Every week I drive past a house in my neighborhood that has some rather curious decor on the front lawn. From a distance it looks cluttered and mis-matched. Close up however, there are hundreds of tiny delights – flowers, stepping stones, lawn ornaments, etc. Another yard down the street looks well manicured and uncluttered from a distance, and yet up close, looks sparse and plain.
Both of these yards have their own unique beauty. The angels had a wonderful chat with me the other day comparing these two landscapes to what they called “the landscapes of our lives.”
It all started when I fell back into worrying about what being in public more will do to my life. Right now, I am really enjoying some relative ‘privacy’ compared to what I experienced earlier this year. I haven’t been teaching or out in public much. And yet I’m HAPPY in a big way. I’m focused on writing the six or seven books I’ve started in no particular order when the urge hits. I’m having fun with my creative urges. I’m cooking, exercising, and pursuing my own spiritual education, as well as spending time with furballs (dogs) and friends. The joy in my life, at present, is in the small, mismatched details. With my LITTLE human mind I don’t see the next BIG step yet. Blissfully I don’t care. I trust God enough to know that when He wants me to do the next ‘big’ thing He’ll let me know in my heart of hearts. In the meatime, like the magical little cluttered yard, I will enjoy the many small moments in my life that bring great satisfaction. As the saying goes, “the present is in your presence.”
There will come a time in the not too distant future, say the angels where I’ll have to weed out the activities in my life and focus on those that create a bigger picture. I’ll know in my heart what to do when those moments arrive, and at that time, when I and God are ready, the angels tell me I won’t feel as if I have to sacrifice joy to focus on a bigger picture. As sanity returned during this discussion with the angels I stopped worrying about what I’d have to “give up” to serve the world in larger ways.
Most of us have both these ‘landscapes’ in our lives from time to time. There are times when we are just living, enjoying the small things in life and those are beautiful, precious, and magical times. There are other times when everything else falls by the wayside to accomplish a task that we are passionate about. Those are magical in a different way. Neither is better or worse just different. The trick is to enjoy whichever ‘landscape’ is present in your life right now.
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