a cesspool within which I am sinking?" You ponder that.

The Shadow

Someone famous has said, "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow." Truly, if the sun is shining behind one before walking through the door to the inside, a shadow is cast - not the real thing, but an image - an image that may say something about the one entering or may in fact be quite misleading.  The point is there is much that may be revealed between an idea and a reality.  If you and I have an idea to be a better person that is of some value. However, intentionally set that idea into motion - make it reality - and that idea becomes worth a great deal more.  You ponder that. 

Changes

The other day I found myself at a party in which there were many folk I hadn’t seen in a long time.  As I surveyed the faces sitting around the room I was a bit surprised by the new wrinkles I saw … new contours of the face … some with new found peace … others with eyes that betrayed the sorrow of past years.  It was then that it dawned upon me – there are precious few things one can truly count on in this life – one of those things is change. 

While some people seek change and others avoid it like the plague, change is concomitant with this journey we call life.  Today, as I look into the mirror, I see the story of 52 winters.  It is a story written with many chapters of love, laughter, success, and victory.  It is a story punctuated by a few chapters of loneliness, failings, and the agony of defeat.  It is my story.  I have earned every grey hair, wrinkle, and scar.  You have a story as well.  

Listening to the stories shared around the table at the party I am struck by just how much people have changed … how much they have grown … in knowledge and as people.  I am reminded that, like mine, their story is still being written. 

Through the sun sets, the passing moons, and even the fleeting winters – every soul around the table is in transition – sifting ideas, hopes, beliefs, dreams, traditions, and things held most dear. You are changing as well. Change comes with living – we can’t control it.  How we change … for the good or for the worse … THAT is what we can control. 

2 weeks notice

Yesterday I had something happen that was most disappointing.  For over a month all indications were that I would receive what I had come to view as a prize.  Days turned in to weeks and the weeks melted in to a new moon and a New Year.  The sunshine of yesterday and the mood of coworkers seemed to confirm the ultimate crescendo that had been building.  And then, just when it felt the heavens might burst with anticipation, the announcement came… the “prize” had been given to another.

Reception of the news brought the normal feelings of disappointment, frustration, resentment, and even anger. Yet with the rising of this morning’s sun, a new feeling has washed over me.  The feeling came on the tail end of a thought – a memory really – a memory that had clawed its way from the depth of my past. 

As I recall, I was about 8 years old when Grandfather and I were sharing a quiet moment and he said, “Wayne, live like you only have 2 weeks left.” Though he departed this earth some 40 winters ago, this morning, it seems as though Grandfather has spoken again. If life had given me 2 weeks notice yesterday, the coveted prize I sought would surely have lost its shine. All things considered, I’m thinking most things that cause upset or hurt or disappointment in our lives might fall off our backs like water if we only kept the perspective Grandfather shared.

Tim McGraw sings the song, “Live like you were dying”.  Now I don’t know if Tim in fact lives that way or if he wrote the words to this song, but perhaps Grandfather had learned a truth which was not exclusive at all. Maybe others have also learned to keep perspective amid the disappointments and traumas of life by asking the simple question, “If I had two weeks to live, would this (prize, trauma, or disappointment) be that important?” 

Yes Tim, we should all live like we were dying.  And yes Grandfather, thanks for the reminder that life has given me two weeks notice.  

    

Right Decisions

Someone famous has said, "important decisions are best made in cemeteries".  I've made a few in that venue.  More often though, I've found I want to “sleep on” life changing decisions before making them.  So many “knee jerk”, “from the hip” decisions come back to haunt us!  How many of us find ourselves looking back over the years and seeing them littered with decisions we would love to revisit… love to redo… love to have considered just a little longer before having made them?

Not long ago I found myself sitting with my stepfather watching a number of parachutists fall from a highflying plane enroute to the landing field before us.  I commented how ‘talking the plunge’ in like fashion is something I plan to do sometime before I retire. One thing led to another in our conversation and he was ready to leap out of the plane with me the very next day!

But as the afternoon turned into night and the morning sun and coffee warmed our bodies the next day, my stepfather had second thoughts.  You see, he had time to consider more fully what complications recent heart problems might bring to such a jump from the sky.  To his credit, however, my stepfather not only had the time – he took the time to make a good decision. Sitting on the back porch that morning pondering his action of rethinking his earlier decision got me to thinking.

Truth be told, most decisions don’t need so much to be made quickly as they need to be made well! And, that made me remember what Jesus once told his disciples … “Don’t judge by appearances only but make a right judgment.”

I don’t always make the best of decisions.  Actually, over the 52 winters of my life I've made some award winning odious ones that are not easy to live with. My stepfather would be the first to admit that not all of his decisions have been good ones either.  Yet I'm thinking he got this one right because he took his time before committing. 

It’s a New Year.  Perhaps a good resolution for all of us would be to make a habit of being somewhat slow to make important decisions … to consider well the things we do before we do them… to make a habit of making right decisions – no matter how slow they are to make. What do you think?