1. THE SACRED TRIANGLE

“You know, five minutes after you leave she won’t remember you were here.”
I’ve heard it said.  I’ve even said it myself.  But I have been blessed with an intrinsic belief that it doesn’t matter if she remembers -- I will.

In all my interactions I become part of what I call the sacred triangle.  I am not by any definition of the term a mathematician, so I am not talking (I don’t think) about the Sacred Triangle that requires excessively deep thinking in the Geometry department. There are many kinds of sacred triangles: mathematical and philosophical. And there are religious triangles: the Holy Trinity or Godhead, the shape of our steeples, our hands pressed in prayer.  But this “relationships triangle” is pretty simple.

Two points of this sacred triangle are constant – they don’t ever change.  The third is a variable.   

The two constants?

One is God. And one is me. 

The variable is the person with whom I interact.

My presence with another human, whether or not I am engaged and consciously present, automatically invokes the sacred triangle. I’m not sure if the Divine Maker himself is actually there, or whether He sends a representative angel, or some heavenly filmmaker whose assignment is to make a movie of my life, to be shown in the final seconds before my flight back Home.  I am, nonetheless, confident there is a divine force at the tip of that triangle. And it radiates and connects to me and the others with whom I share time, energy, and space. My husband – my children --  my friends – even the clerk in the grocery store… all of these are points on a collection of sacred triangles.

Yesterday my sister and I drove 350 miles through thick February fog to Blackfoot, Idaho to visit our 95 year old Aunt Mae, knowing when we got back in the car to drive home, she would likely have forgotten we were just there. It didn’t matter.  We knew we were there.  And so did God.

Our interactions with each other change us, whether or not we realize it.. Certainly it was our love for our aunt that compelled us to drop everything and go, just like we had done last week and the week before.  But we could have logically convinced ourselves that since she wouldn’t remember, why do it?

We went, in the long run, not as much to make a statement to our beloved aunt, but to make a statement to ourselves, and our God, concerning our aunt. It’s the same reason we visit our mother’s grave. Not so we can connect with our mom.  We know she is not there.  We go to make a statement to ourselves, and our Lord, about our mother.

So here’s my hope for the ones I love: That we remember the divine nature of our earthly relationships…with all humans…with all creatures. That we recognize our relationships involve energy exchanges, for good and for bad. And that simply showing up is the first whisper of love we give to each other, to ourselves, and to our God.

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