By Michael Howard
IT has been said that the closer one is to a painting the more difficult it is to appreciate it.
Although certain specific details may be more obvious, one can often not understand it completely without stepping back and taking it all in.
Similarly, taking the time to step back and observe more broadly, appears to be what is lacking in many of our busy lives.
How often do we fail to understanding a pivotal or remarkable instance in our life until long after the moment has passed?
Perhaps we do not fully grasp the significance of a moment until we see it as someone else’s.
It’s a common saying that we don’t know what we have until it’s gone.
This applies closely to what I’m getting at.
Perhaps one only finally appreciates their marriage when their son or daughter is married, or one does not truly value a friendship until it is lost.
This process is tellingly repeated throughout our lives, indicating our longingness, appreciation and love for those things which we yearn for.
This is indicative of what we truly desire.
The majority of things we associate with this process are things innate to the human experience – love and nostalgic sentiment for people, places or things.
They represent the bulk of what we reflect upon and discern after the fact, upon deeper consideration.
What we really desire, I believe, is the regularness of life.
I do not mean the droning day in and day out we are so accustomed to in our disassociated society.
Rather, the simple, uncomplicated life which allows time for us, our loved ones, and our God. It is this which provides the most fulfilling of emotions, joy. It is joy which quells the innate restlessness we are bound to in life.
St Augustine observed that as we have been made for God, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.
This truly is all an honest person will strive for.
I say honest as in honest to oneself, the dishonest person will claim they want otherwise.
It is not until we are honest with ourselves with what we want that we can ever hope to achieve it. The first words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John is, “What do you want?”.
We must ponder the words of Jesus while contemplating what we truly desire in our hearts.
Do we really want what we are told to desire?
A life distracted from distractions by distraction.
As Christians, we are not of this present age – we are told that we are in the world, but not of the world.
If your answer to “what do you want?” is something other than the simple life, I would ask again, really?
What we really want, upon genuine reflection, is not anything the world has to offer us.
What we really want is found in the love of God.
Sometimes we need to step back from the painting and take it all in.
Michael Howard is studying law at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. As a member of St Gerard Majella’s Church, West Chermside, he has developed a passion for Catholic thought.
