Gratitude outside the fence.

I keep having conversations that help focus my grateful heart.  I used to live, mostly happily, inside “the reservation.”  It felt comfortable.  I knew the language. I knew the songs. I memorized the words. My tribe was there. There was plenty I didn’t really understand, but no one was asking ‘those’ questions. Slowly, by inches, over decades, I have arrived outside the fence.  I can still see the fence, but I’m so happy to be on this side. I don’t have a memory of ‘passing a door’, but I do feel the sweet wind of freedom on my face.

My recent contacts with people from “the reservation” have left me flat—even flattened, mostly by fear and rules. By way of contrast, my contacts with some others of various backgrounds and persuasions, has filled me with hope and life. Almost electric—back and forth, iron on iron, sharpening my vision and theirs. Without even a mention of it at the time, we felt that sweet wind of freedom on our faces.             

I remember hearing a quote from GK Chesterton about 50 years ago. The following is the only one I could find that is similar. Perhaps the years have changed the words in my mind, but the message is the same.

“We are Christians and Catholics not because we worship a key, but because we have passed a door; and felt the wind that is the trumpet of liberty blow over the land of the living.” ― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

These are the 4 quarters of a 24x24 painting on canvas I’ve been working on for weeks, followed by the whole. They do reflect me during this time of my life. I am an ‘8’ on the enneagram. I’m recalibrating. Now to bring the whole to a more peaceful, grateful resolution, outside the fence.