Duty & reverence

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” — John 4

A raindrop in the cloud

Becky Elder always accepted [and often relished] her existence as an individual at liberty in the world. She laughed at then waved away any fears of powerlessness in the cosmos ... as she constantly invited "whosoever will" to join with her in doing the work at hand ... co-laborers united forever by tasks that were bigger than any one of them could complete alone. Maybe you joined her once and experienced some of that unforgetable friction among cloud particles that presents stunning shows of  lightening and bursts of thunder ... followed by rain and sun that make seeds GROW ... and FEED the world :-)

🌰 ...💧💭💥 ... 🌞🌱🌾... 🍜

You think you’re too small
to make a difference? Tell me
about it. You think you’re
helpless, at the mercy of forces
beyond your control? Been there.

Think you’re doomed to disappear,
just one small voice among millions?
That’s no weakness, trust me. That’s
your wild card, your trick, your
implement. They won’t see you coming

until you’re there, in their faces, shining,
festive, expendable, eternal. Sure you’re
small, just one small part of a storm that
changes everything. That’s how you win,
my friend, again and again and again.
— Advice from a Raindrop, Kim Stafford

But even as an individual — laboring and learning — in the solitude of the present moment, she knew she was never really alone ... just a living link between the members in that invisible host of witnesses who taught her — in personam and in memoriam — and those whom she must teach in the same ways. It was her faith in and unity with this greater intertemporal organism which gave ethical endurance and spiritual significance to a life of shared work which prepared — for her and her for — a place in eternity.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ... And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

Now that Becky has passed from among us into that great cloud, we who remain must shake off sloth and pride and justly, mercifully and humbly carry on — in personam and in memoriam — reaping where others sowed and sowing where others will reap ... in the assurance that NOTHING IS IN VAIN for the dutiful and reverent soul that labors with, learns from and rests in God.

"We can be content with no less than the old summary of educational ideal which has been current at any time from the dawn of our civilisation. The essence of education is that it be religious.

"Pray, what is religious education?

"A religious education is an education which inculcates duty and reverence. Duty arises from our potential control over the course of events. Where attainable knowledge could have changed the issue, ignorance has the guilt of vice. And the foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present holds within itself the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, that whole amplitude of time, which is eternity."
— AN Whitehead

Becky's ongoing work if you wish to join her in memoriam

Sunnydale Community Library

Northfield School of the Liberal Arts