June 5,  2021

THE  REMOTE

 
The kid took the remote -
and aimed it right at me.
It didn’t shut me off.

He was surprised because
it worked every time
with the TV. It went off
when he wanted it off.
But it wasn’t able to
shut me off. I looked
him right in the eye.
He tossed the remote
on the floor and ran
into his bedroom

and slammed it shut.
To be very honest –
this experience scared 

this little old me.
 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 June 5,  2021

Thought for the Day

 

“The more time you spend in reporting on what you are doing, the less time you have to do anything. Stability is achieved when you spend all your time doing nothing but reporting on the nothing you are doing.”

 June  4,  2021

GEOGRAPHY

 

I’m here, there, elsewhere,

and a dozen other places

in this lifetime.

 

Everybody has to be

somewhere, but many

times my mind is elsewhere.

 

In fact, where I usually go into

is  my feelings and thoughts –

my inner - my main geography.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

June  4,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“Delay is the deadliest form of denial.”

 June 3,  2021

WORDS THAT HAVEN'T 

BECOME  FLESH  YET 

 

Walking away, not talking,
shutting up too many times -
especially when I notice
too much is missing,  
especially when I hear others
saying words – pretending with
words -  that haven’t taken flesh yet ….

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

June  3,  2021

Thought for the Day

 

“I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.”

June  2,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“Dates in the calendar are closer than they appear.”

 June 2, 2021

KIND  OF

 

I’m kind of many places –
experiences and stories
and much, much more  ….
 
I’m hurts, victories, and
thoughts about those who had
no idea who I was – even kind of ….
 
There are lots of people
and lots of wonderings
and lots of dots - I need to fill in ….
 
I’m kind of a combination of
unfinished business, dreams,
and plenty of forgotten adventures ….
 
As a result, I’m kind of tired,
also kind of lazy at times, and
kind of getting old at times….Uh oh!

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 

 June  1,  2021

  A  THOUSAND CHAIRS 

 
I’ve sat in a thousand different chairs,
hard soft, wood and plastic –
where I sat and listened,
where I sat and talked,
where I ate and laughed.
 
I’ve sat in a thousand different chairs,
where I chewed on the thoughts
of a thousand others – people
whom I sat with in this life
as we put our thoughts together.
 
I’ve sat in a thousand different chairs,
where I dealt with so many different questions,
questions I didn’t know I had, questions
that erased my previous answers, and gave me
new ones like, “Why don’t they bury us sitting down?

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 June  1,  2021

Thought for the Day

 

“The IQ of the group is the lowest IQ of a member of the group divided by the number of people in the group.”

 May 31, 2021

REAL  PRESENCE

 

Real Presence: this is a real person here.

 

Which is easier to believe and accept? 

The real presence of Jesus here

in this bread and this wine or in this person –

body and blood – standing next to me?

 

Why do we concentrate on Jesus

in gold cups and behind tabernacle doors?

Why do we keep people locked up in words

and labels and our descriptions about them?

 

Real Presence: why can’t we be really present to each other?

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 May 31, 2021

Thought for today: 

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

 

Nelson Mandela

 

 May 30,  2021

 

THE  IMPOSSIBLE 

Step back. Hesitate!

Pause. Be quiet!

Sometimes people
have made up their mind
about you or one of life’s
automatics and you don’t
know that: like God or Grace.
Guess what: they might be wrong
and “Pssssst!  They don’t know that yet.”

 

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

May  30,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divinings, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent.”

 

 

Rainer  Maria  Rilke,

Letters to a Young Poet