A Throw Away Day

Today I remember that after exertion, one must recuperate. I'm listening to a new friend describe the way she recuperates after a day of activity. She's still recovering from a serious illness, so she spends entire days regaining strength.

She rests. She does nothing. Her health depends on these days.

She calls them her "throw away days." Not one useful thing happens on these days except for rest. 

"You need some throw away days," she says.

I imagine I do. It seems wrong. It seems like a waste. But to a person recuperating, a throw away day saves your life. Calling them a throw away day helps clarify how unimportant or insignificant your activity will seem on these days.

Of course, that kind of recuperation holds incredible importance. Sometimes, you have to throw a day away to make it become the best kind of day.

You're recuperating.

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Do you find it hard to have a day of rest when you need one? 

"In Great Deeds, Something Abides"

I'm visiting Gettysburg, and no matter how many times I walk the battlefields, I'm always overcome with the extraordinary sacrifice of soldiers--then and now--who fight for freedom.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's words echo in my heart and mind as I walk. I remember his great speech at the dedication of the Maine Monument on October 3, 1888:

"In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls. This is the great reward of service. To live, far out and on, in the life of others; this is the mystery of the Christ,--to give life's best for such high sake that it shall be found again unto life eternal."

In great deeds, something abides. And in the great mystery of Christ, we give our "life's best" for a high sake so that it "shall be found again."

I feel heart-drawn just as Chamberlain said I would feel.

Later, I walk to the spot where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, and I take note of one certain witness tree.

I hear the words again: "In great deeds, something abides." I want to live "far out and on" into the life of others and participate in the great mystery.

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Next year is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. If you haven't visited yet, I recommend taking a trip!

Perfect 'Cause They're Not Perfect

A couple from Texas--they know cowboy boots--comments on my own boots.

"We love those boots!" they exclaim.

The man leans over to look more closely to examine them and says, "They're perfect because they're not perfect. So many boots are too shiny and too fancy. Your boots are perfect."

I lean over to my friend and say, "Did you hear that? They're perfect because they're not perfect."

Imperfect things reflect a certain glory. The more ordinary and comfortable (I wear them all day long), the better. These boots are 25 years old. My mother wore them. They were put together perfectly by an expert maker.

Perfect!

I just have to end with one of my favorite poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

                                                       Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;	5
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:	10
Praise him.

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I just love the perfection of imperfect things. Don't you?