Life Got Complicated

"Life got complicated," a friend recently said.

Indeed.

For most of us, life has been entirely too complicated in too many ways. For example, the last four weeks seem like a blur. Oh, there are the high points like four days in Baltimore and Barack Obama winning the election and a financial meltdown, but for the most part, my head has been fog-bound in a much too complicated world.

We went to Baltimore in mid-October to the class reunion of Cliff's 30th ordination anniversary. As we were getting ready for the trip, Cliff said to me, "When Tony celebrated his 30th, he was old!" Tony being the priest who mentored him from alter server to ordination. Well, yes, I said. And now we see the other side.

I think feeling old goes along with life being too complicated.

So we drove through October's glory on the way to Baltimore, topping a mountain pass to see a forested valley below us quilted in purple, gold, red, green, yellow - more than glory even, it was majesty. I was reminded of Teilhard de Chardin's Mass on the World as he topped a rise: "Since once again Lord, ... I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself;" Sometimes, in the flurry of movement and life, we forget the simple things like glory. The two day drive was a chance for us to just be with one another and catch our breaths at the wonder.

His friends were all happy to see us; they have accepted me with great kindness and openness. It seems about a third of his class has remained in the priesthood but they all come back again with no judgment among them. Those men who have stayed in work very hard with large parishes, and for the most part with no assistants. I had a new respect for all they do to carry on.

And then we drove back (more tired than glorious) and caught up with laundry and classes and succumbed to the riotous cold going around campus. We've been smothered in tissues and Robitussin for two weeks now and are finally beginning to feel human again.

But even in the worst of the cold, I kept saying we were okay. There was so much that wasn't okay - so many people losing their jobs, even here in Kansas City, and a clear example of trickle-down economics. Those who have so little are the ones who are hurt the most. We've heard that the food pantries in town have seen a huge increase in the number of hungry hoping for food. We'll do our usual collection for food aid, but our help is such a small drop in the empty lives of so many.

 So, yes. We are fine. We are grateful for our lives and our home. Grateful for each other. Grateful for meaningful work.

I've also been reminded of a saying my friend Monique Pasternak gave me many years ago when I lived in Hawaii: Your body is your temple; pray in it every day. And so my prayers go out to all of you who are my friends, readers, or casual visitors who wander in for whatever reason. May you find a place of comfort in the middle of all these complications.  May you be at peace.