A Gray Philosophy

By early March, a pair of common sawbills were navigating the icy waters and little snow-covered rock islands of Lower Winona Lake. Soon, there were more than a dozen ring-necked ducks, beautiful hooded mergansers, a species of deep-diving grebes, and more than thirty ornate wood ducks. Later, there were cardinals, blue jays, green herons, kingfishers, orioles, and many other species of birds.

 

It was as if God were personally tending

To my deepest spiritual needs and desires.

 

But what made these majestic events possible was the construction of a strip mall west of the woods. A large swath of land had been cleared, and that caused wildlife to flee eastward to the spillway. It made me wonder if every blessing we experience is diminished by its occurrence in a harsh physical world. Maybe we should be thankful for what we have when we have it.

 

It is a gray philosophy, but the alternative

Is to live with a gigantic chip on your shoulder,

Doomed to fret over every discouraging event,

With your every good intension fatally corrupted

By the unrealistic and self-destructive belief

That the world can, or even worse, should

Be made subordinate to your will.