Empirical evidence and logic, the facts of life and realities of this hard-edged, dangerous world, can rightly lead a person to react and act accordingly, to keep your head down, fists clenched, gifts hidden and hoarded, your back to the wall on orange alert, primed for disappointment and betrayal – we all get like this sometimes, some for years and years and decades of years. We fall into clenched habits, spending our natural resources sparingly and with reluctance- all the beautiful, abundant, renewable resources with which we’re all endowed: optimism, idealism, hope and radical love. It’s easy to be miserly with these, because so often it makes sense to be pessimistic, jaded and discouraged. It’s easy to be sparing with your compassion, your generosity, your trust. The evidence out there calls these things naïve, tells you, “Watch your back.” But wisdom weighs the odds on a different scale. It’s not about what you mean to do or ought to do or what you mean to earn or buy, but how you mean to be: how you mean to greet the day, greet other people, greet disappointment and good luck. It’s about what you worship, really, how you walk, how you mean, ultimately, to leave this life, whenever that day comes.
– Rev. Victoria Safford, “Divine Proportions”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download