C.S Lewis said that ‘Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.’ I read once (and now I can’t find who said it) that distractions are not preventing us from living our lives, the distractions are our lives! Some seasons seem to be filled with more interruptions than others and I am in an intense one right now. Maybe I need to learn something important. It’s not even that it’s my children or other people; it’s rain falling on the nearly-dry clothes on the line and our bunny eating my pot plants and a bee sting to attend to and a broken tap and an outside light that is flickering on and off. If I was a puppet I would think that the puppeteer must be playing jokes on me. I can’t seem to get anything done quickly and it’s as if I am taking the long route to get anywhere. Where is that toll road that will take me there quickly, the one with no pot holes and double lanes so I can overtake lots? I can’t seem to find it. Oh, it’s not for lack of trying, I have clear ideas of what I am going to do and when, but things often don’t go according to plan.
There is a J.R.R Tolkien riddle that goes:
‘All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not whither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.’
‘Not all those who wander are lost’ stands out to me in this season of winding pathways. Perhaps his words were meaning that travelling souls or those without a permanent dwelling are not straying, they are simply at home everywhere. But maybe it’s also a comfort for me as I find myself on untrodden paths or taking a left here and a right there when my intention was to just get down to business and go in a straight line quickly from where I am to where I am going. Just because I am taking the scenic route, does not mean I am lost or failing. I will get there, maybe not in my timing, but eventually. Perhaps stronger and richer, with a greater understanding of others and the world, thanks to a more interesting journey.
I was just pondering this life of continuous to-ing and fro-ing and bending and winding and off the beaten track and back on it again, briefly, before a walk through bush, when my cousin-friend told me about crinkle crankle walls. These brick walls are built in wavy, serpentine shapes, with alternating curves. One would imagine it to be extravagant to make a wall weave from side to side but walls built in this fashion use less bricks! The arch support provided by the shape gives it a strength that a straight wall would only acquire by using double the amount of bricks. Vertical posts would also be necessary for extra reinforcement in a straight wall. Vertical posts are not necessary in a wall that bends this way and that. Could it be that my distraction-filled life is stronger, less boring and using up less energy and money in the long run? By adding a curve and a bend, we lengthen the journey but reduce the resources necessary and don’t need to spend as much. Once again I find myself marvelling over the fact that things are not always as they seem. The world is full of mysteries.
We are not so in control as we think we are or wish we could be. It’s liberating to realise that we can plan and prepare to a degree but the outcome is not certain. There are many changeable variables and we will live such miserable lives if we are trying to keep everything perfect and balanced and in order. So long as we live in this world, interacting with people and animals and all of creation, we are going to find ourselves confronted with situations and circumstances that will demand our attention much as we might want to keep trotting along like a horse with blinkers on, obediently pulling a carriage. Obviously we need to have boundaries and we are allowed to say no and we can decide how we will respond to the unexpected, but sometimes opportunity comes knocking, and we need to be able to recognise it. On occasion, a carefully imagined procedure needs to give way to a spontaneous change of plan.
God’s greatest commandment is to love Him and others. When we do that, no matter how untidy the journey looks, no matter how many times we stop along the way, He has a way of setting all sorts of other things right in our lives. Your desk might be a mess, your mind might be cluttered, a tree might fall across the road and interrupt your drive, but usually it’s people who get in the way of our ‘productivity’ – and a person is always more valuable than getting tasks done speedily. I wish you many a distraction that becomes a treasured memory, a jewel in your hand, as you respond with love and grace rather than flustered frustration.
Matthew 22 verse 37-40: ‘Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”’
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