Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 3:
If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
Where a tree falls, there it lies. This sounds a lot like one of the aphorisms by grandad used to tell me. "Remember son," he would say, "You can go just as far on a full tank of gas as you can on a half."
Simple and obvious. And so obviously given that the deeper and more existential point goes without saying: Things happen, causes have effects, and it's good to be prepared for when it rains.
And it will rain.
The sooner we can come to accept reality as it comes, to take the world as its given and let go of the world as we wish it would be, then the sooner we get about the business of becoming adults.
Richard Rohr has studied the rites of passage many ancient cultures used to initiate children into adulthood. At the core of what was being taught through the rites were the lessons of life's difficulty, the fact that we are not in control, and that we are all going to die. Coming to terms with these things is part of growing up.
Rain falls. So do trees. The force of gravity works on everything -- including even the mightiest of oaks. And where the oak falls it will lie. That is a reality which cannot be denied, but must rather be accepted, talked about, and planned for.
Those who do so will be ready for whatever whenever; and so too their children.
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