Breaking the Chains that Bind

Change is in the Air. And, It Smells Like French Fries

Published by mhelbert on January 8, 2020

Last week I wrote that this year, 2020, is not going to be like most other years.
There are new things sitting on the horizon. If you squint just a little and tilt your head to the left a tad, you should be able to see them.

In just under three months I am going to enter the ranks of “Those Who You Used to Work.”
Aka: Retired.

I began working in the printing industry 49 years ago. For those keeping score, that’s a loonngg time ago. Little did I know then, as I cleaned spray powder off the ceiling and pipes, that I would spend my entire adult life helping to push paper through machines.
But, I have come from those first days of cleaning the overhead to sweeping floors and working in the warehouse, through helping on presses and nearly 45 years in prepress, to here today getting ready to say goodbye.

I have a lot of different feelings right now.
So much has happened during the last nearly half century. Most of it good. Some time spent in the valley. But, that’s the way life is, right?

There is so much that I would like to write about.
But, I am still processing some of this.
Yeah, I’ve been planning for this for quite a while.
That doesn’t change the feelings of anxiety and fear that lurk around the periphery of my heart and mind. It’s not until you etch the decision in stone that the reality of change begins to truly come into focus. As long as you’re talking about what’s coming it still has a fairy tale feel.
But, when you actually bite into the apple and feel the truth coursing through your veins, well, let’s just say that it’s different.
It’s real.
This is actually happening.

Yikes!

So, change is coming.

No stopping it.

We just try to not get squashed by it.

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Alchemy of Words

Published by mhelbert on January 7, 2020

What strange Majick is this?
What Craft has loosed this power upon the Universe?

Tis not Majick that raises such music as this!
Listen!
The Mind gathers the elements which flow
Freely through the vales that course through
Its fertile folds and hillocks.
Without incantation, wand, or spell,
Sparks ignite within and current races through
The tight weave of thought
Forming,
Sculpting,
Creating.

Behold these words of mine!
Like the Cosmos before them,
Created Ex Nihilo.
Meaning,
Substance,
Language!

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We Had And Epiphany

Published by mhelbert on January 6, 2020

We had a what?!
Epiphany.

i-ˈpi-fə-nē

The word comes from a Greek word that means, “appearance, or manifestation.”

We tend to use that word when a person comes to a sudden understanding or realization of the significance of some event or discovery.
“Wow! I get it now!” he said as he grasped that moment of Epiphany.

There is another Epiphany that followers of Jesus celebrate today, January 6.
This one looks to the revealing, or appearance, of Jesus as God Incarnate.

Here in the West we use the image of the Magi who traveled from the region where Eastern Iraq is now. They gathered gifts to present to the One whom they considered the new born King of the Jews. Traversing deserts and desolate routes, they led their caravan to a small, podunk town in the Province of Judea. When they arrived they fell down and worshiped Jesus. This was their Epiphany. They experienced the appearance and manifestation of God in the face of a young child.

The Eastern Church celebrates with remembering Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River at the hands of His cousin, John. As Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon Him and the Voice of the Father spoke revealing that Jesus was God’s Son. A Son in whom God was ‘well-pleased.’ In this act, this Epiphany, Jesus appeared to the World as the manifest Presence of God.

Here in the U.S. we don’t think too much about Epiphany as a religious holiday.
We’re usually pretty busy cleaning up after the REAL holidays of Christmas and New Year. We get back to work and business-as-usual moaning about the fact that the next paid holiday for most of us is months away.

But, Epiphany?
Yeah, who cares?
I still have to go to work.
School’s back in session.
It’s no big deal.

What if we stopped for a moment and considered this event?
Who is Jesus in the world today?
Is He a child at His mother’s side holding a blanket?
Excited, yet too young to understand why these strange men are standing around praising God and offering Him gifts?
Or, is he a young man standing in the living waters of the Jordan, dripping from being immersed in the cool wetness of the river?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, Jesus was all of that and more.
We celebrate the events that revealed Him to the World.

However, are we who follow in His footsteps not truly His Body right here; right now?

If His Body, then bearers of His Image and Presence.

We are, in a very real sense, the Epiphany of God today.
We are God’s appearing and manifestation in our own culture.

Perhaps it’s time to live into that reality.

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Where The Heart Wanders

Published by mhelbert on January 3, 2020

My heart wanders out into dusk
Not quite night; No longer daylight.
Stars wink behind a light veil of clouds
Reflecting off of the shimmering, blue-gray surface of the water.

“Where are you going?” I asked.
My heart looked back and shrugged.
“Off to the forest where once I found in dappled sunlight
the Love of Life.
Then, across the Savannah in search of Hope Immeasurable.”

