Monday Morning Thoughts

It would be impossible for me to look out at a sunrise such as this mornings and not marvel at the Creator. We have no greater works of art to inspire us than what the Master has painted in the sky for us. The colors often bright but never garish, the pastels...peaceful. Always a perfect mix and never exactly the same.
I was thinking about the way I see things this morning, always looking for more detail, more understanding, more depth to even the most plain and simple. But more often then not what I discover is the same thing, sometimes just packaged differently. I thumbed through a copy of a popular book that is out right now. The secret to a new world, compassion and keeping the ego in line.... sounds a lot like humility and loving one another to me. Why is the old words so unpopular ? Do we just like the sound of the new phrases ? Have we grown tired of hearing the same old same old and seeing folks, including our own selves, not change ? Is it easier to change the words ? I have felt that way...needed a new approach, the old one didn't seem to work, only the problem wasn't with the old concept, it was with me. I didn't want to get it, not really.
Changing ones approach to life is a tough one. We develop bad habits and nurture them, stroke them, pet them, nourish them and most of all, try to just tuck them away out of sight when we realize they are not so good. We cherish them and hate to cut them away from us. So if we can by some change of words, make them seem less offensive, and find a slower more gentle way of dealing with them, we go for it. Ego is a far more sophisticated word than "self". It seems a bit removed from the nitty gritty, a bit removed from us, it seems to be more of a THING than our own self centeredness. I am reading about John Winthrop right now and the puritan movement. Funny thing is, so many said back in the 1620's and 1630's what we are saying now. To paraphrase... people are greedy, people are consumer hungry and people are not compassionate to those less fortunate. One quote of the time could be used today without any problem. "Conscience," wrote a contemporary of Winthrop and Crowley, "is a pretty thing to carry to church but he that useth it in a fair market or shop may die a beggar." Isn't that what we call a "dog eat dog world". Isn't that how many businesses are run today ? Isn't that how we see so many Christian businesses run today ? So in all these years, we are still fighting the same battle, surrender self.
I had a good laugh at myself last week. I like the idea of less stuff around, a simple approach to the difference between NEED and WANT. I even mentioned wanting a "Zen" look in my house. Well, the modern look isn't really me so I was looking in some old magazines and saw pictures of the Shaker look. It was perfectly "Zen". Simple clean lines, no clutter. Function and craftsmanship. Clearly the Shaker motto of "Hands to work and hearts to God" showed forth in all that they had. I somehow never thought to say, " I want the Shaker look". No, needed to use the new phrase of "the Zen look". Do you see what I mean ? We want new words, new explanations for very old things. Zen is ancient but we want "the NEW Zen look. I suspect that the old verses about storing up treasures on earth was really talking about living with a simple look. All these new books talking about these "new ideas" are actually very old teachings, all sought after by each generation. We just want new packaging simple because we haven't really figured out that we don't need to check our conscience out at the church door. We can take it to market with us. Old words, same hard lesson for today.