See the Light

One of the greatest comforts which technology allows is that we can pull up inspiration in a second. I discovered that yet again yesterday in an uncountable moment of my personal history, when I longed to hear I Saw the Light, an inspirational ballad courtesy of Hank Williams, Sr. 

We all, and I mean we all, every one of us, have those moments where everything is quite clear, quite profound, quite incredibly true. Real reality hits us upside the head. We cannot in those moments deny it. We see, with a clarity beyond human explanation, the spectacular joy of existence, the indescribable truth on which all truth lay.

Other than in his laughter (which I hear often, as it was infectious) the only time I hear my father's voice is when I hear him chant, during O Salutaris Hostia: Da robur, fer auxilium! He blasted it straight out of 1950 acolyte Latin. This was 1994, attending a novena with my family, him kneeling beside us. I felt as though the immensity of creation rang in his singing that evening.

I challenge you right now, this minute, to tell me you have not had such a moment. Or moments, because by the grace of God they are many, varied, and frequent. I have experienced it often, from my then two year old son waving bye to me from a living room window as I returned to the Shop after lunch one day, to my second son holding a candle as a priest led the Stations of the Cross during Lent, to my daughter hitting a solo in a school play, to my wife walking in a light snowfall in 1979. To my mother filling her diet Coke (no ice) at the fountain of the McDonalds in Almont, Michigan, in September 2022. The last time as it were I was to participate in that Sunday ritual.

That's my advice to you as the New Year begins. See the Light. It is drawing you forward. Go to it.