Life's Encouragements

During my twenty years of self-imposed “responsible confinement”, I was sustained by infrequent, but always timely, encouragements from Life. And, you will note, that is Life, with a capital ’L.’ Signifying that Power, that Source, that One in whom we all have our disparate beliefs centered. As I was blessed to learn from the late Joseph Campbell, the famous scholar, teacher, and author; regardless of secular nomenclature, all of mankind has, over all recorded history, acknowledged its recognition of The Numinous, the I Am.

And that One, that Father of us all is, as my experience has taught me, loving, compassionate, and ultimately kind. And experience, My Dear Friend, is the consummate affirmation of that truth. When Joseph Campbell was interviewed by Bill Moyers, for a series that is often presented by Public Television, he responded to Bill Moyers’ question “Are you a Believer?” with “A Believer is someone who has not experienced that in which he believes. I am fortunate to be experienced, so I do not have to rely simply on belief.” And, therein, My Friend, lies the foundation for my appreciation of the goodness of The Almighty. For, in my experience, when despair was at my doorstep and hope was beyond sight, there would appear … unbidden, unexpected, and without any initiation on my part, an Angel of kind mercy to lift me from that muck and mire that I felt myself sinking into … and set me on a firmer footing of encouraged and renewed hope.

While those of secular religious practice, of varied description, would decry my declaration that the Creator of the universes and Author of their various texts and scriptures, would reach into my miseries and lift my soul’s despair by means of what they would consider condemnable … my experience has taught me that the One who is the Author of “every good and perfect gift” knows, beyond my simple abilities to comprehend, what is best for and most needed by my spirit. And I am humbly grateful for, and eternally honoring of those rare, but timely, rescues of my spirit, from unbearable anguish. And it would be irresponsible, and an act of dishonoring ingratitude, if I failed to share the encouragements of my experiences with you. So … consider it done.