ALIVENESS

I recently spent a week at my parent's house in Virginia. They live in a beautiful place - a little town at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Growing up in the Shenandoah Valley, I had little idea how magnificent my surroundings were - I simply took them for granted. And it's not just the scenery. People in the Valley have a propensity toward kindness and gratitude. I'm confident that others might call them simple, but trust me, those country folk are on to something.

Moving to the "city" brought extreme culture shock. I remember feeling completely confused when people I encountered in my dorm hallway didn't smile and respond to my hello. It took some time of being away, but I really started to appreciate the place I grew up. But back to my visit...

Being back in Virginia, I was simply awestruck. Everywhere I looked, life appeared. And I'm not talking about it simply being spring, which of course, didn't hurt matters. I observed something more like ALIVENESS. I realize that's not a word, but it's what I felt like I was seeing. That ALIVENESS was confirmed in many different ways, one of which was a conversation with my Dad and niece, Brooke. Somehow we came to speak of her "Grandma Boo," who was desperately concerned for the safety of my sister (Brooke's Mom) who was on a cruise that week. Grandma Boo thinks it's a road trip to travel from Elkton to Harrisonburg (18 miles), so my sister traveling in a car, plane, and cruise ship terrified her. As Brooke spoke of Grandma Boo, she honored her with words like loving, caring, compassionate, selfless, kind, content, and grateful. Grandma Boo is 92, and is very much ALIVE. But the clarity that I observed in listening to Brooke boast on Boo was that she really is thankful for everything she has, and never complains. The best part of that is that her legacy has transferred on to her son, a man my Dad worked with for a number of years. People speak just as highly of him, as he literally lights up any room he enters. Boo and her son have limited material possessions, virtually no "wordly experience," and yet, unintentionally make everyone they encounter jealous because of their simple contentment. I was reminded of this:

Lights in the World

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

In my mind, LIGHT may just as well mean ALIVE. We can see the difference between light and dark, or life and death, in people. We crave light. We crave alive.

As I was reading this morning, I came across a quote that stirred these thoughts and feelings once again.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is." -Albert Einstein

Boo lives her life as if everything is a miracle. My heart yearns to live that way. And I believe it's how we were made, to experience life throughs a lens of ALIVENESS, noticing the magic and majesty in even the most simple experiences. We've become all too satisfied in accepting a cheap imitation, or as Lewis put it, we're all too happy making mud pies in the slum because we can't fathom the joy in a holiday at sea.

It's a difficult transition, to go from numbness to aliveness, but looking for miracles is the place to start. Here I go.