Our highest business
This quote from Ronald Reagan marks his grave
at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, July 2004.
“We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life.” — John Cage
The post that published one year ago today (linked below) is perhaps the one that has the greatest personal significance to me. Since I wrote that post, one of the three in that picture is no longer with us. I am all the more grateful that the other two still are. What I wrote then is more true today than ever before, and as hard as the lesson has been, I’m thankful to have been made increasingly aware of it with each day that passes.
I believe each of us has purpose to our life; we are where we are for a reason, though we may not live in submission to that purpose, or even be aware of it. Yet acknowledging that we are able to “bloom where we are planted,” whether or not that particular bit of soil is one we would have chosen, is a step toward freedom from the fears and regrets that can hold us back from living fully and abundantly. No one else is in the position we are in, uniquely equipped to serve and give and live in ways that would be impossible for any other person.
Today is my 500th post on this blog, and as I write this (on March 8, two weeks before scheduled publication) this day seems a milestone in more ways than one. Writing the 500th post on the same day we cross over 100,000 views of this blog, and most encouraging, the bright sunshine and warm day calling me outside after the snows the past week, all feel as if we have passed through yet another figurative doorway today. Thus, in the words of the beloved hymn,”here I raise my Ebenezer” and move forward in faith and joy, to embrace the high calling of my daily life. I hope and trust you will be doing the same!
And speaking of daily life, thanks so much for being part of mine! Your presence here, comments, prayers and friendship have been a large part of the grace and mercy with which we have been showered these many months. I had mentioned at my one-year anniversary that I intended to do some things differently, such as re-blogging others’ posts and including different types of photos or writing. For practical reasons, I need to start doing that (the long winter is drawing to a close, and the days are getting busier) but I found that it was harder than I thought it would be, primarily because I am not able to find a way to schedule a re-blog in advance, and I like to schedule these postings in advance as much as possible.
However, here’s another boundary; another chance to make some changes, so bear with me. I may end up just re-blogging some posts “instantly” but this means they will not appear at 3-5 a.m. as they have been in the past. SO, if you don’t get a new post on any given day, wait awhile; it should be coming up later. Meanwhile, if you see anything new here that you like (or don’t like) please let me know! This blog belongs to all of us, and I value your input.
Based in part on many of the comments I have received via email and online, but based mostly on my own joy at being in touch with all of you on a daily basis, I hope to keep posting SOMETHING daily for as long as I can. Thanks for being with us on this journey!
One year ago today:
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: blessings, duty, faith, gratitude, hope, joy, life, optimism, perseverance, purpose, responsibility, thankfulness, trust
Defeat Despair 
Julia,
Again a great post. We must often be reminded that we are not here to live others lives but to live our own. It is not selfish to say so because God sees each of us as His favorite and who am I to diminish that role. Yet in living our lives unavoidably means that others will be influenced in that effort, and influenced for the better should we live ours well according to God’s will for us.
-Alan
That’s a comforting thought, isn’t it, on those days when we feel tired and wonder if anyone notices our efforts. I love what C. S. Lewis wrote on this topic:
“The more we get what we now call “ourselves” out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of “little Christs,” all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented—as an author invents characters in a novel—all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to “be myself” without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call “Myself” becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call “My wishes” become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men’s thoughts or even suggested to me by devils…Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most “natural” men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.”
I love how this blog touches on the past, present, and future, all wrapped together at times. For example: “I am not able to find a way to schedule a re-blog in advance.” When the past was the present, you couldn’t, but now it’s the future … and you can!
Or you’re getting up really early.
🙃
I think my first theory is the more plausible. 😃
Actually, what I meant was that I cannot schedule a re-blog of someone else’s post in advance. I still don’t know how to do this. I can reschedule my own because I’m the master of this particular universe, hee-hee. 😀 (Not to be confused with BWAHAHAHAHA!)