July  25,  2020

BLACK   AND  BLUE

Black and Blue went up a hill 

to see what they could see. 

Black asked Blue, if at times she 

ever wanted to be another color. 

“Oh yeah, said Blue, “Lots of times 

I’d love to be a bright, bright yellow.” 

“You’re kidding,” said Black, “Not me 

and lately you’re noticed, I matter.” 

At the top they ran into Red – and they 

asked him if he was happy to be Red. 

“Yes, yes,”  said Red, “I only want to be Red. 

Did you ever notice, I always get the blond?” 

Blue said, “You guys are typical men. I’d love 

to be any color: Yellow, green, brown, whatever.” 

Black and Red both responded, “Women!” 

“No” said Blue, with a smile. “Just smart.” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July   25,   2020

Thought   for  Today

“What  man  strives  to  preserve, in preserving himself, is something which he has never  been  at any particular moment.” 

George Santayana

 ___________________________________________________________

July   24,  2020

CRUMBLE

Crumble:

we crumble so we grumble.

Crumble teaches us

we are not God.

Crumble teaches us this

in the crumble of the cookie

in our kitchen

and in our sidewalks

as we walk down the street.

Crumble happens in

the breaking of our toys

and in the wrinkles of our skin,

in the painful arthritis of our bones

as we sink and start to crumble over

downwards back into the earth.

Grave thoughts,

but this reality of being human

can also crumble our pride

till we finally look up 

and cry out for the divine,

WHO made us up out of

mud and clay -

these fragile elements -

in the first place

in our mothers womb –

our mother earth -

and this God can

raise us up

on our last day again

Crumble teaches us.

We know we can’t. Amen

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July  24,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“If you want truth to go round the world you  must hire an express train to pull it;  but if you want a lie to go around the world,  it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath  will carry it.  It is well said in the old proverb, ‘a lie  will go round the world while truth is putting its boots  on’.”  

C.H. Spurgeon [1934-1892] 

in Gems from Spurgeon  (1839)

July  23,   2020

FAIR

Who said, “Life is fair”?

Yet it seems that’s the assumption

we’re all born with – or given – or have.

You hear kids saying it all the time.

“Hey, that’s not fair!”  "unfair!"

People jump ahead of each other

on lines all the time – or they try.

“I got one scoop of ice cream and it

was delicious till I saw you got two.”

“She got the lead in the play

and I got to give out the programs.”

“They just built this fire house

just down the street from us.”

“Not fair.  Lefties can get to first base

a step quicker than righties ever time.”

“Jesus Christ, not fair. My birthday

is on December 25^th.  Not fair.”

Who said, “Life is fair”?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July   23,  2020

Thought   for  Today

“There  was  a  reviewer a while back who wrote that my  pictures didn’t have any  beginning or any end.  He didn’t mean it  as  a compliment, but it was. It was a fine compliment.”  

Jackson Pollock [1912-1956]   

Francis V. O’Connor, 

Jackson Pollock [1967]

July   22,   2020

DUMB

Sometimes we do the stupid thing –

like not taking care of the right front

tire – till it’s too late and it goes flat -

some 256 miles away from home.

To self-destruct – that’s something

we humans do – and too, too often.

We eat too much. We say the wrong

thing. Then we blurt out, “Dumb!”

To walk in the light – seems to appear

only in church services and prayers –

not in real life. To be smart, to get new

tires: now would trigger us to do that?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July   22,  2020

Thought   for   Today

“The first hole made through a piece of stone is a revelation.”  

Henry  Moore, 

in Listener, 

August 18,  1937

July 21,  2020

Thought for Today

“Few, save the poor, feel for the poor.”  

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 

[1802-38] English writer, 

in The Poor.
Potato Eaters by Van Gogh

July   21,   2020

LADDER

At times I wish I had a ladder, 

to climb up and see tomorrow – 

to see the other side of where 

I'm headed – but I don’t. Nope. 

Nope. I don’t – so there is only 

today – and just the now of now. 

And I have found out I won’t  even 

know the now of now till tomorrow. 

And that's a maybe, maybe ....

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July   20,  2020

APPOINTMENT  WITH  DISAPPOINTMENT

Does every desire have a disappointment

built into it? Now that’s a lifetime question.

I enjoyed my  meal. It was in a dark red

restaurant – but his steak was over cooked.

It was a good marriage – certainly better

than my first – but wow could she nitpick.  

The novel – good story – real characters –

but I figured out the ending on page 101.

Do I say I was looking for God in every desire,

but if I did, would you be quite disappointed?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 July  20,  2020

Thought  for  Today 

“Prayer is the shortest distance between  two  points infinitely distant apart.”

REDEMPTION

Freedom, feeling at peace, 

have decided to drop a fishing net 

full of fears – arthritis, dementia, 
the possible impossible virus, 
the unknown nexts - as well as being  
unable to control the waterboarding  
feel of some conversations. It’s Sabbath  
and sometimes I want to get off this phone. 

Then there is eternal redemption – 

the complete letting go in death - 
putting my life in surgeons'  hands -  

letting God be resurrection 

and new life – the possible dawn 

in the eternal not knowing if 
and what's on the other side of  

the forever and ever. Amen. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

3rd Sunday in July, 

Holy Redeemer Sunday

 for Redemptorists

July  19,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“Too  beautiful for our ears, and much too many notes,  dear Mozart.”

Emperor Joseph II