October 5: Happy Saint Marty's Day, Nature of the Universe, the Future

Happy Saint Marty's Day!

Yes, the day has finally arrived!  All that preparation, cookie-baking, decorating, and gift-wrapping have finally paid off!  Now, we can all just relax and enjoy the joy and goodwill of this blessed day!

I will say that this past year has had a lot of ups and downs for me.  And, although things are still not on level ground for me, I am still able to wake up in the morning, go through my day, finding things to laugh about, feeling loved and blessed.  Sure, I have my down days, but I try not to wallow in them.  Instead, I look for the beautiful things in the swamp.  The water lilies and orchids.  The singing bull frogs.  There's beauty everywhere.  You just have to open your eyes and look around.

Douglas Adams writes this about a bowl of petunias falling through the atmosphere to the surface of the planet Magrathea:

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again.  Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now.

Yes, even petunias can have a bad day.  Or a series of bad days.  There's always mystery in life.  (Why did those petunias say, "Oh no, not again.")  Nobody knows why bad things happen to good flowers (or people).  There may be no answer to that conundrum.  A cynic/pessimist may say that the the petunias are victims of a universe that is cruel and cold.  An optimist may say that the universe is preparing the petunias for something better.  A realist would simply tell the petunias that their fate is simply a fact of nature and to accept it.

On this Saint Marty's Day, I would tell the petunias to enjoy the sun and wind in its petals!  Don't worry about what's coming.  Worrying about the future is a fruitless endeavor.  If there is one thing this past year has taught me it's that you can't spend your whole day pondering the "what ifs" of life.  Because they may never happen, and then you've just wasted minutes/hours/days of your life.  Instead, I choose to focus on making the best of my now.

Today, I will enjoy driving my son to his weekly game of D&D.  We will listen to podcasts that we love.  Or Christmas music.  (I've trained him well.)  Later, I will enjoy playing the pipe organ for Mass this afternoon.  I'm sure my daughter and wife will have some Saint Marty's Day goodness to share with me.  And then, hopefully, a fire tonight in the backyard.  Or a game night.  That's about as far into the future as I'm going.

That is what Saint Marty's Day is really all about.  Enjoying the little and big blessings in your life.  Not taking anything for granted.  Because, as the Spinners song warns, tomorrow may never come. 

Saint Marty wishes you all a blessed and joyous Saint Marty's Day!

December 21: Orion Vaulted, Winter Solstice, Time

Today is the winter solstice.  The planet tilts just so to its star, lists and holds circling in a fixed tension between veering and longing, and spins helpless, exalted, in and out of that fleet blazing touch.  Last night Orion vaulted and spread all over the sky, pagan and lunatic, his shoulder and knee on fire, his sword three suns at the ready--for what?

I have been waiting all year to use that passage from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  I purposely saved it for today, the winter solstice.  The sun has less than two more hours of life today, and then darkness will descend.  As Annie Dillard says, Orion will vault and spread, pagan and lunatic.

Not that I will see Orion vaulting and spreading.  Snow is falling right now in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it's supposed to continue throughout the evening.  At least a couple of inches overnight.  It's all good, though.  I am going to adopt and attitude of blessing this day of long night.  The snow is a blessing because it waters the soil, lays the foundation for the green apocalypse of Spring. 

I am in my university office.  It's about mid-afternoon.  I will be waiting about four hours for my daughter to be done with her dance lessons.  That's a blessing, too, because I will be able to finish my blog posts for the day, read some, write some, try to get some votes for Poet Laureate.  It's a gift of time.  Quiet, undisturbed time.

As my two Constant Readers know, an attitude of blessing does not come naturally to me.  I tend to gravitate toward the dark side.  I wouldn't necessarily call myself a pessimist, but I am certainly not an optimist.  If there is some middle "ist" between pessimism and optimism, that's where I fall.  Maybe I'm an opessimist.  Or a pessoptimist.  I don't like the label "realist," because it seems to close the door on the possibility of the wondrous.

So, I will choose to be an opessimist.  I give thanks for the blessings of the day (the licorice in my desk drawer, for instance), but I know that darkness is roaring across the globe toward me.

Please vote for Saint Marty (Martin Achatz):

Voting for next Poet Laureate of the U. P.