I was having an especially difficult time adjusting to my life as a divorced man in early recovery many years ago. My mind was racing, my new job was confusing and I was filled with regret and doubt. It was a beautiful mid spring day in Champaign, Illinois and I decided to get out of the office and take a walk on the downtown mall. Just as I rounded the corner a voice greeted me with a cheerful "How-do" (An old Midwestern hello). I looked up to see a weathered homeless man sitting on a bench in the middle of what used to be the main street. "Hello", I said. He went on..."You know, I used to sit here when this was a street and I would watch the cars go up one side of the road and back down the other. Now I get to sit here and watch the people just walk and talk and walk up one side of this mall and down the other side." I looked at him blankly and said "Oh?". He grinned toothlessly with warm understanding eyes and said words that I have never forgotten. "I delight in it...I delight in it". My spirits lifted. I noticed that the air was cleaned with a morning shower and the bright prairie sun glistened. He grasped what I had failed to grasp. He understood how simply delightful even the most simple things can be...and are.
Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth century Dominican mystic theologian said "wisdom consists in doing the next thing that you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it". Such wisdom escapes us in our daily journey all too often. The picture that I attached to the blog is one that I took on a recent trip to Maui. It is on a road that leads to a delightful part of the island that is less visited than the other parts. Well worth the slow and winding trip with multiple stops and pullovers. No hurry, no worries...just hang loose. Delight in it today.
