Good morning…
“Look what popped up on my screensaver!” Kitty Crenshaw, co-author of The Hidden Life Awakened, texted me this photo from a visit we shared with Betty Skinner a few years back.
“Oh, I love it!” I replied. “Such beautiful affirmation of mutual love. Betty is so present and so precious.”
At age ninety-five, our friend Betty went to her heavenly home on August 17th, 2021, inspiring us to live well the life that is ours to live. In the margin of my copy of Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward, Betty Skinner’s name is written beside these words found on page 153.
Most of us tend to think of the second half of life as largely about getting old, dealing with health issues, and letting go of our physical life, but the whole thesis of this book is exactly the opposite. What looks like falling can largely be experienced as falling upward and onward, into a broader and deeper world, where the soul has found its fullness, is finally connected to the whole, and lives inside the Big Picture.
It is not a loss but somehow a gain, not losing but actually winning. You probably have to have met at least one true elder to imagine that this could be true. I have met enough radiant people in my life to know that it is fairly common. They have come to their human fullness, often against all odds, and usually by suffering personally or vicariously. As Jesus describes such a person, “from their breasts flow fountains of living water” (John 7:38). These are the models and the goals for our humanity, much more than the celebrities and politicos whom we care so much about today.
On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you, just as the Scriptures say.” Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone that had faith in him (John 7:37-39, CEV).
I love the photo above shared by Kitty this weekend. For me, it is impossible to miss the radiance of the Holy Spirit flowing through Betty like a fountain of living water. Every day I sense Betty’s precious presence in a broader and deeper world, where her soul has found its fullness and she is finally connected, face to face, with her best friend Jesus within God’s forever whole.
What vibrant elders, like Betty, have helped you to embrace God’s Big Picture of eternity? These shining people are inspiring models for our humanity, as the Holy Spirit empowers life-giving water to flow from deep inside us.
…Sue…
