It is not enough to be busy...the question is, What are you busy about? — Thoreau
It seems that the more I do the more there is to do until I am a whirling dervish of never ending activity. And the question is, "what am I busy about?" I have been reading about the Sojourners, www.sojo.net, an community started in the 1970's in response to the war in Viet Nam. I knew that some of those old hippies must have survived and I have been looking for them and today I found them. Wow! They have been busy - busy linking their politics to their religion, busy writing and thinking, busy living out their "all we are saying is give peace a chance." The older I get the more sure I am that this is the path that I am searching for and each time I think I have found it it slips away from me and I have to start searching again. So today I found the Sojourners. "The biblical metaphor "sojourners" identifies God's people as pilgrims—fully present in the world but committed to a different order—and reflects their broadening vision." (from The Sojourner's History)
I have not been much of a Pilgrim in my day although the nomadic heritage of my Lebanese ancestors may qualify me. The tougher part is that "fully present....but committed to a different order..." I'm definitely committed to a different order but that fully present part is tough. After all in order to be fully present you have to determine "what am I busy about?" For isn't it true that too often my busyness is an excuse for my absence from what is happening right here, right now. If I am so busy with my busyness then there is no time left for the committment of myself to that different order. Isn't it easy to be so caught up in the commercials that you miss the story?
My broadening vision of being committed to a different order includes actively working for peace in my life, whether with my friends or the guy that I flip off on the road. Actively working for peace includes being nice when I don't feel like it, acting towards others the way I want them to act towards me, accepting that the differences I see are the result of my imperfect vision and not of someone else's imperfection. Being committed to a different order includes accepting that I am powerless and need to turn the control over to that higher power, which of course sounds fine in theory but can't I just have a little bit of it? The problem with powerlessness is that it makes you feel quite small and nervous unless you are willing to talk it over with the one in charge. So my broadening vision includes those daily, hourly, minute by minute chats with the one in charge, who sometimes doesn't answer me right away or even seem to be listening so that means trusting that it's all going to work out the way it's supposed to even if I don't get the big picture. So that should all keep me pretty busy, I have to be nice, give up being in charge, and pray. OK - that about covers it - committing to a different order, leap of faith, broadening vision. I'm tired already.
