No Neutral State

We can never be morally neutral, either we are growing in virtue or falling into vice.  We never have the luxury of simply being in some neutral, holding state. There’s no moral neutrality.  Either we are growing in virtue or sliding into virtue’s opposite. That’s true for all of life. A thing is either growing or it’s regressing.

I thought this might be a good quote to post to start this blog. It certainly gets one’s attention. It really speaks to an important aspect of living a full and happy life that has real meaning, it seems to me. We can not stay stuck in neutral, so to speak.

The physical and emotional struggle of walking the Camino de Santiago is the constancy of the walk. There was no neutral state, you had to keep moving (or at least that is they way we did the Camino). We were moving most everyday of the walk. Going ever farther away from the starting point of the walk and moving closer each day, to Santiago de Compostela, our final stop of our walk.

Like the Camino walk, we are also on a journey in our lives heading toward our final destination. I believe we must be committed in our life to continuous growth in the virtues (Humility, Generosity, Chastity, Kindness, Meekness, Temperance and Diligence). See there is no neutral state, so if you are not working to grow these virtues you will be moving away from these virtues and into an unhealthy state of being that is full of oneself with little concern for others. I know that not everyone may agree with this but for me it seems to ring true. If we all strived to live these virtues, what a beautiful world this would be! So much heartache and sorrow comes to us from not striving to these great virtues.

But the fact is, that growing in the virtues does not come without focus and effort and grace. I don’t become an pilot because I love to fly in an airplane. I have to have the desire but more importantly I have to put in the work to get to the point where I can be certified as a pilot. So just desiring to be more virtuous is not going to work for us either. Just desiring to walk the Camino does not get you to Santiago.

So I am challenging myself and all of you to also take the virtues as a measuring stick. Where do I need to grow more in virtue?

Blessings and all good,

Photograph of the Month

God’s Hole

This image was taken during a car ride home from a hike/photography trip to the Skagit/Chuckanut Mountains. My friend, Bob’s son, Karl, refers to the mystical opening of the clouds and rays of light shining through as a “God Hole”.

Rituals

“Don’t travel with anyone who expects you to be interesting all the time. On a long journey there are bound to be some boring stretches.” Daniel Berrigan

Walking the Camino, we certainly experienced some very long boring parts of our walk across Spain. One of the keys to walking this long walk was to recognize the value of ritual to our daily routine. Regardless of how we felt we followed a daily ritual to hold us together.

We arose before dawn, dressed, washed our face, brushed our teeth, applied our sunscreen and began walking. We found our morning coffee and snack as soon as we could and then we were off again. We would look forward to getting off our feet for lunch and then it was off for our afternoon walking till we reached our destination for the night. Once we hit the Albergue, we would wash our clothes, take a shower, blog and journal, and then we were off to dinner and bed. This was our ritual.

It turns out the ritual can be very important to our health and well being it seems. Ritual practice keeps us doing the things we should be doing even though we don’t feel like it. Children crave routine and ritual. It is really vital to their health. We have sure been reminded of this as we care for our two grandchildren each week. Sticking to “the routine” keeps them happy and healthy. You see we can not live our lives by feelings alone. Feelings are like the weather and are always changing, we need ritual to hold us together, to contain us.

“Be wary of anyone who in the name of psychology, love, or spirituality tells you that ritual is empty and you must rely on your energy, mood, and feelings as your guiding compass. They won’t carry you far.” Fr Ron Rolheiser

So I say, embrace the ritual. Having trouble with an area of your life you want to get control over and help you become the best version of yourself. Begin a new ritual that will help you to get it under control. I have seen that the more discipline I apply in my life to increase my healthy rituals, the happier I am. Give it a try!

Blessings and all good,

John

Photograph of the Week

New and Growing

I created this image from a photograph taken during walk across Spain. We came across a number of newly planted forests on our walk. I loved the repeated patterns of the trees and they attracted my attention with the interesting lighting as well. I have to say this came out even better than I thought. I really love image. I need to get this one printed up!