“But, what if the Beast of the Forest who hides among the
flowering Rowan should appear?
Or, the ravenous Lion of the Great Grasslands?
Surely, you will be devoured!” said I.

With a gleam in his eye and lilt in his voice, he said,
“My Friend, how can I know the exhilaration of living without
a life fraught with such things?
How can I thank the Heavens for Life and Light if I have not
seen the possibility of Death and Darkness?
Where is Joy when there is no sorrow?”

I nodded and watched as my heart turned toward
his destiny and wondered,
“Shall I ever see him again?”

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Words…Yeah, I Believe in Words

Published by mhelbert on January 2, 2020

Well, it’s back to work today.
I enjoyed a little over two weeks off over the holidays. I really could get used to that!
Most of the time spent was very good. I needed the rest. Plus, it was really nice navigating the season a more leisurely than in some years.

I alluded to changes coming in the New Year in a post yesterday. 2020 is shaping up to be unique in many ways. I’ll get to each as I am able.
Right now, though, I’m considering Words.

Most people consider words and language as a means to an end.
We communicate our wants, needs, and desires in a manner that others can understand. We see a color and say, “That’s red!”
Images may come to mind like a fire engine or a nice, ripe apple. From there we may associate the smell of smoke or the fragrance of apple pie. We can feel the firmness of the apple’s flesh in our imagination. That may trigger a memory of a baseball. Or, perhaps the opposite. The softness of a peach. And, that in turn, may send our neocortex into overdrive with myriad sensations cascading through our mind.

All because of “Red.”

Words are far more powerful than many of us consider. In ancient Greece and Rome special schools were established for the sole purpose of teaching students how to shape and form words. The schools of rhetoric flourished and great orators gained renown for their ability to shape, not only words, but the thoughts and opinions of those who listened to them practice their art.

And, art it was!

People could paint pictures and sculpt monuments using only words. Civilizations flourished and fell because of words placed in their proper, (or, improper), places. A slip of the tongue could cost thousands of lives. On the other hand, a well craft oration could establish Queens and Kings.

Today words have largely become common currency in the culture. Yes, they still contain a modicum of power. Fortunes can be won and lost because of a timely slip of the tongue. But, tomorrow someone else will say something that will undo that in a heartbeat.

We have lowered the importance of language to the point that it is merely one of many different media to consume. From television and radio, to books and magazines, we eat words to satisfy an appetite. When the effect wears off, we hunger for more. It seems that an unending supply of tasty words are available for us to gratify our hunger. We become gluttons for more words to stroke our egos and indulge our baser appetites.
One simply needs to see the content of Facebook or twitter to experience this.

Words are Power.

Even in the diminished form in which we hear and see them today, they are Power.

Are we capable of wielding it?

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The Times They Are A’changin’

Published by mhelbert on January 1, 2020

First, I wish that you all will have a happy and prosperous New Year in 2020. The ball dropped. The old is past. Hope looks ahead.

Many of us look to this date as a resetting of the clock. We are full of optimism and hope for fresh changes in the twelve months that lie ahead. Resolutions for personal improvement and growth are made once the effects of last night wear off. (Hint: Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate!)
Then, by February the resolutions are largely forgotten and we get on with life as usual. In my entire life I only made one resolution that I successfully implemented. That was to never make a New Year’s resolution. I have kept that one.

I am not going to have the luxury of allowing life to simply carry on as usual this year. There are changes coming that will upend the routines that I’ve spent nearly 50 years building and reinforcing. They say that time waits for no one. This year is proof of that.

And, I have to admit to no small amount of fear and uncertainty. Any changes that come our way cause anxiety. Major life events, no matter how well prepared for, bring that anxiety on steroids.
I remember how my wife and I walked into marriage 43 years ago. Yeah, there was great joy and celebration. But, our lives were changed that day. We looked forward to our life together with optimism and fear. A strange emotional cocktail. We drank it, however, and for better or worse we have muddled our way through.

We looked forward with happy expectation as our children entered the world and joined us on this journey.
Again, though, worries and anxiety came to the party.
How would we be as parents?
Concerns about finances, health, housing, education, etc., etc., etc. clouded our minds every day.
Life as we knew it had changed forever.

We watched as our own parents aged and walked on from this life.
Our friends and siblings grew up and apart over the years.
People change.
That’s part of the journey, isn’t it?

And, still we trek on. Putting one foot in front of the other.
In the midst of, or perhaps, in spite of the anxiety.

The alternative is to stop walking.
The result of that is to wake up on the wrong side of the grass.

All of that to say, 2020 will be a year of profound change for us.
And, yes, I am afraid of what lies ahead.
It is an unknown.
If thar be beasties out there, then we’ll meet them together.

Perhaps, though, there is a new world awaiting us with new joys and gifts and promises.

