Spiritual Growth: The Two Sides Of Life

It is Sunday morning and I am sitting in my lanai.  I relished a short lie-in this morning after our trip home yesterday afternoon, unpacking and sorting out clothes and getting them washed and put away. It is good to be home in familiar surroundings.  We had a great week in Orlando and it was good to be away from the usual routines.  But it’s always lovely to come home.

It is a gorgeous day.  Another one of those sparkling “Princess Di” days.  The sun is shining brilliantly from a clear blue sky and there is a slight breeze sighing through the pine trees out back.  Everything is gently moving and I can see all the individual needles on the pine trees fluttering in the breeze and shimmering in the sunlight.

I sit back in my chair and breathe in the soft, warm air.  Yes, it’s warm here in sunny Florida at the end of November, although I hear that temperatures are going to dip down later on this week.  In the meantime, I am enjoying this “Indian summer” and feel very happy and content.  In fact my heart is full joy right now as I look at the beauty that God has placed right here in my back yard.

I notice that the small brown birds, I believe they are sparrows, are back again as they pass through on their way to who-knows-where and they are clustering on the feeders.  There’s a flash of red as a colorful cardinal claims his place and the sparrows flutter away until he is done.  I can hear the squirrels barking in the trees as they playfully, or maybe not, fuss at each other. Mokka, our cat, sits in the sun, her tail slowly swishing as she thinks her cat-thoughts about the birds.

But even as I am aware of the joy that I feel I am also aware that there is sadness punching and poking at my heart.  It feels as though one ventricle is full of joy and the other is full of sadness.  My life is blessed in so many ways and I am truly grateful for that.  Yet I have a longing for a healed relationship with my sister who I miss so very much, and another longing for a happy, satisfying relationship with my daughter who I also miss very much.

And I am reminded of one of my favorite authors, Kahlil Gibran, who, when asked in his book The Prophet to speak about Joy and Sorrow, responds with these wise and wonderful words of wisdom:

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.”…………..

“Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?”……………

“When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”………..

”Together they come [Joy and Sorrow], and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.”

And so hangs the balance of all life.  One moment we are in joy, and the next we are in sorrow.  And sometimes we carry them together.  And I can only learn to surrender to what is, to accept the gift of my emotions no matter what they are.  As a character in the movie Shirley Valentine said, “If I can feel it means I am alive.”