Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 30, 2007


This has been a most wonderful evening. Gertrude has said things
tonight it will take her 10 years to understand.

- Alice B. Toklas, lover of Gertrude Stein, born on this day
in San Francisco, 1877


Bless her heart, Alice published a memoire of her life with the wildly eccentric and genius Gertrude Stein. (Who famously said or Oakland CA, her birthplace, “There is no There There”.) When Stein wrote her autobiography in 1933, she called it “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas”. In 1954, Alice published her own memoir, called “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook”. It contained a recipe for brownies that contained Pot - and those Alice B. Toklas brownies were to become famous!

I have met many people who have said things of a wonderful evening that it will take them ten years to understand! Profound things about themselves that they have no clue about at the time. Longings that they have no conscious awareness of - but which will trouble them and drive them for years. But the interesting thing is - I “heard” it! I understood. We often know so much about the people we love, so often see what the problem is, so often can see what a person needs to deal with - but of course we can’t say anything. They aren’t ready.

The Church celebrated today Good Shepherd Sunday. At the heart of this feast is the God Who knows us so intimately and desires so much to help us to be free. God, in s many ways and venues, says things to us that we may not understand for ten years! But if we stick with it, God’s wisdom and love will break through.

We can say anything to God, at any time. It doesn’t matter whether we understand it or not. Then we listen, and trust. God will speak the truth in love to us - and when we are ready, we will hear it. And we will be liberated. We will become the person we were meant to be.

God’s unconditional love is like Alice’s brownie. Hidden, unsuspected. But when it hits us, we are transported to a whole new dimension of Life!

Brian+