Dear Reader:
i am loving ‘six years old’ so far in Eva Cate’s development. We can have such great conversations now that make me laugh and cry at the same time. Yesterday this happened and the age-long mystery of the search for the “hidden treasure within us” was answered once again.
Eva Cate was teasing me and calling me Rebecca.…so proud she knew this was my “real” name, not Becky or Boo. I laughed but then told her about Rebekah in the Bible and how mother named me for this very special woman at the well.
She immediately asked me about her name and who she was named for. I told her she was actually named for two people….her great Aunt Eva, mother’s sister who we all adored, and Eve in the Bible. Who gave Eve her name in the Bible, she asked. God, I replied. Eva Cate, your name is quite a prestigious one because you are named for the first woman on earth created by God….her name was Eve. Eva Cate became very quiet.
And then, as only small children can do, she threw her arms wide open, swirled around, and then closed her arms hugging herself tightly. “Thank you God!” she screamed in delight. “I love my name and I love You!”
It was so completely unexpected and out of her normal character that I first laughed out loud. But as she continued to twirl and thank God for her name….I found myself misting up over the most important discovery she had just made in her short life. Eva Cate knew her greatest treasure was inside her and (more importantly) she already knew it was God.
(Awakin Weekly/Creative Living/Elizabeth Gilbert)
Look, I don’t know what’s hidden within you. […] You yourself may barely know, although I suspect you’ve caught glimpses. I don’t know your capacities, your aspirations, your longings, your secret talents. But surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you. I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure.
I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.
The hunt to uncover those jewels—that’s creative living. The courage to go on that hunt in the first place—that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one along our spiritual path through life.
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(Source: HuffPost Religion/The Meaning of Life/Rabbi Evan Moffic)
Our lives are not disjointed days. Their minutes and hours connect to one another. They link who we are to who we will be. Every day is an opportunity to seek the hidden treasure within us.
Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
The greatest barrier to finding what is hidden today is fantasizing about tomorrow. How often do we create a flawless vision of our future self: the perfect job, the perfect marriage, the perfect world. Rarely do these visions ever match reality. They often have the opposite of their intended effect. Rather than guide us, they handicap us. Rather than pull us toward the future, they trap us in the past.
If we think only of tomorrow, we never discover hidden treasure within us today. When we avoid the challenges of today, we never become future person we are meant to be. “Today,” the psalmist wrote 2,000 years ago, “is the day God has chosen. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” If we do so, we discover possibilities within ourselves that we never saw before.
*Rabbi Moffic concludes his article telling a wonderful anecdote that really hit home to me.
One of my favorite stories in all of Jewish literature conveys this truth in dramatic fashion. It concerns a man named Reb Isaac of Crakow. Isaac had a dream one evening. He dreamed that a certain treasure was buried underneath a bridge in Prague. Eager to provide more for his family, he pooled his resources and traveled to Prague.
When he got there, he found that the bridge was guarded day and night. He waited patiently. After a while, the guard began to have sympathy on him. He went up and asked Reb Isaac what he was doing here. Reb Isaac told him about the dream of buried treasure that brought him to this bridge.
The guard laughed. “You have faith in dreams, he said. That’s nonsense. If I believed in dreams, I would have gone to Cracow, because long ago I dreamt that under the stove of a man named Reb Isaac of Cracow, there lay buried a great treasure.” Reb Isaac understood the message. He returned to Cracow that same day.When he got back to his home, he discovered the treasure that lay under the stove that had been within his grasp each day.
If we look, hidden treasures lay buried within each of us. And new ones appear all the time. We do not have to travel to Prague in order to find them. Yet, we do need the courage to look. Sometimes another person, like the guard in the story of Reb Isaac, can give us clues. But we are the only ones who can find it.
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When Mandy and Jakie got home around 4:00 yesterday, Jakie started running around in circles all throughout the house. At 20 months…he has just started doing this “ritual” recently, probably from watching his dog, Tigger, do the same thing when people come to the house. A happy, excited “run” of life.
Jakie is certainly not guilty of running for the future because his life is solely made up of present moments in time. He is not consciously aware of God, creation or the meaning of life. But he does know where his happy run will end…with LOVE/mama!
So until tomorrow….if we are really lucky and follow our Creator through our happy run in life; it, too, will end in LOVE . (The only real treasure in life.) And like the Resurrection Fern….our lives will continue to return with beautiful treasures of beauty each year.
“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh
*As I watched Eva Cate swinging at the park, Duke Ellington’s popular jazz song kept echoing through my mind.: “It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got your swing.” So let’s all get our “swing” on and hunt for the self-discovery of our treasured place in the world….with God’s help and guidance…
*It is June 1….Don’t forget to say “rabbit” and start the lazy, hazy days of summer on the right note…a high note!
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
What a beautiful story. Eva Cate has always been ahead of her time. What a true blessing you are to her as she is to you. Jake is so precious. He looks like a miniature of John. John and Mandy are such great parents, with a great and wonderful Grandmother Boo. What a blessing !
Lessons from children are the best, aren’t they? Love sweet Eva Cate without knowing her.
Thanks for always reminding me to cherish the precious moments right in front of me. You are a treasure to me!
Becky…I think of how much time is wasted worrying over things that may never happen…or if they do happen we have no control over them so we should rejoice in each day. ..”give us this day our daily bread”…means do much more than just food for nourishment. ..I think of the song that has the words…”morning by morning new mercies I see…all I have needed Thy hand has provided… On Jun 1, 2016 6:04 AM, “Chapel of Hope Stories” wrote: > > Becky Dingle posted: ” Dear Reader: i am loving ‘six years old’ so far in Eva Cate’s development. We can have such great conversations now that make me laugh and cry at the same time. Yesterday this happened and the age-long mystery of the search for the “hidden treasure” >
Bingo Gin-G! One hand is all we need and a hug is even better!