Abdicating

Theme for January: Abundance

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

According to one dictionary, to ‘abdicate’ means to give up being a queen or king, and I would actually love to do that — would love to stop pretending to be the king of my life. I guess I have finally learned, at the age of 79, that the best way to live is to let life itself be the king instead of little me. Life, in all its vastness and mystery and supremacy, surely knows more about what’s best for me than I do. Hamilton Salsich trying to be the king of every second of every day is as silly as one wave trying to preside over the whole ocean, or a single ray of light trying to control how it shines. Each moment of my life is fashioned from an immeasurable number of sources and causes, and it seems bizarre to me that I sometimes think I can control all these forces, waving my scepter like a hopeful but clueless king. I indulge in this silly charade every day, but now I’m hoping to set my make-believe crown aside and let the only real ruler, the everlasting Universe — some call it God, some Allah, I just call it Now — hold sway. It’s astonishing what this infinite Queen-King can do. 

In this morning’s dawn (below), which we saw on our river walk this morning, imagine a single ray of sunshine thinking it’s in complete control of its small, separate light!