jakorte's blog

Something in me has changed within this season,
- giving me a starker view of the bare branched, fiery, fallen-leafed landscape of my autumn life.
I struggle with my own inner peace and the turmoil of lives around me.
I find myself caught between “seize the day” and "heed the future”, and sometimes when asked – I find myself advising both.

So which one is to be, then? Or can it truly be both?
If I seize every opportunity today to make the future a better place, and if I accept that GOD loves me as I am, and yet strive to be more frugal, more healthy, more steadfast in my faith – there really isn’t that much of a conflict, is there?

As I left a friend the other day, she innocently displayed an image which captured my attention and my imagination. Moving her arms as if she were swimming she declared in unspoken action, “I am a fish swimming upstream, everyday, pushing through the weeds, towards something better.” Sometimes the only goal you can focus on is the one that says “just keep going.” I suppose we all want to believe that we are headed for something better if we can just push through the negativity of others, the cramped means of our lives. Mad paddling, sweeping breaststrokes, scissor kicks – we move in whichever way our limitations allow.

Of course we’re not frantic salmon with only one pre-programmed genetic goal. But, we are pre-programmed with a great universal goal – whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. There is an innate drive for and toward “something” better, “something” more. Not an abstract, but rather an easy, well definable target: Heaven is the ultimate goal.

Realize this – we spend hours swimming against the negativity of our world, so that we can make our way to peace and joy. And as long as we’re headed there, let’s recognize this as well - It is our responsibility to bring others along on the ride.

In this issue: New Pennies, Salmon, Thinking for Yourself in the Face of Doubt,Health Benefits of Swimming
Now Posted: Action Plan Early July, New Orleans, October 2009.