Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Blessed Advent & happy Thursday to all of our ADD Irregulars, Friends, Refuges, Early Birds, Later Dayers, Conversants, Lurkers, PHAM, Dawn Patrol, Happy Bigots, Fascinating People, Triggeratti, Seekers of Sanity & Civility and all the rest of you Supports, Members and Visitors at Locals! Welcome December and this final month of 2022, may it be a wonderful ending to whatever this year has held for you.
How about a little David Whyte to start off the month? Off we go to Consolations - The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words!
MATURITY is the ability to live fully and equally in multiple contexts, most especially the ability, despite our many griefs and losses, to courageously inhabit the past, the present and the future all at once. The wisdom that comes from maturity is recognised through a disciplined refusal to choose between or isolate three powerful dynamics that form human identity: what has happened, what only looks as if it is happening now, and what is about to occur.
Immaturity is shown by making false choices: living only in the past, or only in the present, or only in the future, or even living only two out of the three.
Maturity is not a static arrived platform, a golden epoch from where life is viewed from a calm, untouched oasis of wisdom, but the dissolution of living elemental frontiers between what has happened, what is happening now, and the consequences of our past; first imagined anew, and then lived into the waiting future.
Maturity is the breakdown of elemental frontiers, between different epochs of our life, between life and death, between the part of us that has been a fine, upstanding citizen and the darker, helpless parts of us that have caused harm and damage. Maturity is the time when these tidal forces meet and break apart our life, making one life out of our regrets, our self-compassion, and our forgiveness forged into a future made real by a radical change in our behaviour: real maturity can only be sustained by real silence, by a daily discipline of silence and an inhabitation of spaciousness, a foundational giving away. Maturity is the discipline of giving up and giving away, to see what is left and what is real.
Maturity calls us to risk ourselves as much as we did in our immaturity, but for a bigger picture, a larger horizon; for a powerfully generous outward incarnation of our inward qualities and not for gains that make us smaller, even in the winning.
Our previous stage of immaturity always beckons, offering a false haven and false accounting, an ersatz safety in one state or the other: a hiding place and disappearance in the past, a false isolation of the present, or an unobtainable sure prediction of the future. But maturity beckons also, asking us to be larger, more fluid, more elemental, less cornered, less unilateral; a living, conversational intuition between the inherited story, the one we are privileged to inhabit, and the one - if we are large enough and broad enough, moveable enough and, even, here enough - just, astonishingly, about to occur.
Maturity - something I would never claim for myself, I imagine I might be mature and there are many who might think I am immature, such things are open to debate. Trying to gage one's maturity seems to be more of an understanding of one's own capacity to manage your emotions and to integrate your thoughts and awareness into them. Mr. Whyte sees it is the ability to juggle the past, present and future equally in your contemplations and experiences.
MATURITY is the ability to live fully and equally in multiple contexts, most especially the ability, despite our many griefs and losses, to courageously inhabit the past, the present and the future all at once.
I agree with the assessment as long as one also grants the integration of feelings and thoughts without the complete dominance of one to the exclusion of the other. Neither facts nor feelings get the ultimate say in a mature person's life compass. Neither facts nor feelings care about the other in the immature person's experience. I'm not taking a dig at the like of Ben Shapiro, I imagine his point is not to let feelings undermine and obscure your facts. At the same time, your facts have to acknowledge the emotional landscape that is processing the facts, a message delivered to the unreceptive is barely any better than the one never delivered. Facts & feelings are in some sort of interior dance for those of use trying to embrace maturity as a more permanent state of being. Maturity is not place of arrival for us but rather a place of dwelling that is one maintains by our constant attentiveness. So many factors can dull that attentiveness, can distract, diminish and at times delete that attentiveness as we slide into the immaturity that makes a wreck of our lives. Sadly regressive immaturity is often recognized by our friends and close ones long before we awaken to the fall. Good friends lovingly pull back the curtain on our immaturity and help us find our way back to more attentive living. Helping us rediscover our truer self is a priceless gift that only good friends can offer because of their love for us that is not alienated by the edges or put off by the warts.
Maturity is the breakdown of elemental frontiers, between different epochs of our life, between life and death, between the part of us that has been a fine, upstanding citizen and the darker, helpless parts of us that have caused harm and damage. Every sinner has a future, every saint has a past. That awareness gives me hope for humanity, the entire lot of us slowly making our pilgrimage through life to an unknown and uncertain future for so many. I believe in the destination and homecoming, but only time will tell. There is a Companion on the path, hidden, humble, and subtle, often just whispering invitations to us to open our heart and awaken our mind, occasionally speaking with greater veracity in larger life moments. Such whispers and utterances are observed or ignored, the choice is yours. The Companion is never looking for the qualified, never seeking the perfect, there is no need for you to bring credentials, those just get in the way. Attentiveness, willingness, childlike trust in the context of adult awareness with all its questions and doubts are suitable enough for the Companion, if there is a welcome.
real maturity can only be sustained by real silence, by a daily discipline of silence and an inhabitation of spaciousness, a foundational giving away. Maturity is the discipline of giving up and giving away, to see what is left and what is real. Silence makes one more attentive to the whispers of life, allowing us to hear our deeper self often hidden from us by our distractions and preoccupations that lead to a barren life. The giving up and giving away - good parents awaken to this reality, the poor ones struggle to find it. You can almost always tell with their children if you spend enough time with them. No judgment here on parents, it is such an amazing vocation. Those who awaken to the giving up & giving away find a new life to form, encourage, direct and love. You don't have to be parent to discover the giving up & giving away, anyone can if they allow their time to be claimed lovingly by others, but parents are brought to this state of yielding faster than many of us who have no children.
But maturity beckons also, asking us to be larger, more fluid, more elemental, less cornered, less unilateral; a living, conversational intuition between the inherited story, the one we are privileged to inhabit, and the one - if we are large enough and broad enough, moveable enough and, even, here enough - just, astonishingly, about to occur. Immaturity tempts us toward regression, but maturity beckons us to be more. It is easier to chose the path that leads to less, but it always leads us to the dullness of life and the entertaining of more selfish or darker inclinations to fill the void made for a more vibrant experience of life. The conversational intuition between my story now and my story unfolding should be enough to keep us all engaged in the adventure of living. I hope you dear reader, can hear that beckoning voice in your life and you have the trust and courage to follow it to a larger more fluid, more elemental living as David describes it.
Happy Thursday and December my Dear Digital Neighbors! A fun meme from @eclecticRPT to cap off the rather lengthy text.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Good morning, digital neighbors! Blessed Sabbath and Saturday to all you fine souls milling about on Substack and Locals in the various communities I visit and enjoy, especially my home crew at Padre's. I hope all of you had a wonderful week while I was away at the Lake of the Ozarks. The weather was great, perhaps even a bit too warm, but the mornings and evenings were outstanding autumn weather with that crisp tone. Buckle up: TL:DR is on the way.!
The late-summer drought continues. I doubt it will be a colorful autumn for any trees; they mostly look either green or that yellowish tinge of distress. I suspect this will be a "brown and down" kind of autumn with barely any vibrancy. Time will tell. At least Unsplash will provide some wonderful autumn photography. That is where most of my photos come from, with the photographer credited.
The main presentation of the week was Dr. Scott Hahn's six lectures on the Road to Emmaus as a paradigm for understanding the Sacred Scriptures and the Eucharistic ...
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
