You Ain't Seen Nuthin' Yet!

1 Kings 19: 4-9

An angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat!"

You ain't seen nuthin' yet!

B-b-b-baby, You just ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Here's something that you're never gonna forget,

B-b-b-baby, You just ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, BTO - Bachman-Turner Overdrive.  God only knows what you were on when you wrote and recorded this. And God more than likely didn't really care what you were about to show your B-b-b-baby.  And we really don't want to know.

But, knowing what we do know about this universe, or rather knowing how little we know about the universe, it would not be a stretch to imagine that this would be an anthem that the oceans would sing, that the mountains would accompany, the jet stream provide harmony, the birds supply the soul chorus and crickets pick up the back beat. 

You ain't seen nuthin' yet...  is not only the song of the universe, it's the song of our brains, our souls, our relationships, our hopes, our fears, our dreams.  It is the song of the living and the dead.  The song of the first born and the dying.  It's a song that is sung by the first rays of each morning's dawn.  It may well be life's eternal hymn.

I am loving this eclipse business - the solar eclipse coming up on August 21.  It gives me giggles that this is something not generated by Exxon, Disney, Apple, GM, the U.S. President or Congress.  Then again, the only thing our noble government has generated lately are tweets and failures. And tweets about failures.

But though there are some enterprising folks making money off of it, this spectacular event is an astronomical affair. Totally. Generated by some heavenly bodies - and not the Victoria's Secret kind - over which we have not even the teensiest bit of control, this stellar/lunar pageant is stirring excitement usually reserved for super bowls and hot dates. It thrills me to see such great media coverage over something which we humans have nothing to say about, but everything to wonder about.  Hope you can check it out.

The Magic of Imagination

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.

- Carl Jung

The good thing about education is that it teaches you what stuff is.  The bad thing about education is that it teaches you what stuff is not.  For example, a chair could be just a chair.  Or, it could be the iron wall of blanket fort.  A stick on the ground could be just a stick. But it might be a magic wand that could call faeries out of hiding. One of the beautifies of children is that they have not yet had possibility educated out of them.

If you don't know what something is, then it could be anything.  If you don't know what someone does with their lives, they might be capable of anything.  "Knowledge," wrote Albert Einstein, "will get you from Point A to Point B.  Imagination can take you anywhere."

Maybe it's because children have so recently come from The Mystery that they haven't had time to pigeonhole everything.  They haven't had time to figure things out or even assume they can figure things out.  They haven't had time to be taught the concept of impossible.  Having so recently come from the timeless Mystery children haven't had time- clocks and calendars - dictating their thoughts and actions.

We have each been children, of course; and life has been gracious enough to us to leave a fragment of our fertile childlike imagination in our dream world - where time is not in control, and anything is possible.  

WONDERERS & WANDERERS

Unless you become like a child, you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven.

- Jesus

As the bumper sticker wisdom goes, "All who wander are not lost."  True, that. But there are a few of us who could use a GPS.  By the same token, all who wonder are not clueless.  Or lost.  Unless, of course, you're lost in wonder. 

To be sure, wonderers are often the wanderers.  Wondering about almost anything can get you wandering.  Get you off the beaten path.  Get you into a neck of the woods you never knew existed.  It can lead you to astonishing discoveries.  Can open you to new horizons. And... can also get you lost.

Kids are wonderful wonderers.  And wanderers.  Kids can wonder about almost anything: What makes the sky blue?  Does Santa Claus live with the tooth fairy?  If you dig in the backyard deep enough, will you reach China? If you wish and pray hard enough, will you get a pony?  And... why did anyone ever think eating Brussels sprouts was a good idea?

The good thing about wondering is that it opens you up and keeps you from closing down.  Wondering enables you to see things you never might never have seen, hear things you might never have heard.  Wondering jump-starts the creativity gene and keeps your brain asking, "What if?" 

Of course, wondering almost always gets you wandering. And even lost.  But if you're lost in wonder, are you really lost? Best, perhaps, to simply wander on. 

That Old Love Stuff

It is not a matter of thinking a great deal, but of loving a great deal.  So do what most arouses you to love.

 - St. Teresa of Avila

"I think," said Amanda Jane, "that the reason there are so many songs about love is that everyone knows love is important but no one really understands it. You don't have to understand something to sing about it."                  

Amanda Jane had been sitting in her favorite sunset viewing spot with several of her best buddies. They had uncorked a spunky red and were toasting the golden finish of the day.                

"I agree," said one of the setting sun celebrants. "God knows I have never understood love. It can feel so good and feel so bad. It can take you to the heights and drop you in the depths.   There has been many a time when I vowed never to love again."                  

"Been there," said another, "but I seem to always get drawn back in. Like an insatiable hunger that keeps you coming back for more. Sorta feels like we're made to love no matter - with all its pleasure and pain."             

They sat silently sipping as the planet, turning ever-so-gently, bowed to the departing light and ushered in the enveloping dark. Memories synapsed like lightning in each of their minds. Memories of loved ones - alive and dead. Memories of love - found and lost as the darkness wrapped its gentle arms around them all.             

"I do know this," said Amanda Jane as she upended her glass to get the last drop. "When I truly experience love, I feel like I could save the world. Maybe that's what love's all about. And maybe that's why we sing about it." 

Howard celebrated one fine Father's Day this week in Atlanta with his two dazzling daughters, his sterling son-in-law and his uber-cute and oh-so-silly granddaughter.  There were mucho giggles and laughter all around and since Howard has long contended that silliness is next to godliness, he was pretty sure that all were dancing with the Divine.

Impossible Dreams

Always follow your dreams. Unless in your dream you're dancing naked in a bowling alley.

You don't have to be the Man of La Mancha to dream the impossible dream or fight the unbeatable foe. We do it all the time. We do it in our waking dreams and in our snoozers.  

Night after night, our subconscious leads us through the portal marked "Now For Something Completely Different." And different it almost always is. Our loved ones often look younger or with different hair, voice and eyes. Our actions are things we would or could never do in consciousness land. We find ourselves in situations and locations that are beyond the craziest possibility but obviously not beyond our wildest dreams.

And in our waking dreams, we often focus on the seemingly impossible. We visualize world peace. Or an end to hunger. Or solar power replacing oil. Or getting a date this weekend. Or Congress actually doing something. But the apparent impossibility of it all doesn't stop us from dreaming.

It may well be that our waking and sleeping dreams of the impossible are ways to remind us that we live in an impossible world. A world that somehow impossibly dances and twirls at just the right distance from a star - with just enough water available - with just the perfect tilt - with precisely the perfect air and atmosphere to enable life to happen. All manifestations of impossibility which enable you and me to be alive. We are each and products of impossibility. Impossible? Yes. And true. 

Howard is in full-on spring eagerness delight.  Picnics, hikes and spotting gorgeous blossoms are his M.O. these days. And then, there's wedding season which launches about now and sails through early November.  Between now and then Howard officiates 1-4 weddings each weekend.  Howard says, "Everybody's dressed up, in a good mood.  So you celebrate love and then have a party!  I love my job!"