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Goodbye, Old Friend

Published by mhelbert on January 1, 2020

I was going to post this yesterday.
But, I ran out of time.
Kinda like so much else last year.

Goodbye, Old Friend!
You came to us with a shout of gladness,
Clad in diaper and sash.

Quickly you grew in harmony with the world around us.
From infant to child. The green shoot echoing as it pushed through the frost.

You blossomed into a young adult.
Full of promise; growing in Strength.
You worked among us and shared the fruit of your labor.
We all ate and were satisfied.

All too soon, we saw white, like frost on the grass, appear in your hair.
Like the naked trunks of trees, lines began to crease your brow.

Now, your departure is at hand.
It is with profound thanks that we sing this final goodbye.

As I considered the passing of the year I couldn’t separate it from the cycle of life that we experience here. As the world around us stirs and grows from the cold of winter through spring planting. Sowing and reaping; hope and gladness. Until the circle is joined as we bid farewell to our old friend.

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Sunset on Another Year

Published by mhelbert on December 30, 2019

Today’s the Eve of New Year’s Eve.
For a lot of us it’s a time to tidy up after Christmas. Take the decorations down and store them away for another year.
Others may still be returning gifts or redeeming gift cards. Gotta keep Amazon busy!
For many it’s just another day. Back to work trying to make sure all of the year-end accounting is completed.
Then there are those who take the last few days of the year to reflect on the days now past.
The days of darkness from a year ago when the cold winds whipped across the landscape. Snow and ice piled up in parking lots. Yet, with lengthening daylight came a bit of hope.
Hope that was finally realized when the first crocus forced its head up through the still thawing earth. There was the return of the birds and other animals after their long winter sojourn in other places or hidden away from the forces of Nature.
Hope gave way to realization of new life and green trees. Warmth seeping into the ground to rouse the seed and call the sprout from its protective shell.
Soon the colors change and daylight again begins to wane. Harvest time! Gladness in the fruit of the ground!
Then, the circle closes as we come, yet again, to the end.

Or, is it a beginning?

As the Cosmos cycles through birth, life, and death, so too do we.
There are cries of newborns and sighs of the aged and infirm.
Relationships blossom and bloom. While others get tangled in the weeds, choke, and pass into compost.

Yet, it continues.

We still hope.

We still sow and reap.

Perhaps it is a good thing to reflect.
To remember things as they are and have been.

But, we can’t dwell there, can we?

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Both/And

Published by mhelbert on December 27, 2019

It’s hard living in a binary world.
On/Off
Black/White
I/O
Right/Wrong

For, in God’s Cosmos there are even more colors than Microsoft’s Millions and Millions.
There is the space between the river above and the river below as water cascades over the stones that divide the two. In that space the water is neither above nor below. It is neither In one or out of the other.
It is Between Space.

Right?
Wrong?
According to whom?
You?
Me?
Someone else?

Yes, some things must fall in one or the other.
Murder?
Wrong!
Rape?
Also, Wrong!
Feed the Poor?
Always Right!
Give a needed hug?
Right, again.

We don’t usually need to make those kinds of choices in our everyday lives, though.
Do we?

No, most of the time we need to decide between strawberry and grape jelly with the peanut butter on the sandwich.
Neither right nor wrong.

Yet, we fight and argue over the color of the bathroom or which gas station to go to.
“No! I want Yellow paint! I’ll pick it up on my way to Get-Go!”
“Forget that! You’ll get Blue paint on your way back from Speedway!”

From politics to religion to whether Spam is actually food, we disparage one another.
“It’s my way or the highway!” we shout.

But, what if it’s not?

Rather than Either This or That,
What if life is actually filled with

Both/And?

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Advent: Fourth Sunday

Published by mhelbert on December 21, 2019

“Are we there yet?”
“No, not yet, Little One.”

“Are we there YET?”
“Soon. We’ll be there very soon?”

“ARE WE THERE YET?”
“Be patient just a little longer.”

We joke about this image of a child sitting in the backseat asking a parent again and again, “Are we there yet?”
How often does the parent become exasperated? We see the eye rolls and the grimace when the small voice behind the headrest pipes up with that all too common refrain.

This Sunday we celebrate the fourth, and final, Sunday of the Advent season. The last purple candle in the outer ring of the wreath is lit. We call this candle Peace.
The angel came to Mary to announce the Messiah who would bring Peace.
Peace between God and the Cosmos.

Yet, look around.
Where is Peace?
Troubled minds and spirits roam the earth in search of it.
Nations tremble in fear waiting to see it.

This candle with its flickering, fragile flame reminds us that we have not yet arrived. There are still a few miles to travel before we reach the destination.

“Are we there yet?”
“No, not yet. But, soon. Very soon.”

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