TRUE STORY
“You are in the world but not of the world.”
(John 17:14-15)
Yesterday afternoon our massive Viking refrigerator suddenly toppled towards me as I was innocently unpacking our groceries. Initially I had the vertiginous feeling that I was falling forward, only to quickly realize what was happening and cry out for Jim to help me. Luckily he was nearby and we both braced it up, watching helplessly as its contents slid onto the floor into a sodden mass of smashed glass and fast-pooling cranberry juice that had all the markings of a horror movie. Minus the truncated body. However, the olives added the suitably macabre suggestion of rolling eyeballs…
As the initial shock wore off I worked to keep my emotions in check, as gratitude for how lucky I had been to weather, unscathed, this narrow escape, battled with a desire to tear a strip off whomever was responsible. It took effort to stay focused on “what is” versus wild imaginings about what might have been if one of my grandkids had unwittingly swung the door open towards him, her or their self .
To distract myself from such catastrophic thoughts I tuned into a TV show called “Beyond Paradise”, (a spin-off of the murder mystery series “Death in Paradise”) that, for some unexplained reason, I find calming. Maybe it’s because they always get their man, or woman, within the time allotted. Or perhaps because, once the episode is over, I’ve forgotten whatever thoughts I was originally hung up on.
In the intro of either show, and at times throughout both, the camera pulls back to offer a bird’s eye view of the stunning local scenery that us earthbound folks rarely see. As I gazed, entranced, at the glorious patchwork of green, rolling fields on the TV, I felt the tension release, and with it thoughts of a witch hunt for whomever was at fault. It brought to mind the quote I used at the beginning of today’s blog:
“You are in the world but not of the world” is a phrase that means to be physically present in the world, but not to be consumed by its values and trends. It encourages people to maintain their own beliefs and principles, even if they differ from the mainstream.” (Verse Ministry International)
Another way to interpret this quote is: “To maintain a healthy skepticism about the opinions and beliefs generated in the mainstream, or worldly side of my mind”. Provided I am even remotely capable of discerning right from wrong, good action from bad, I know that certain behaviors do not fit the criteria to which the more enlightened part of me subscribes.
Hang gliding and airline travel notwithstanding, daily life rarely affords me the third person omniscient POV of my physical surroundings offered by a drone or the other aforementioned modes. But daily reflection gives me the cool lens I need to ensure that what I think and feel, do and say, is congruent with my highest ideals.
Being one day removed from my close encounter with a wayward refrigerator, I am grateful to my wiser side for taking the time necessary to let my emotional energy dissipate. I still have flashbacks of the crash, smash and splash of yesterday’s close call. A sobering reminder that life can change in a heartbeat, and a compelling reason to clear whatever karma I can within my allotted time.
Aum Satchitananda
PS Is anyone making a TV mystery series about a wackadoodle supervillain with designs over a land named after a color rarely seen on said land by an exiled Danish murderer who is also named after a complementary colour in order to attract other deluded types to the land of snow and ice? True story.
PPS And no, it’s not Canada.