Smooth

I like the Eastern image of the lotus. The blossom begins in the mud, and grows up, towards the light before bursting into its glory as a flower. This is a metaphor for the spiritual life: for the journey of each soul towards enlightenment (ie, if you are a Christian, towards that blessedness which God knows you can and intends that you will attain). It is also the pattern of the many small steps we all make towards the greater goal.

The spiritual life is hard. As someone once said, the living water is like any other kind of water in that it flows by way of the valleys, not the mountaintops. We struggle and endure and then learn the lesson we are guided to, but our trials are usually punctuated by periods where everything goes well, where we rest for a bit before beginning another struggle. When we realise that the obstacles and hardships of life are our greatest teachers, there is a tendency to think of the intervening plateaus of rest and consolidation as pleasant, but somehow less instructive and important, but this is not so. The smooth times; the times of blessedness also have their lessons to bring: of the over all goodness and loving intent of the Universe and of the one who called us to be part of it.

Photo: Nikon D7100; Micro Nikkor 105 F2.8; f8, 1/250, iso450. The water lily house in Adelaide gardens.

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