After a big month of much stretching...people...events...conversations... thinking and more, a quote from William Channing helps me gain perspective on the big and small.‘To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy not respectable, and wealthy, not rich. To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with an open heart. To bear all thankfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconcious, grow up through the common, this is to be my symphony!’
- William Channing
Life is full of the common, yet our take on the small and large of life, can turn the daily into a symphony or into a torture chamber.
Reminders that encourage me to be thrilled by the leaves flickering from the winter sun, tempted by the sound of a loved one whispering not much, the pound of the footpath heavy under legs that can still walk or the caramel of sugar dissapearing through the foam of a chai latte.
Appreciating the small, to increase the size of my heart. That my friend is the timing and notation of my current symphony...
A
Thursday, June 21, 2007
My symphony
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7 comments:
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For some reason, Sarita reminds me of a scene from Napoleon Dynamite.
a chai latte - wow, you can put tea leaves in those espresso machine contraptions now?
sorry AMP - i'll stop being such a purist.
my symphony - I agree with William - to live content with small means is one of the greatest pleasures in the world that materialism cannot fill.
I am finding immense joy in a ball point pen on moleskine (thanks simon), a simple sound in my ear, the warmth of the sun and blue sky at 3000m elevation, the babbling of a mountain stream, the haphazard stumblings of a colourful beetle across grey rock, the creak of a wooden chair, the gentle sound of finger on guitar string....
Yeah, nice amp.
I have an ongoing challenge that's thrown out in my own internal monologue - 'do something small'. Don't get intoxicated by the large and big...
I'm not saying that big dreams aren't great to have. They are. It's more that I often sense that the small stuff (in our eyes) that happens along the way is often far greater thna what we can see as the big deal.
And the recurring thought: what if God is calling us all to something small. The unseen, the utterly transforming and the life-redefing...but the small.
yeah totally. In whose eyes do we judge the size of things. Because I reackon God's more impressed by a held tongue, than a thousand religious bums on seats!!
although a thousand religious bums is impressive.
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