Oh Well. You'll Still Have God.

What a kindred spirit to me was the David Grayson side of Ray Stannard Baker. I think of that always when I read his passages such as this one:

"But if once a man have a taste of true and happy retirement, though it be but a short hour, or day, now and then, he has found... a sure place of refuge, of blessed renewal, toward which in the busiest hours he will find his thoughts wistfully stealing. How stoutly will he meet the buffets of the world if he knows he has such a place of retirement where all is well-ordered and full of beauty, and right counsels prevail and true things are noted. As a man grows older, if he cultivates the art of retirement not indeed as an end in itself, but as a means of developing a richer and freer life, he will find his reward growing surer and greater until in time none of the storms or shocks of life any longer disturb him."

That's exactly what I have come to experience these past ten years.

I mean, at times Tom and I visit people who disapprove of our choices or who are so negative about Life, in general, they make me gasp for fresh, positive air as I sit there. 

And rather than feel threatened, insecure or dragged over to the dark, depressing side? I reassure myself. My heart tells my head, "Oh well. If these people don't like you, if you lose these people as friends, you can still go home, where peace reigns and you're happy, even alone. You'll still have your husband, your garden, your cats, all your blessings, and this new life of contentment you've discovered. You'll still have God."

What a difference that makes! Great amounts of fear evaporate when one believes and lives that way. Gone are the pressured temptations to agree with friends/relatives (misrepresenting yourself) when you certainly don't just so they'll like you.

Instead, freedom takes fear's place and one can be her true self because she can go home and live her life in joy.

At least, that's what I've found.

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The David Grayson passage came from his book, Great Possessions. Overall, not my favorite of his books, yet there are many passages in it which I do love.

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"Be what you is 'cos if you be what you ain't, then you ain't what you is." 

...... Joseph Campbell (as copied from a gravestone he passed one day).

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I have a new addiction (just what I need, right?).Yesterday I discovered films of abandoned houses at YouTube. They make me imagine the early families who built those homes and they make me very sad, too. But still, I watch. Here are a few (be sure to check the list at the right), but there are many more.


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