Sunday, August 3, 2008

Patience

Just waiting for the next life so I can pick-up where I left off.

That's the clean slate.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's no such thing as a lifetime lacking trial and tribulation. Wishing away this one is, IMO, a tragic waste of opportunities.

Happily Anonymous

Sophia said...

I'm not wishing this one away.

I just know that my spiritual lessons will resume in the next life because they seem to have stopped in this life.

I'd rather get them all done in this life, but it appears I have at least one more life to live to pick-up my lessons.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I misunderstood.

http://people.morrisville.edu/~whitnemr/html/The%20Jilting%20of%20Granny%20Weatherall.htm

In terms of spirituality, the link is worth a read. It is a short story of only a few printed pages. I found that Katherine Anne Porter is always interesting.

The lessons can arrive in the final moments. Thats a corollary to "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." In the Porter story the lesson comes at the very end.

Perhaps the lesson you need to learn at this stage of your life is patience. I had never thought of this as a problem for your generation but you grew up in a world that had already developed "instant" almost_everything. The problem seems to be having gotten used to instant results and expecting it in everything.

Consider the human being. While aging reduces some attributes like physical beauty it delivers instead depth that's not available to the young. I'm guessing you always sought the depth in others. That never comes instantly. It is the path you are on and there's just no rushing it.

Happily Anonymous

P.S. Those of us who grew up before instant stuff was developed discovered that there was a certain convenience to instant versions, but the quality of the original was never there.

P.P.S When I was your age the discussion about sequential successive lives carried with it the warning to achieve everything important in this lifetime because we cannot be certain of a subsequent one. Note that it wasn't "achieve everything," just all the important stuff. I recall a story about the man who put off doing good deeds he believed were essential to salvation. Then he had a stroke and was unable to do his good deeds while he saw his wife continue with hers. He was wealthy beyond imagination, but in his own belief system he was doomed. Funny how what is important can change so quickly.

Sophia said...

That story certainly was quite a ride. It was dizzying, as if I was on a carnival ride.

I guess you're probably right about people my age wanting instant results. Instant t.v. dinners and instant spiritual growth.

To an extent I probably still seek the depth in others. I don't know if this is a generational thing or if there is something wrong with me personally! Being 30 is confusing, because I feel like I should already be grown and perfect but I know I'm far from it.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with me (us).

V said...

Don't be holy. Don't be pure. You can't possibly avoid pollution.
Pretence is a waste.
We are all pretending.

Sophia said...

I'm starting to get the idea that since everything is God, that means that good and evil are God, that God is a balance of opposites. In which case, wouldn't it be natural that my pure self is diluted with impurity?