January  2,  2021

 

TO  SEE GOD

 
When I stop to see,
when I stop to look around me,
I see walls, rug, floor, ceiling,  
I see books on shelves,
photographs on end tables,
the salt and pepper shakers on
the kitchen table and people
moving back and forth – and
when I close my eyes,
I sense YOU GOD  in one of those
clouds we go through
on an airplane flight – up
and through till we come out into
bright, bright  light – on the other
side of everything – much more
real than a shake of salt or pepper
or a tea bag in my cup or hot water.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

January  2,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

ROCHESTER  EXTEMPORE

 
And after singing Psalm the Twelfth,
He laid his book upon the shelf
And looked much simply like himself;
With eyes turned up, as white as ghost,
He cried, “Ah, Lard! ah, Lard of Hosts!
I am a rascal, that thou knowst!”
 

John Wilmot,

Earl of Rochester

January 1,  2021

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR!

 
“Happy  New  Year!”
 
Whatever mood we’re in,
we wish each other a
“Happy New Year!”
 
For starters, we wish health,
joy, God, and peace flowing
like a river in our relationships.
 
This year, we all want a better year
than last year, for family, country,
world, and no more nonsense. Amen!
 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 January  1,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

“Well, we have a whole new year ahead of us. And wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, a little more loving, and have a little more empathy, and maybe, next year at this time we'd like each other a little more.”

 

Judy Garland

December 31, 2020

 

THE   END

  

Sometimes those two words,
“The End” are welcomed, like
today, the end of 2020!
 
Sometimes those two words,
“The End” are an “It all depends!”
as in a life or a marriage.
 
Sometimes those two words,
“The End” are an “Oh no!”
like the end of a great get together.
 
Sometimes those two words,
“The End” will be no more,
as in Eternal life within God.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

December  31, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall”

Larry Wilde

 

 December 30, 2020

 

COINS 

Coins, pennies, nickels
dimes, quarters, half dollars,
rest easy in dishes and jars
on bureau tops and desk drawers,
and outside in the earth around
the world are coins worth millions
and millions of dollars from way
way back – unused, unknown,
unaccounted for – and deep
within all of us is love much
more valuable unused, unknown,
and unaccounted for.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

December  30, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

“And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?”

Frederick Buechner, 

The Magnficent Defeat

December  29,  2020

HOW  TO  WIN 

AN  ARGUMENT EVERY  TIME

 
Arguing with another is stupid
most of the time.  The other has
their mind up – and so do I.
 
As they say, “It’s a waste of time
and energy to argue in the first place.”
Remember Nelson Mandela. Be smart.
 
So if you want to win an argument
every time simply say, “You're smart.
I'm smart. You got a brain. Me too."

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

December  29, 2020

Thought for Today

 

“Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.”

 

Robert Lynd

December  28,  2020

SOUNDS LIKE 

The  dog barks,
the train whistles,
the radiator rattles,
the December cold
combines with everything metal,
and you’re just sitting there,
snoring. You haven’t said
a thing new since November.
Where are you as we come
to the end of this worst of years?

                                                                         © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 December  28, 2020

 Thought for Today

 

“The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood.”

 

Richard Paul Evans,

The Christmas Box 

December 27, 2020

PRISON  CELL  ARCHITECT

 
Is there a chapter in a book
on architecture or a class in
architect school about how
to build a prison cell?
 
If there is,  does it make windows
an absolute necessity– and how high –
so a prisoner can see the sky or low so  
as to see more – like a father with a son?
 
Would architects in learning the profession
talk about room for  shelves  for books and
windows to let in the sound of birds outside –
as well as trains in the distance?
 
How about chapels, churches, mosques?
Do prison architects bring up questions about
recreation, schooling, spirituality, exercise,
prisoners’ family, the future as well as the past? 
 
Do wardens, guards, prison psychologists and
doctors consider questions other than worry
about escape?  Who and what am I missing in
this short meandering wondering about prisons?

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

December  27, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

 “Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”

G.K. Chesterton

December 26,  2020

WALL  SWITCH

 

Sometimes we’re in the dark.
We can’t find the light switch.
We rub our hand along the
wall in hopes of hitting something.
We’re careful. We don’t want to fall.
Finally. We feel the switch and turn
on the light. Now that was easy.
But with people – all this is different.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020