Her Words Came To Me Over The Phone: "Whenever someone talks to me about goodness and the importance of being good, I feel like I'm being asked to give up my individuality." How much I longed to reach over the miles that separated us and hug this fourteen-year-old dancer. I treasured her honesty and yearning to find herself.
I can't remember all that we talked about that day, but I do remember one point: that goodness isn't something you conform to; it is something that you respond to. It's what happened to me when I stopped and noticed a winter morning's sunrise. It made me forget I was standing outside in the cold. The beauty echoed something so deep within me that I stopped complaining about having to shower at the neighbor's because my hot water heater was broken.
Worth and goodness are never going to come from outside ourselves. This elegant universe that expresses so much life evokes a deep response, but the reason it does is that creation's bird song is indwelling joy being recognized. Nature's change of seasons expresses the resilience and the continuity of life. The breadth of the sky reflects eternity.
