"Where we are right" by Sr. Colleen Winston, OSB

                        ‘From the place where we are right
                                              flowers will never grow
                                                                    in the spring”     Yehuda Amichai*

This bold, hard-hitting assertion slams against the reader’s expectations and takes a while to be absorbed. While the scene of spring flowers can bring to mind a comfortable space with shade trees, new soft grass, a gentle breeze, and maybe a hammock, the poet dashes this idyll with an unpleasant thought: Is there a problem lurking here? Is something missing?

I was wondering what he was thinking, but further down in his short poem he tells us: “Doubts and love dig up the world like a mole…” As comfortable as my ideal spot is, it needs churning at some point. The phrase “resting on our laurels” comes to mind. In this time of the Olympics we know that the glow that comes with a medal is preceded bv a lot of churning in the form of struggle, pain, and determination.

Beauty can be deceptive as it often hides the labor that helped create it. The grass and flowers have to find their nourishment from the dark and dirt, then they have to push their way into the light. The struggle isn’t over after reaching the surface. They have to give part of themselves away to fertilize other plants and also be willing to accept gifts from other plants in order to become complete themselves.

So do we humans. Any goal and purpose we find deep within ourselves needs nourishment from around us. Sometimes certain people or events give us what we need … discipline, ideas, encouragement, a listening ear…. something that helps us stretch and supplement what is within us. These are gifts; so also whatever is innate within us.

I think what this German Jewish poet is telling us is that what we see is never the entire picture. There is more. Sometimes our world gets upturned like soil under a shovel. What appears after this churning can be something very new to us and we need to find its meaning or purpose. What we thought we knew was incomplete or even wrong. The place where we are right may be food for growing the unexpected: humility and insight into ourselves and others.