Reflections for 5/30/11

"We search for a self to be. We search for other selves to love. We search for work to do. And since even when to one degree or another we find these things, we  find also that there is still something crucial missing which we have not found, we search for that unfound thing too, even though we do not know its name or where it is to be found or even if it is to be found at all."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life." p. 142)

I've heard people say life is a journey perhaps a quest.  I've never heard about life as a search, though I have a feeling that may be closer to the reality. 

As a teenager we try hard to search for who we really are. All kinds of experimentation, watching the reactions of others as we attempt to determine who we are and how we fit in.  In our relationships we may search for that perfect mate. Companies like Eharmony are doing that.  40 levels of compatibility, before you've even met the person.  When we are looking for a job we are in a search. I went through a job search right after college, and as a priest, I enter into search processes, though I haven't in a while.

A search can be frustrating when we aren't as sure of what we are looking for.  When we are clear about our own dreams and visions, the searching becomes less of a wandering.  And yet sometimes when we think we've found what I'm looking for, the reality is that U2 may have been right. "We still haven't found what we're looking for."

Blessings,
Ed