Remember what Bilbo used to
say:
It's a dangerous business,
Frodo, going out your door.
You step onto the road, and if
you don't keep your feet,
there's no knowing where you
might be swept off to.
From
“The Fellowship of the Ring”, by J.R.R.
Tolkienxi
Today
is the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins of the Shire
I love that about Life … “You step onto the road,
and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept
off to!”. That’s just what I want Life to be! My Life has been like this … and
along with the to-be-expected surprises, it’s been a great 66 years! Tolkien
was a wise man.
Dangerous? I don’t know as I would call it that.
It’s human beings that make it dangerous. Life itself is “neutral” …. It just
offers possibilities. We must learn to accept the invitations.
I find the phrase “if you don’t keep your feet” to
be especially helpful. Personally, I find that we are a society that has given
up educating our people on how to “keep our feet”. Oh, I think we think we’re doing that … teaching the
young how to succeed financially. But what is the point of learning that if we
haven’t learned the deep mystery of Life and how to live it?? What a chagrin to
learn, by experience, that being financially successful and being successful at
Life aren’t synonymous!
KEEP YOUR FEET. That’s the whole point of faith and
religion and “the inner life” … and it doesn’t have to be theistic. I think if
I were elected Pope tomorrow, that is the phrase I would choose as my motto.
I would say, however, that perhaps “being swept off
to” unexpected places may just be part of the humour of “God”! I’ve tried to
follow the Gospel path for decades ... and I’ve found that being swept off is
part of the Journey. What a Path is most useful for is recovering from the
inevitable surprises.
Brian+
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