Copyright 2016 Don Ray
Can it be?! A quiet Saturday morning at home alone?! ‘Tasha holding me in the chair by the patio door as snow lightly falls?! Oh joy, oh joy! How many lifetimes have passed since I experienced this sublime joy! And I experience it now only because of a wicked bad cold that I do not want others to catch.
But oh this long forgotten, blessed morning state of mind and spirit! Oh joy, long missed joy! Unhurried! Quiet! Unpressured! All because of a cold and a purring ‘Tasha kitty.
‘Tasha also celebrates this rare, rare moment of quiet at home on a Saturday morning. Such a blessing!
Ahhh, an unhurried morning….such a curse that such an experience should so rarely bless the modern man and woman.
I get to scruff a purring ‘Tasha kitty! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!...for the cold that made this possible!
Such joys and life await in contemplation!
How impoverished the life always busy, active, moving!
How the world suffers for lack of contemplative time and purring kitties!
How strangling to the soul is the ever-busy schedule. Dear God, that poor cleaning lady at work, working three jobs, attending that rip-off night-school, and raising three kids!....by herself! What a hero! I cannot imagine surviving a week in that life! How grateful I am for the opportunity to help her a tiny bit with algebra, though that cause seems hopeless.
.....as does the cause of promoting contemplative time in modern society.
So desperately needed, such a cure for so many individual and societal ills, but seemingly impossible. Contemplation is the anti-quick fix, the anti-instant gratification, the anti-productivity, the anti-entertainment, the anti-objective, the anti-“take control”, the anti-“winning is everything”.
Contemplation/prayer could not be more antithetical to modern society, could not be more seditious, more subversive. Anyone wanting to truly rebel, wanting to truly liberate themselves from the clutches of corporate dictates, wanting to strike a meaningful blow for individual and societal freedom, need only engage in meditation.
Executives, politicians, and marketers throughout the world fearfully shudder at the thought of a citizenry readily able to tap into a source of strength, peace, meaning, and satisfaction.
A populace not perennially fearful, insecure, and greedy?! ….that would sound the death-knell for innumerable marketing and political ploys!
Our economic and political systems have evolved in response to and reflection of the lack of peace, contentment, and personal security in our lives, and those lacks directly reflect the lack of contemplative prayer in our lives. But the resulting systems that demand ever longer work hours and ever more consumption and ever more superficial entertainment allow ever less time for prayerful contemplation, and the vicious cycle spirals ever downward, along with our free time and inner satisfaction.
The root of the cause and the only source of solution lie within us, but the boss, cell-phone, next episode, next tweet, and next playoff game erect the bars and razor wire to lock us out of our inner self.
No mass movement will solve this ill, nor any civil rebellion, societal revolution, or group occupation.
This ill requires the quiet courage of individuals, moving within themselves, rebelling against all–consuming schedules, revolting against pernicious norms of more and bigger, individuals reclaiming their time, and re-occupying their own souls.
Copyright 2016 Don Ray
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