there is a Gain

In "Life Is A Gift" and other books, the late Fr John Claypool writes of being told by a friend and colleague that for every Loss there is a Gain, including his initial outrage and anger that it was said to him to try to help him during his Time of unbearable, unspeakable grief after the death of his young daughter; and of his experience in observing his own life thereafter, that it was true, and could be true in any situation in anyone's life if one would be open to see, realize, perceive, understand - - which calls back to mind yet one more Time again one of my favorite and most useful and helpful verses of scripture, at Mark 9:1, the word ἴδωσιν from its root word ὁράω I see, I perceive, I experience, I discern. 

It is not to say that the Gain justifies or compensates the Loss, but that at minimum one can find foundation and cause to go on -- with one's project, or one's determination, or one place in life, or especially even with life itself instead of taking one's own life. Fr John himself, in some place, I've heard him speak and I've read all of his writings I could get my hands on and don't remember where, said or wrote that immediately LauraLu died in his arms, his inclination was to run to the roof of the hospital and leap to his own death to stop the excruciating pain. And I expect that any parent who has lost a child has been there.

But I'm thinking this morning of the lovely view above, looking out over the place I love and have loved more than any other place on earth that I've lived or visited in my lifetime. 

And lately of course, and ongoing (Isaiah 6:11 How long, Lord?) The Storm, Hurricane Michael, our Category 5 nightmare that is present from the moment we first open our eyes every morning. 

The Losses have been dreadful, at first seemed overwhelming. We've had to look for Gains: an insurance settlement that covered the cost of rebuilding a house after Oct 10 that was substantially more than the market value of the house when we went to bed Oct 9, and enabled the acquisition of a new house far superior in every way. Ten months living with beloved family that otherwise we'd never have gotten to know so well. Malinda quitting the lifelong smoking that caused her brain aneurysms and the one that ruptured and brought on major life changes; quitting not voluntary, but nevertheless. That the recovering BillLloydBuilding of CoveSchool HNES is absolutely superior in every way to what it ever was. On the trivial side, forced exercise on me of a couple miles daily walking to get back and forth between 7H and the car in StAndrewsMarina a third of a mile distant, because the garage that's a few steps away is closed during construction recovery of HV; and we have to walk the high sidewalk to the far elevator, with its magnificent outlook on StAndrews and PanamaCity and StAndrewsBay. In normal Times I'd simply have walked to the near elevator, punched G, and walked ten steps to my car. As it is during reconstruction, I'm exercising and treated to a view of the reason I call this place 7th Heaven. 

That's all this morning, I reckon. Just the idea that is working for me, that for every Loss there's a Gain. Even for the Gain I'd never voluntarily suffer the Loss and Losses that we had during 2018 and are living into throughout 2019; but I had no choice, and here I am, with the will and ability to see that Life Is Good.

RSF&PTL

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