October 7--Is It Worth It?

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or
walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air is not worth all
the suffering and effort that life implies?

Erich Fromm

* * * * *

Today's Meditation:

Could it be so that all of the trials and heartbreak and adversity that we pass through is made worth it by those moments when everything seems perfect, when we feel that elation that the crisp morning air can bring or the beauty of the love we feel for a mate, a sibling, a child, or a friend?  After all, life is made up of  us working our ways towards such moments--ever working our ways closer and closer to the special moments when we feel a part of everything, a kinship to nature and our fellow people, a joy that doesn't necessarily last very long but that stays with us forever.

When a troubled youth graduates or reaches an important goal, we know that all the difficulty we faced in helping him or her was worth it.  We all have memories of certain wonderful moments with our spouses, and even though we go through trials and problems with them, is it possible that those moments make the whole relationship worthwhile?

Of course, if we're keeping score we may never find anything worthwhile.  Sometimes the suffering and effort so far outweigh the rewarding moments that we don't feel that it's at all possible for them to make everything else worthwhile.

But what if they do, and we just don't notice it?  Then aren't we losing out on what life is about--the positive sides of our experiences here on this planet?

Erich brings up a very important possibility, one that we truly must consider closely and carefully.  If we don't, it is possible that we can miss the rewards of our lives simply because we don't have our minds open wide enough to the possibility that these small moments, these wonderful, seemingly unimportant moments, may be what we're working towards in our lives.

* * * * *

Questions to consider:

How do we come to think that only the big things are really important to us?

Why do we feel that there has to be more than "walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air"?

What does it mean to you for something to be "worth it"?

* * * * *

For further thought:

Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.  In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:  touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner




More on life.