Day of the Deadline

Today is All Soul’s Day. It is a day designated to remember loved ones who have died and to do so with hope and mercy. When you miss someone, like I miss my Dad, you tend go look back with mercy. I don’t forget our little conflicts or misunderstandings but I certainly care less about them, a lot less. I’d take 100 more spats to have him back around for just a little while. Its why I am so fond of All Soul’s Day. It feels like “All Saint’s Day for the rest of us.”

We are Just souls, not saints, normal souls, troubled souls who rely on the grace and forgiveness of others to purify our memory and sanctify our legacy. I love this feast because it reminds us how much our own holiness depends on the mercy of God and others. Life can get messy and no one gets out alive. Death forces our hand to forgive if we can because there is nothing left to be done to settle the score.

For me, today is also Day of the Dead-line. I am writing down little bits from my soul that I am finally posting for your reading. If there is any reason today is the right day, it is because I am just a soul, a troubled soul who believes there is a place for us here on the journey for those of us who are a long way off from being a saint. This is faith for misfits, lousy joiners and other homesick souls. Maybe if I share, and you are merciful, and we all keep trying, we might together find something of God in this mess improves our memories of each other before we die. Saints, all of them, begin as souls. All of them. Yours is welcome here.

Doug
The Outpatient Monk