The importance of YES

Formulating what we are against gives us a very quick, clear, and clean sense of ourselves.  Thus most people fall for it.  People more easily define themselves by what they are against, by who they hate, by who else is wrong, instead of by what they believe and in whom they love…

 

God needs just a mustard seed sized place that is in love, that is open to grace, that is thrilled and has found something wonderful.  We’ve got to go back and build from that “yes” place …

                               Richard Rohr

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I have just completed 69 years on spaceship earth

hello to he 70^th

 

next year at this time

perhaps, I will be 70

 

looking back I find it hard to put the pieces together

and get a clear sense of myself

 

am I that cherubic young boy, with blonde hair and blue eyes

full of smiles

am I that awkward child, all legs and arms

skinny as a rail

late to bloom?

 

am I that insecure teenager, bright about many things

but trying too hard to be included?

 

or that college student, finally blooming

intelligent, eager, full of promise

 

I can trace my path through the years

I have been truly blessed in many ways

I had privilege, good parents

More than my fair share of natural abilities

 

I have succeeded in many ways

I have a life full of accomplishments

I have failed in many ways

I have a life full of mistakes and detours

I have wasted much of my original blessing

 

and here I am

this person, this divine original

in whom the image of Sacred shines

and is blurred

at one and the same time

 

looking back at a long road

looking forward to a much shorter one

 

and in the moment I know one thing

I know it is important to say “yes”

 

we must build from the “yes” place

 

I can spend my days railing against what I do not like

what I resist

and I often do

 

and there is energy there

in the “no”

NO to racism

NO to greed

NO to lies

NO to all the things that diminish and minimize

to all the things that erode and destroy

 

but in a wisdom, crafted from both good times and bad

I think there is a greater, richer power in YES

 

YES to equality

to equity

to compassion

to generosity

to kindness

to Sacred

 

YES to love

 

I can build my identify around those things I am against

or I can build it around what I am for

I can build it around anger and hate

or I can built it around love

 

I think, if I want the road ahead to be

worth the walk

I will choose love