Listen to Your Life

With the beginning of each new year I come back to these words from Frederick Buechner:

"I discovered that if you really keep your eye peeled to it and your ears open, if you really pay attention to it, even such a limited and limiting life as the one I was living . . . opened up onto extraordinary vistas. Taking your children to school and kissing your wife goodbye. Eating lunch with a friend. Trying to do a decent day's work. Hearing the rain patter against the window. There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly . . . . If I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both as a novelist and as a preacher, it would be something like this: 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."

Comments

This is a great quote! I really enjoy Beuchner's work.
Drew Hill said…
Thanks, Elizabeth. Beuchner is the best for me, always fresh, always helping me see myself and life more clearly.
Anonymous said…
Beautiful post...
Anonymous said…
Drew - I just came across you blog through High Calling Blogs. I enjoyed your post here. It's so easy to just go through the motions of life without tasting, hearing, or seeing anything. And that's a good way to get depressed, burned out and disillusioned. Keep up the good work. Oh, and I see you're in Sedalia, which is pretty cool. I always stop at the Wheel Inn Drive In on my way to Lebanon to visit family!
Drew Hill said…
Matt- Nice to get acquainted. I will enjoy keeping up with your blog as well. I just have to ask. When you stop by the Wheel Inn, do you order up one of their famous Goober Burgers? It's a big juicy burger with everything, including peanut butter! I've never tried one, but some people swear by them.

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