Common goals on a refrigerator
✍🏾 “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
vision — chazon
From chazah; a sight (mentally), i.e. A dream, revelation, or oracle — vision.
happy — esher
From ‘ashar; happiness; only in masculine plural construction as interjection — blessed, happy.
Or rasher {aw-share’}; a primitive root; to be straight (used in the widest sense, especially to be level, right, happy); figuratively, to go forward, be honest, proper — bless(-ed), guide, lead.
While he slept and dreamed of income from selling a bottled remedy to customers, his wife stirred awake, getting up again, this time to stare out the window at nothing in particular. Two lives, one home, with little left of a dream for her — she welcomed a breath of fresh air when strangers knocked on the door. She let them in, two men in pursuit of a married wife.
Reading Chekov last night opened the book on what many already know, relationships only thrive when both sides team up as one. Otherwise, without a common goal, each person wakes up in pursuit of a direction that eventually leaves them further apart. Has that ever happened to you?
On the refrigerator, I still keep a paper cutout of handwritten details from nearly twenty years ago, each circled letter including a lifelong motto for measuring each vision accurately, whether in a home purchase, relationship, or my work.
Though I hardly knew it at the moment, healthy, happy, and holy would serve as a guide for every facet of life, especially dilemmas that punctuated potentially losing more than a few acquaintances, like pushing back on profanity in a meeting or chastising a bully in a pew.
“Your Mother took a long time to come up with your name.”
Those three goals continue to do their job in restraining me from continuous impulses on every page of the modern era, alluring half-dressed models in shorts on a Facebook feed, or deep discounts on a box of fine Belgian chocolate. Which gets a second look before clicking something else?
Wait until October comes, when I can special order some sweets to give away, like last year, when landscapers in a pickup truck appreciated it, though they spoke only Spanish.
If I kept those treats of Leonidas too long, eventually I caved in and pulled the crimson ribbon of a gold carton just to taste one. Now, I know how that enticement unraveled self-discipline.
Unless packaged as hazelnuts, I tend to crunch on snacks and overeat my portions. However, I’ve done better in recent years after paying closer attention to how some choices undermine a healthy, happy, holy life, even though each bite tastes so delicious.
Although challenging, sacrificing comes with the benefits of building self-discipline and refining a good routine. I depend on those chosen goals every day. They work for me. Which ones work best for you?
This morning’s reading closes the book on a mind without a vision for the future. If more people could create worthwhile aspirations to chase in life, we’d see results everywhere — a nation getting in shape with a happier face. Often, we imitate the role models held up for us.
As an unwitting youngster, I did the same thing, too, in chasing after so many fleeting dreams, the wide collars and fast cars on a silver screen. Hollywood stars often infatuated me and a lot of other teens as well.
When vintage photos piled on the kitchen table as her Mother spoke in French explanations, I put my finger on the edge of one and slid it over for a closer look at the college girl who resembled the doppelganger of Susan Dey in the Partridge Family.
Though people change, some things last forever.
Source: KJV Chapter 29:1–27 (18)
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
Source: Chekov’s “The Chemist’s Wife”
