Friday, July 3, 2026
To eke is to obtain or create, but just barely. Every drama has this key ingredient. The idea is that everything is going status quo, then, a mountain arises – a problem stands in the way!
At 16, I had a mountain. I grew up in a small Southern town, and I needed a professional organist to teach me. There were no teachers. Yikes! Then the mountain moved – I met a person who knew of a person in an adjacent city. Just like Moses, the Red Sea parted for me – a small shift created by an invisible link.
At the end of graduate studies, I was the only one in my class who hadn’t found employment. I met my mountain again. I wanted a college choral job. “Everyone,” especially my advisor, told me that without experience or a doctorate, I was screwed.
As we were wrapping up the semester, people were asking – “What will you do?” (Insert scary diminished chord on the organ) Screwed! Around May 1, another professor of mine had just returned from a weekend workshop at a college in another state. They had been left in a lurch by a sudden resignation. Upon his return, he said, “I spoke to them about you. Apply.” Within 4 days of that key moment, I was in an interview and was offered a teaching job on the spot. At 24, with no doctorate and no experience, I eked out a miracle.
What looks looming are key ingredients to miracles. Death is just like this. You’ll be delighted to realize you cannot be trapped. The ongoing force isn’t met with what appears like an immovable mountain. There is always a loophole in logic.
Faith doesn’t move mountains, it creates gaps. What looms is not real. What moves is. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. It’s a smooth passage through an illusive “tight space.”
Eked out? I think not. The universe always gets to where it’s going. It’s logic that’s in the way, not faith.