@HomewithDean – Homily 12/03 - a podcast by KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)

Around here the day after Thanksgiving is usually pretty special. The big feast is over. All the dishes are done and the house reset. Leftovers are perfection. Everything is relaxation and quiet easy conversation. The kids were over, Jan and Angie were down from the guest house, and there was Olivia—my sometimes seven, sometimes seventeen granddaughter—sitting across from me on the deck in the oversized Adirondack chair that she swears is larger than the others because it’s Papa’s. The little rainbow colored crocs on her feet were dangling and swinging as her purple stained fingertips were popping pomegranate seeds into her mouth from a tiny Tupperware bowl on her lap. It seemed to me to be pretty close to a perfect moment. She must have thought so too because at one point she looked up to survey the scene. Her tribe was there—a circle of love, laughter, and safety all around her. The afternoon air was crisp. The seeds were wonderful. The contentment was palpable. And then she said it … “I am living the life. What could possibly go wrong?”It’s an unusual thing for a seven year old to say, but then again Livy is unusual, in the best of ways. And in that perfect moment, “I am living the life,” was just about the best thing I’ve ever heard anyone say.More troubling, of course, was her question, “What could possibly go wrong?” I knew she wasn’t actually looking for an answer and I was certainly not going to spoil the moment by telling her that actually just about everything could go wrong and often many things will. She will find out soon enough, in her own way, in her own time, on a less sunny day. And besides, in her own time I hope she learns that even when things do go wrong, there’s room enough in her to still be living the life.The human soul arrives as a tiny one room cottage. But soon, with every new experience, good and bad, it begins to expand. Live long enough and your soul will look more like a mansion with many rooms and room enough for everything you will collect along the way. Room enough for grief and regret and joy to all coexist together. Room enough for sorrow and laughter and hope. Room enough for all of it to be there all at the same time. It’s all life, and we’re living it.Along the way you learn that the good times are never as permanent as you’d hope, the bad times are never as hopeless as they seem, and there’s room enough in us for it all. If you’re hurting today, I’m truly sorry. Pease remember, pain has come and gone before and it will come and go again. And if for you, pain is hunting elsewhere right now, then take this moment to fully celebrate life’s gifts, big and small. The sun shines a lot more often than we think, but not always. So when it does, no matter what else has been going on, maybe what we all need is a big chair and a bowl of pomegranate seeds to help us realize … wow, it’s true … I am living the life

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