By Sister Mary Scholastica, O.C.D.
Today, May 1st, we celebrate St. Joseph the Worker, and we begin the month of May which traditionally commemorates our Blessed Mother. May IS our Blessed Mother’s month!
As I was walking on the treadmill (not to imply that I do it often!), it struck me how so readily we can get lost in a very short-sighted way of seeing. Take the treadmill for instance. When on it, I don’t know about you, my eyes kept focusing on the numbers on the screen. It was constantly drawn to look down, focusing on the changing numbers, wishing the time would go faster! A bit of tunnel-vision. There was a moment when I reminded myself to look up and out and in doing so, the realization of the world around me and how short-sighted we can be was very striking.
This process of looking up and out is the process that needs to become our daily bread.
In catching myself focusing on the ticking numbers, in prompting myself to look up and out, the layers of life visible around me took form. In the small room where we have the machine, there is a window that gives you a peek out. The window was the first layer beyond the treadmill. Literally and figuratively, a way to look outside the room. Directly outside the window was a row of green bushes and I could see the life growing on the green as it waved with the wind. Beyond that, our neighbor’s home where I’m sure they were bustling about inside getting ready for work. Beyond that an orange tree in someone’s backyard. Beyond that, a hedge of bushes leading into another home. Beyond that a mammoth oak tree down the street. Beyond that, power lines that provide energy into many homes. Beyond that, palm trees waving in the sky. Beyond that a plane flying like a speck in the sky taking a group of people to their destination. From this simple movement of looking up and out beyond my limited purview of the treadmill screen, I was able to see nine layers of perspective.
Many of us have a depth perception problem. We can get so short-sighted in looking at the little itty-bitty screen in front of us. Yes, nowadays, this is a very literal problem but figuratively, in speaking about life, it’s a struggle we have regardless of the actual physical screens that may dominate our lives.
We can get micro-focused on the struggles staring us in the face in the moment. It has a gravitational pull downwards because in the midst of the struggle or even blessing, we can get locked in it. Thinking deep within that there is no way out (even if we don’t express it) and on the opposite end, thinking we can’t let go of the “good” that we are experiencing whatever that may be, “hang on to it tightly”. This is two different types of locking in.
The reality is that every moment has eons of layers, a multiplicity of depth in the present moment, whatever our present moment may look like. To look up and out and to shift your vantage point so that it sees the layers surrounding you is a way of looking beyond, looking at the greatest good in the moment, looking long-term. It’s an eternity viewpoint. The depth perception is not just the physical looking up, out and beyond, it’s a spiritual looking up, out and beyond. This perspective actually has no limit to the layers visible to the heart. There’s no end to it. It’s limitless. The possibilities are endless and, at the end of it all, there is always the greatest good we are moving towards…heaven.
