Memories of Home
The affirmation topic for this past week is "Well-Being." A sense of well-being is a foreign concept to so many, these days. Now and throughout history, if we are realistic, so many lives have been lived on a precarious edge, that it seems greedy to expect that sense of well-being in one's own life. And how many who do have that sense come to feel guilty about feeling happy or secure or free from suffering, when so many are hungry, in danger, and dying too young?
And yet, what is the source of our well-being? Is it possession of wealth or love or health? Or is it an attitude toward life? A way of living that seeks out the positive in each activity, each situation, each encounter? Do I strive to recognize and claim the good that comes from my efforts, even when things don't turn out as well as I might hope? Can I identify the beneficial outcomes that lie hidden along the periphery of even my most catastrophic failures?
Well-being comes from a confidence that doesn't depend on being perfect. It can't be destroyed by making mistakes, because I learn from my mistakes. I dare to act, even knowing that I will not always succeed, that I will never be perfect or produce a flawless work of art. Or go through a day without missing more opportunities for helping others than I'll recognize or act upon. Well-being comes from an awareness of the presence and love of God, and even when I do not feel that presence or love, I have the memory of having felt it in the past and a confidence that I will be once again aware of it in the years ahead--and beyond.
It is rather like living in the presence of
cherished memories of home--a home I've never actually seen, but for which I feel a passionate longing.
Someday, there will be a homecoming.
Liz Bennefeld, 2008/05/04
Copyright © 1996-Present, by Liz Bennefeld.