Sunday, August 17, 2014

Day 1 - #43

"The soft overcomes the hard in the world
as a gentle rider controls a galloping horse.

That without substance can penetrate where
there is no space.

By these I know the benefit of non-action.
Teaching without words, working without actions--
nothing in the world can compare with them."

I heard a friend yesterday say that infinite patience is the quickest way to enlightenment. Everyone who knows me knows I am a very patient woman, but infinitely? Even I've got a long way to go, and lately I've been feeling pushed to the limits of my patience.

Patience is how I learned to live in a body that usually doesn't do what I ask it to do.

Patience is how I learned to look for and see the right opportunities for me.

Patience is how I learned to love, and how I have the strength to continue to love even when people are difficult and dangerous and dishonest.

I'm 33 years old and still waiting. How did this happen? I suppose we always are waiting for something.

How have I learned to be soft without being pliable?

How have I learned to be invisible without being forgotten? For "to penetrate where there is no space," is the essence of being a disabled person in this world. You learn to make a subtle smash-and-grab for your life so that by the time anybody notices you've done anything--too late!--you're already somebody's inspiration porn.

Yesterday at Mass the priest talked about how Mary is working to bring about the reign of her Immaculate Heart in this world. She can't do it without us, he said. But when you feel like you are built for the world--and even God--to ignore you, how are you supposed to "bring the Kingdom"?

I never wanted attention. I only ever wanted love. I was prepared to give love in softness, yet so unprepared for how hard the world would be in return. Maybe that's why I'm as old as Jesus was, and still waiting.

I want to penetrate the future with the substance of things hoped for--nothing more.

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