String of Hope

A California religious newspaper (The “Son” Sentinel), published an article which contrasted the living habits of two kinds of birds that fly over the California desert: the vulture and the hummingbird…

All the vulture can see is rotting meat because that is all it looks for. It thrives on that diet. But the hummingbird ignores the carcasses and the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, it looks for the tiny blossoms of the cactus flowers. It buzzes around until it finds the colorful blooms, almost hidden from view by the rocks. Each bird finds what it’s looking for.

What are we looking for? Better still, what are we finding? And what we are finding tells us what we are looking for in Life. Our expectations of Life will determine, ultimately, our realization of Life.

Hard to believe, but it will soon be January, the month named for the mythical Roman god Janus, the god of doorways — of beginnings. Janus was represented as having one…