The Nest

By this time of year commencement is over and the leftover potato salad, ham and congratulations cake from all those grad parties have been put away. For many parents this passage is a benchmark in their own journey with respect to their family nest. My 13 year old daughter left the nest this morning, if only for a short while, to embark on a 24 day journey that will take her to the Alaskan wild.

My previous post began a reflection on a collective conscious that connects my life with the meaning and mission of past travelers from other times. Today my thoughts are on Kaitlyn and how her own emerging meaning and mission is itself shaped to an undeniable extent by my own journey, especially that part that is revealed and experienced within the framework of family. Likewise I carry something of her meaning and mission. Life is never exclusively about my own meaning and mission nor do I live my life alone.

The family I have tried to build is neither new nor my exclusive creation. There is but one nest that my family and I share with you, with all who came before us and with all who will follow.

© Copyright 2007 gentlefootprint. All Rights Reserved.

Friendship Cake

Friendship cake. That delectable treat you bake at home using starter dough received from a friend. Part of the dough is set aside, maybe to share with a friend or, perhaps, yummy as it is, kept to start another cake granting it a sort of eternal life within your home.

When you consider that the friendship cake's existence is derived from an original recipe that is sustained as the dough passes hands into time, each friendship cake is the offspring of the original and a relative of all other cakes.

Similarly my existence, although subject to what I want to make it to be within the windows and doors of opportunity I am able to open, is comprised not just of my life, but of the starter dough of myriad lives that come before me going back in time. There is a sense in which the eternal life of those who came before me is played out in the unfolding of my own existence. Their life meaning and mission forms a collective conscious that lies deep within my soul.

As I reflect back over this life from my earliest memories as a child, I now recognize instances where memory and the fodder of my thoughts and imagination transcended what my experience had been at the time. The only possible explanation is that, in such moments of reaching inward, I was connecting with that collective conscious and touching the most intimate experience of all those who comprised it.

© Copyright 2007 gentlefootprint. All Rights Reserved.

The Role of Spirituality

The heart-warming story of Hero's arrival May 25, 2007 in New Hampshire to be united with the grieving family of Army Spc Justin Rollins captures for me the essential role spirituality plays in our lives. Just as this puppy represents a connection for the family with the purest love shown by their loved one the day before he was killed in a roadside bomb in Samarra, Iraq, so do we seek similar points of connection with a God whose boundless love gave birth not only to the heavens and earth, but made our very existence possible.

© Copyright 2007 gentlefootprint. All Rights Reserved.

Passion For Life

Just before the dawn, faint glimmers of light appear in the sky. As the earth turns on its axis, its many creatures stretch and start to awaken. Then the light brightens as the birds announce the coming day. Our waking minds change focus from the land of dreams and fantasy to a world that demands intelligent choices, a world pleading for love.

The choices required of us come from having a strong passion for life. A passion for life is more than a nebulous feeling of optimism and love of living. It is the commitment to life that motivates us to do our best and strive to make a positive difference in other peoples' lives. It is the determination to fight for what we believe in and to fight against suffering, injustice, and the waste of natural resources. It is the decision to transcend barriers that inhibit our best efforts. It reflects a commitment to be and to do more than we believed was possible.

Having a passion for life means being excited and involved in what is and what can be. It is like waking up and feeling full of energy. It is like falling in love and being full of joy. It is like being imprisoned and suddenly set free.

From the Introduction to Passion for Life: Psychology and the Human Spirit by Murial James and John James