Tis the Season...

Sometimes, I am reassured that there is simple good and joy in the world, and it's usually when I'm at my lowest that I'm reminded of this. I'm a somewhat religious/spiritual person, and so I feel like these moments of beauty are God's message to me. I know that they are there for everyone to enjoy, so they are not personal messages per se, but I believe that these messages are God's way of talking to us. I'm not crazy (or, at least not because of this) and I don't think that God is a physical presence that physically talks to us, but rather sends messages to us, and through those events and images speaks to us.

About two weeks ago, I am walking to the train station from my office, and it is cold and wet and miserable. I'm feeling fairly low, and had a particularly trying day at work that day. I'm thinking that I'm cold and wet and tired and generally grumpy, and that I just stepped in a puddle and now my foot is wet and squishy, and I'm starting to get a blister because my wet foot is sliding in my loafer. And then, I'm walking by the loading zone of a hotel, where there's this big coach bus. And in the destination placard, instead of a city, is the message "Be Happy."

Then last week, I'm on the train traveling from home to work. I usually have a book with me, and I read for the twenty-minute train ride. I usually am not distracted, and I'm reading a particularly good book (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre) and I'm at a fairly exciting part, but this day, I just cannot concentrate. I usually sit on the outside, too, but this day, I'm by the window. And I figure if I can't concentrate, I'll just look out of the window at the city as it passes by. I look up at the sky, because it's fairly overcast, and the sun is making pretty rays as it peeks through the spaces in the clouds. I'm looking at this, and I think that the cloud looks positively green. I polish my glasses, and then look again - sure enough, there's a faint rainbow in the sky as the light from the sun's rays reflects off of the clouds. It's so beautiful, this rainbow, peeking through the break in the almost total cloud cover.

And I know these messages are God's voice, reminding me of Its presence. That It is there, always, even when it seems like It is not.

There is a lot of sadness in the world... Some Guy will tell you that if the cure for all disease was a simple glass of clean water, half of the people in the world wouldn't be able to be cured. That is sad, that so simple a thing is unattainable by so many. And when we think of the sadness and the hunger, the politics and the backbiting, it seems like God is not there...

But we need to remember always that God is there... that through our choices we create situations that are challenging, but God is there, and It speaks to us in very subtle ways, if we just look up from our daily grind.

Be Happy... and happy whatever you celebrate.