Brian’s Reflection: Friday, March 18, 2011

Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it.
Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it.
Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy it.

Sai Baba


How we live our lives is very much dependent on the “culture” we are brought up with or which we later establish for ourselves. By “culture” I mean the total context, and the patterns we establish to sustain that context.

I have been pondering my own Life. As my friend Martin and I often say, “Look where two kids from Verdun got!” It’s too complex to set out now, but what really amazes me in what is found in the human makeup, the things that mysteriously emerge and compel one forward. How I got from my little life on 5th Avenue in Verdun to college and theological degrees, years in a monastic order, travelling far and wide in the World, years of living in the United States, of parish ministry and now 38 years of ordained priesthood, “retirement”, Life with a partner, mystifies and bemuses and delights me!

Much of my Life’s “culture” I think I was born with, and much I’ve chosen and reshaped. On the whole, it’s “worked”.

As you know, I’m a Trekkie. One strong image in my mind is Captain Jean Luc Picard standing on the bridge, his arm thrust forward and his finger pointing, and him saying, “Engage”. It’s a metaphor for me about Life, which Sai Baba too reflects in the quote today.

Life is beckoning.

Engage!

Brian+