WHEAT or WEEDS? ADMIRABLE or NUISANCE? BEAUTIFUL LADY and 2 COWHERDS

Magnificent Orchid
enhanced by
Simple Geranium

We live a life of contrasts.  It is inescapable, yet we don't often make room in our minds and souls to reflect on the power of the reality in which we are submerged.  During this year which we identify in the symmetrical 2020 formulation we are enveloped in the dialectics of life.  It is a time when the powerful forces of reality are shamelessly intruding in our otherwise ho-hum lives.
The one thing that seems to be holding steady is the annual rainfall accumulation in an Diego - 10 inches.  But, the good thing is that so much has fallen in a narrow time frame that the flowers were resplendent on Easter morning.  That made the absence of social gathering in liturgical community a little easier to accept.
Speaking of social proximity.  It is rather strange to cover my face when I go to purchase the "baguette du jour" at the Vietnamese grocery store and still be recognized by those who have not seen me for a few months.  Also, it is a grace to be able to recognize whether the other person is smiling or not!  

So now we have a lot of contrasting realities to juggle in our minds and our hearts:
     More rain than sunshine
     More illness than normal
     Less freedom of movement than quasi complete freedom
     Less freedom of association than quasi complete freedom
     Less income than we consider essential to our subsistence
     Higher prices for food than usual
     Higher prices for perceived essentials than before
     Less courtesy in public interactions than usual
     Daily reminder that I am in dire need of a haircut!

So, lately I have been reflecting on the needs for contrast in our lives.  Not just personal life-style needs, but emotional and intellectual understandings, like, for instance:
     The high maintenance orchid is beautiful by itself.  Notice how much easier it is to appreciate its beauty when it is offset by the lowly, quasi weed, geranium. (See above)

Bermuda Buttercup

Lately, we have discovered this "weed" in our backyard, thriving beneath our Lemon Tree.  There is no way we will rid ourselves of its presence.  Together with our out-of-control geranium "ranch" it provides us with a connection to the Almighty Artist who creates these treasures.

Just as our suburban 1/3 acre lot is a veritable potpourri of such examples, so is our relationship with the God in Whom we believe.  Our Faith in Him is tested every single day with a constant stream of contrasts. He is the One Whom we believe tests us and in the following "breath" gives us the answer.  He is the One before whose very eyes we fall deathly ill, only to be told by the scientist that it had to be divine intervention that kept us alive.  He us the one who knows that the child we bear will be a bitter-sweet burden/blessing for decades.  He is the one who not only forgives our selfish career choice folly, then guides our success in the path that he shows us once He has salved the pain.
God has been this way from our very beginning.  I have always been guided in life by the way God treated Cain and the string of "heroes" whom He sustained throughout history.  To this very day.
Not only did He survive His one bad choice among the twelve, he has survived centuries worth of ne'er-do-wells and of low IQ loyal admirers, a phalanx among whom are those whom we believe to be spending Eternity seated at His right hand.  So much for high intelligence = success.  All the more for Love = Eternal Bliss.

We need look no further for proof than the one in Mexico (Juan Diego), three at Fatima (Lucy, Jacinta, Francisco), Lourdes (Bernadette), La Salette (Maximin and Melanie) and finally Therese of Lisieux.

God bless you all.