The Little Flower

Thursday, June 3, 2021, 

When I'm feeling down, and blue, I ask myself, "hold up.....check yourself....how much social media have you been consuming?.....have you been consuming images of "influencers" living influential lives, and doing influential things, and sitting around soaking up each others influence?".....#meangirlz

The answer, very often, is "yes, I have".  Like everyone else who's reading this, I live in the same swamp of the modern world; that swamp has some dry and pleasant oasis in it, and it has some overcrowded, noisy, pig-pens as well.  While we're in the swamp, we're equipped with your phone; your phone is going to show you people who are better looking than you, having more fun than you, living a life that you could only hope to achieve, while they surf, drink White Claws, and party.  Don't know how you got to be so lame....but ya did *stares in mirror*. 

As the title suggests, you may have already made a connection to the Catholic Saint, Therese of Lisieux, also referred to as, "The Little Flower".  Look up her life, and you'll see that she never did anything that would have been considered "influential".  If she were alive today, would her Facebook and Instagram account show pictures of her surfing and drinking White Claws (maybe....could you imagine?).  The serious answer, of course, is more likely that she wouldn't have social media accounts; she would have remained invisible in her life, in her work, and in her death.  

Detach from the world (as much as possible).  Detach from the swamp.  Detach from the pig-pen.  Detach from the "influencers".  It will never be a perfect detachment......everyone, myself included, is an imperfect, evolved-ape-person, and we will always succumb to the influence of the swamp at times.  Push back against it daily, as it leads you no where and only hurts your head and your heart.  Like Therese of Lisieux, be invisible, be humble, and be a little flower. 

Namaste