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The Sublime and the Mundane
By Nita Gilger
Astonishment was my main reaction. I could hear the roar and thunderous crashing of water but I could not yet see it. We hiked a distance until, finally, the trail took us through the dense trees where the Victoria Falls came into view. The falls are one of the Seven wonders of the world located on the Zambezi River in southern Africa. The beauty, mist, power, geomorphological features, rainbows and history are beyond incredible. The Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world.
As one looks over the falls from the vantage point where I stood, there is a statue of David Livingston who is said to have discovered and named the Victoria Falls in 1855. I found that to be such a troubling, ironic, and sad moment in the tattered, oppressive history of colonialism. The local Batonga people had named the falls Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning the smoke that thunders. Indigenous people have inhabited that area for three million years. David Livingston and Cecil John Rhodes, who commissioned the building of the Victoria Falls Bridge, were hardly the original explorers of the region. They were only the Europeans who brought this miraculous gift of nature to the awareness of the world citizenry.
There have been many "just on the other side" moments in my life. Loss is one of those times. And death. They, too, are jolting. What is on the other side? What is just beyond what we can hear and see that awaits us? Could there be beauty there? Grieving is sort of like that. It takes us to a place of needing to relearn ways to live in the world. What is our new normal going to be when life gets turned upside down? What gifts and lessons are just beyond the door we must open?
Time and timing can offer healing and wonderful ways to help us discern what really matters in life. I wonder sometimes how much time I waste on irrelevant minutia in life? Where do I spend most of my thoughts and emotions? To function in life, I do have to take care of the mundane, ordinary things. We do not have a housekeeper or a lawn service or someone to deliver our groceries or cook. I sometimes struggle to find meaning and joy in the ordinary stuff that must be done.
Wouldn't it be grand if every day was a Victoria Falls kind of day? Or would it? If it is true that God pays attention to the sparrow, the blades of grass and counting the number of hairs on my head, maybe I could go a little bit monastic or Buddhist and learn to appreciate the small, ordinary moments in life with gratitude for life itself. Perhaps before I get overly focused on what might be on the other side or what is awaiting me out there, somewhere, I need to be more in the moment with a deeper awareness and openness to what I can learn and offer in this very present moment.
Prayer: God of all, help me to balance life with love and awareness. Fill my days with love, gratitude, laughter, and joy, even when the ordinary and mundane seem to take too much of my attention. Help me to give myself time when I need it and patience when I can't quite find a way to open the door to the next needed discovery for my life. Amen.
As one looks over the falls from the vantage point where I stood, there is a statue of David Livingston who is said to have discovered and named the Victoria Falls in 1855. I found that to be such a troubling, ironic, and sad moment in the tattered, oppressive history of colonialism. The local Batonga people had named the falls Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning the smoke that thunders. Indigenous people have inhabited that area for three million years. David Livingston and Cecil John Rhodes, who commissioned the building of the Victoria Falls Bridge, were hardly the original explorers of the region. They were only the Europeans who brought this miraculous gift of nature to the awareness of the world citizenry.
There have been many "just on the other side" moments in my life. Loss is one of those times. And death. They, too, are jolting. What is on the other side? What is just beyond what we can hear and see that awaits us? Could there be beauty there? Grieving is sort of like that. It takes us to a place of needing to relearn ways to live in the world. What is our new normal going to be when life gets turned upside down? What gifts and lessons are just beyond the door we must open?
Time and timing can offer healing and wonderful ways to help us discern what really matters in life. I wonder sometimes how much time I waste on irrelevant minutia in life? Where do I spend most of my thoughts and emotions? To function in life, I do have to take care of the mundane, ordinary things. We do not have a housekeeper or a lawn service or someone to deliver our groceries or cook. I sometimes struggle to find meaning and joy in the ordinary stuff that must be done.
Wouldn't it be grand if every day was a Victoria Falls kind of day? Or would it? If it is true that God pays attention to the sparrow, the blades of grass and counting the number of hairs on my head, maybe I could go a little bit monastic or Buddhist and learn to appreciate the small, ordinary moments in life with gratitude for life itself. Perhaps before I get overly focused on what might be on the other side or what is awaiting me out there, somewhere, I need to be more in the moment with a deeper awareness and openness to what I can learn and offer in this very present moment.
Prayer: God of all, help me to balance life with love and awareness. Fill my days with love, gratitude, laughter, and joy, even when the ordinary and mundane seem to take too much of my attention. Help me to give myself time when I need it and patience when I can't quite find a way to open the door to the next needed discovery for my life. Amen.
