Contemplation Of Life

THURS., NOV. 12, 1998, 1:32 PM
FARM, DINING TABLE

You just have been sitting on your deck, after a sweaty task of hauling firewood, contemplating life, as you have been privileged to lead it. Now you have decided (completely on your own? of your own free will?) to hear what I have to say about your life… and about contemplation. A fine way to spend an emeritus afternoon hour, say I.

You have had some goals in life, and you’ve achieved most of them. You would like to have been more well-known for your writing, but part of that “lack of achievement” was due to My calling you to this relationship… to “mo bettah” writing. You were a success at Punahou, and you have been so here. You didn’t have a real chance at Stanford, but it was a wonderful bridge (a means) between one success and another.

Rightly, you feel no need, at this time in your life, to have goals to achieve. It can be more and more a time of preparation for the next portion of your total spiritual life journey. Finish this one with energy and fine spirit, and be ready for “what comes next”. We’ll work out your “future” together, based on strengths and weaknesses evidenced so far. You’ve done it before. The process will be familiar as you come to it again.

As you contemplated life, in your early years, you could see that it was a fine combination of the physical, the mental, and the social. You were an athlete and then a coach. You were a good student and then a good teacher, from 7th 8th graders to advanced graduate students. You were active socially, in clubs and organizations, with friends from each of the “eras” of your life. (You liked to be liked, and it is difficult, now, to deal with some of your actions being seen unfavorably. I’ve experienced lots of that, and I have some sense of how you feel.)

As you told your life story, in brief, this week you mentioned, but didn’t elaborate on, being “born again”… and then “again”. Yes, o son, at this time, in this life, you have been “thrice-born”. (That’s probably enough, but, though I like 3, I could “do it again” if it were necessary.) The balance is changing, and it should be more and more obvious to “what” it is changing.

Your body still works pretty well, in spite of the developing imperfections. Life on this place should provide enough natural exercise to keep the physical functioning above average for your age. You have much that you can read, enough to keep your intellectual functioning as well as possible… with forgetting being an increasing nuisance. Socially you have about as much interaction as you desire. Your relationship with Lenore, one of both love and respect (and fun) is important, as well as those with your sons (and their families) and with some special friends, many of whom are former students.

The balance “she is a ‘changin’” toward the spiritual. This has always been a part of your life, but increasingly it should be the prime dimension or focus. I have used the terms “low level mystic” and “semi-monk”, and so have you… and these are toward which the balance shifts. The spiritual is a “realm” in which you need have no goals or aspirations. You had a Teaching some years back entitled “You Are ‘In’”, the theme of which was that you were chosen… were elected… to hear Me, Holy Spirit, almost as often as you need Me. I gave you the tasks of keeping these Teachings in some usable order and of writing a quarterly Letter, Our Ruminations… and you are doing rather well at such. But there is no “goal” in such tasks… just the joy of completion.

You can decide at any time about your church responsibilities. These are of service to the church… and, hence, to Me, in some ways. I appreciate the service, but they’re not central to the portion of your life… and you are not irreplaceable.