Unfurling the Hours and the Days

Everyday is a new test waiting just for you. Mine this morning was an email from my web host saying that my site had been rejected and the amount they refunded was half of what I paid. I then made notes and got someone on the line there and told her about the email I had received.

She had a very calm voice and had resolved the matter in five minutes, saying that the order
hadn’t completed yet. She re-entered the order and this time approval had come through and that I was good to go. She had a very calm pleasant voice and I appreciated that.

Have you ever noticed the voice inside your head that tells you what to do? Mine makes me hurry, so I am apt to make mistakes. There is always a sense of urgency about what I do.

From Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger:

“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”

I read this book when I was young and had not yet started on the spiritual path. I loved it, but I didn’t really get how deeply it strikes the human soul.

I have kept records that became my essays. If even one person learns anything from me, it is how forgetful we all are. Memories are selective and often dim, yet sometimes they routinely burst into our minds like bullies. We shake and worry, sensing that life hangs by a thread of hope on good days and a threat of despair right alongside it.

We are creatures made up of the opposites. We forget this at our own peril. Above the opposites lies Mount Redemption. It is a long hard trek over rocky ground. And we are always just a bit out of step. Nevertheless, Real I is watching over us as we travel one by one. This is no Club Med, but the truest route to self-realization. Climb on, climb on.

Vicki Woodyard