A Different Resolution

   

  "She who reconciles the ill-matched threads

   of her life, and weaves them gratefully

   into a single cloth--

   it's she who drives the loudmouths from the hall

   and clears it for a different celebration."

              Rilke,  The Book of Hours I,17

About this time on our calendars all the best laid intentions for the new year begin to show their raveled edges. We are despite all our efforts, endlessly human. It happens all through our lives, a period of accounting, tallying up, measuring up.  Perhaps there is the lesson.  Instead of always admonishing ourselves for what we lack, how different would our lives be if in that searing assessment we had admiration for our initiative, compassion for our struggles and  gentleness that did not shame us for our failings but encouraged us to grow?   Everyone's life has ill-matched threads.  The Real World is full of failures, so many impulses towards growth burst out full of promise and never realize their potential.  But the original blessing to keep on trying, to push out of the ground, the seed, the bud remains. All those countless efforts create a world full of beauty.grandeur and sustenance, mystery and awe and infinite possibility that is more than enough. Sometimes we need to be reminded that because we are a part of all that wonder, so are we.