Wednesday, February 8, 2023

THE GOOD LIFE


Dear All of Us,

Some of us are 

pretty subtle about it.

Some of us are 

blatantly obvious about it.

All of us are full time at it.

All of us seek

      The Good Life


Our pursuits take us in 

decidedly different directions.

We fixate on everything 

from wealth, health, 

status, station, 

safety and security, 

spirituality

salvation, significance,

popularity, possessions, 

peacefulness, comfort, 

sensuality, amusement,

wisdom, leisure, 

sports binging, and endlessly on.

So, what way, if any, works?


 The Harvard Study of

 Adult Development

was launched in 1938

to find the answer.

A large group of 

well off Harvard students

and a large group of

low-income, minimally educated 

young men from Boston

were studied over their lifetimes.

Others from both categories

have been added 

to this ongoing study

over the past eighty-five years.


In his new book,

     The Good Life: Lessons from 

     the World's Longest Scientific Study

psychiatrist, Robert Waldinger, MD,

a lead member of the Harvard study,

updates it and its findings.


Grinding poverty 

and debilitating illness

frustrate and prevent 

a life of balance and well being.

It's not at all 

     The Good Life


Position, power, privilege,

possessions, pleasure 

completely fail to provide it.  

This in the face of enormous 

cultural persuasion and pressure 

to the contrary.


The hands down, heads up, 

hearts open, consistent finding 

              is that 

         The Good Life

a life of balance and well being,

comes exclusively, fully, only 

   from healthy, consistent 

         Relationships

They are of all sorts, 

types and depths - 

friendships, romance,, 

partnerships, families, 

co-workers, tennis partners,

church small groups, 

book clubs,

close in to casual.


Being single, married, partnered 

is not requisite nor determinative.

Such do not cause happiness.

They can be 

the setting for happiness

dependent on the clarity, 

healthiness and realness 

of the relationships 

in those settings.


How about that?

What does it say to us 

and what do we say to it?

     Relationships

     Relationships

    The essence of

    The Good Life


The Harvard study 

was preceded

centuries before 

with exactly 

the same findings.

               GOOD

         RELATIONSHIPS

are the basis and substance of

        THE GOOD LIFE

  

   One of the religion scholars 

   came up. Hearing the 

   lively exchanges of 

   question and answer 

   and seeing how sharp 

  Jesus was in his answers, 

  he put in his question: 

 "Which is the most important 

  of all the commandments?"

  Jesus said, 

  "The first in importance is,

  'Listen Israel:

  The Lord your God is one; 

  so love the Lord God 

  with all your passion 

  and prayer and intelligence

  and energy.'

  And here is the second: 

  'Love others as well as 

  you love yourself.

  There is no other 

  commandment 

  that ranks with these."

    Mark 12: 28-31

    The Message


Dear Ones, there is a 

serious danger here.

If familiarity doesn't

necessarily breed contempt,

it surely, sadly does too often 

breed deep disengagement

and dismissal.

Let's be exquisitely honest

about what Jesus shares here

and our response.

We've heard this many, many times.

But then, have we head?

What has been the timber 

of our actual, lived response?


Is our primary and overriding 

passion loving God?

That means all day, every day,

always and in everything,

mixing it up with God

in God's Good Creation.

Just how passionate are we 

as God lovers? 

       Does

       ALL 

 of our prayer, 

       ALL 

of our intelligence,

       ALL 

of our energy 

go into loving God?

No "sort of," 

no "sometimes,"

will energize into

  The Oneness

    with God

  Jesus offers.

       All in

is the only way to

      ALL IN


We are invited 

to passionate 

lovemaking

with God.

There's nothing 

"Ho Hummy"

that qualifies, 

indeed intensifies, 

as does red hot passion.

Passionate love

enfolds us into 

an all inclusive

relationship 

    in/with

God Goodness.

It is the Good that is 

base and fullness of

 The GOOD Life

It is so inclusive 

it means God Love 

incorporates,

unites us,

in love of 

other and self.


Do we really love

       Other

     all other

all creatures 

great and small,

all the elements

united in our dinner,

all the vistas 

of creation manifest 

in The Rockies, 

in art and invention, 

in The Beloved Community,

in airplanes,

in farms?

Do we love God

vigorously living as 

       One

in the diversity of 

God Good Creation?


Just how grateful are we 

for ourselves?

What kind of relationship

do we have with our true self

our God Centered self?

Are we just plain,

flat out, exuberantly 

in love with

who we are?

    God is.

Do we join there?


When we are 

in the embrace 

of God, other, self,

a no holes barred,

a for real,

a wholesome 

 Relationship,

it will show up 

in nods and smiles 

on the street

all the way to a life style

of simply having enough 

so others will simply have 

enough as well, 

and lots of God Good 

        living/loving

        throughout.

        This life of 

   balance and well being

      doesn't take out 

 the hards and hurts of life.

     It does give us 

     a firm footing 

  to wrestle with them.


When we get past 

religion and spirituality

as hobbies, 

as comfort stations,

as fire insurance for hereafter,

we get swept up in the

     Trinity of One 

right relationships with

           God

          other

          self

It sure as heaven 

     makes for

 THE GOOD LIFE

    John Frank

     ******


     Thanks for the chance 

     to be together here at

        frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfranshares.blogspot.com


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           ******