Canned Wisdom

There is a purpose for everything and everyone. Our eyes are blinded many times and we cannot see it, but it doesn't mean it isn't there. How I yearn for different days. Not necessarily days gone by, not necessarily future days, just different ones.

In the blink of an eye things can change so fast. We're left wondering what happened and how did we get to where we are. Many people I know just say, "It's all in God's plan. Don't worry about it." But when you're in pain it only sounds like so much lip service so they don't have to listen to you further. At those times, I withdraw and seek solace elsewhere. In the final analysis, it is God who provides the relief.

But as humans, are we so busy in our lives as to not quietly listen when someone is obviously in pain? Too often we spout off our little one-liners as if to just say them will bring instant recovery. What those little quips and quotes say to me many times is, "OK. I'm tired of listening to you now. Here's some half-hearted wisdom. Think about it and shut up." (And yes, it's all done with a smile on the face and a well-practiced look of compassion to accompany it.)

Or really, am I being too harsh on those who would seek to comfort me? Perhaps there IS wisdom in those one-liners after all due to their intrinsic simplicity. Maybe... and I'll go out on a limb here... maybe it's the simplicity I need, the simplicity I don't see, the simplicity I truly crave. And maybe that is what my God gives me to wake me up to how I analyze situations and pick them apart.

I search for guarantees. I know this much about myself. In an unsafe world I seek safety and it seems to me that safety is hidden inside guarantees. And yet the greater part of me knows that the only guarantee in life is change. That provides little solace when I am grasping for a pledge of assurance. Risk is, and always has been, dangerous to me. Seeing things through to the end has always meant that I know what will happen each step of the way. Feelings of desperation seep in when glitches form themselves out of the primordial ooze of the flow of life.

And yet, in those moments of clarity, I see the reasons behind each breeze of change that has swept itself over my life. What seemed like disaster was truly a blessing in disguise. So why worry? Why convince myself I have the need to know every working in every step of the way? Why reject the simplicity handed to me so generously and freely?

The canned wisdom should be packaged differently. It should come in glass jars so I could see it more clearly... Oh my God! I'm doing it again....