Pick out a Glory

Life is busy and stressful for many. Even though this is supposed to be the season of joy, it may be hard to find a reason for joy in the midst of so much misery and pain all around us.

Yet, every day we ought to pick out a glory to celebrate despite the drudgery, desolation and even the doom we might feel on any given day. There is plenty of glory to pick from if we have eyes to see them.

Protestant theologian Samuel Miller wrote:

In the muddled mess of this world, in the lethargy and the boredom, we ought to be able to spot something — an event, a person, a memory, an act, a turning of the leaves, the flight of a bird, the wagging tail of a dog, the weariness of the weak, a ray of light coming through a cracked window, the faint sound of the falling rain — something, where we ought to pick out a glory to celebrate.

At the end of each day, I have made it a practice to scan my mind for glorious things that happened that day. One day, the glory was that I got to touch Albert Einstein. Yes, physically, well sort of. You might be already saying that is impossible. Read on.

Mrs. BK was a 98-year-old patient on my hospice team. She was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Her first job was at a doctor’s office, as a lab technician. During that time, she got to draw blood from Einstein who came in for his routine medical check-ups. That was BK’s claim to fame, and she told that story to anyone who was willing to listen.

I was fascinated by Mrs. BK and my imagination lit up, watching a young lab technician drawing blood from the arm of the famous scientist. At the end of our visit, while shaking her hand, I told her that I had touched Einstein by touching the hand that touched the scientist. Awareness of that invisible but real connection was my glory pick for October 22, 2020.

Yesterday’s glory pick was a driver giving me the right of way while coming out of a parking lot. I am grateful for his courtesy.

The day before was a lady appreciating the color of my shirt.

I have a poster in my house which I glance at every morning as I come down the stairs. It is titled 930 Things to be Happy About.

Some of the most mundane, simple things on the list are:

Yard sales,

any refund,

uncirculated pennies,

steam room,

honking horn,

penny on the pavement,

matching socks,

banging screen doors,

funny get-well cards,

memory lane.

Simple, ordinary, inane stuff of life, stuffed with meaning for the eyes that look at them with contemplative gaze.

Each day, there are numerous glorious moments to pick from, but paying attention to life is a must, lest we miss them.

(from Cosmic Kindergarten: Earthly Lessons for a Heavenly Life)