Note: I am delighted to welcome to this blog my good friend, Fr. Donie O'Connor. Donie is a Mill Hill missionary priest, who has served the poor in Africa. For the past two years he has served the congregation of Christ the King Church, Pleasant Hill, California, and done so with great generosity of presence and wisdom.
I ran excitedly into
the kitchen, tripped and broke my nose. I can still hear my mother’s words: ‘There’s
always something.’ Yes with eight children there was never an empty moment
in our home. My mom died peacefully at home at the age of ninety, six years
ago. I remember sitting on her bed and joking with her about this incident and
what she said. With a gentle laugh she sighed: “When I pass on, put that
epitaph on my gravestone: ‘There’s
always something.’ ”
And there always is.
All of us identify with my mom. All of us recognize her frustration. All our
moments are crowded with uninvited guests and unsummoned grief. There are voices
everywhere commanding our attention inside and outside.
There is always
something big or small that steals the substance of ‘the now.’ Something
casts its slanting shadow that prevents us from entering into the richness of
the present moment. An anxiety, a lingering regret, something that should be
done or something I should be doing. A lingering headache or heartache, an
unpaid bill, a bitterness or a jealousy. Yes, something lurks around the corner
ready to rob the present moment of its joy.
The late Dutch spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen in his little gem, Reaching
Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, documents this. “Our life,” he wrote, “is a story where sadness and joy kiss each
other at every moment.” And they can co-exist.
There is a tinge of poignancy that invades every moment of our daily
lives. It seems there is never a clear-cut pure joy or a clear-cut pure motive.
Even in love’s passionate rapture, there is the reflection of sadness. In every
satisfaction, there is the awareness of limitation. In every risk, there is the
element of danger. In every love, the fear of hurt. In every success, the dread
of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is a teardrop. In every friendship, a
distance. In every freedom, there are consequences; and in every embrace, there
is loneliness. In every dawn, there is twilight.
There’s always something!
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