Reflection
In our reading, we can find all sorts of lists that outline the qualities of adulthood. They tell us to manage our emotions, to act with greater self-confidence, to enhance our personal development and not to exploit or harm other people. There is one important deficiency. Most ignore the context in which we live, the fact that we are part of the rest of creation. They continue to view humans through the lens of their superiority over the rest of life. On reflection, it seems that to be a fully adult human person one also needs to embrace the entire web of life, the cosmic and spiritual dynamics that shape our existence.. Without these, true human maturing seems to lack its deepest dimension. Only little children see themselves as the center of their universe.
Prayer
“That all may be one.”
Action
How do I define adulthood? To which elements of my definition do I relate most comfortably? Do I see anything missing?
Suggested Reading
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I no longer used childish ways.
1Cor 13:11
We must protect creation for it is a gift which the Lord has given us, it is God’s present to us; we are the guardians of creation.
Pope Francis
A state of mind that sees God in everything is evidence of growth in grace and a thankful heart.
Charles G. Finney
To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
Henri Bergson
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He/she experience themselves, their thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein
May my soul bloom in love for all existence.
Rudolf Steiner