October 16, 2021

LEAN

 

I like to lean against trees
and feel its wood in my back –
if for just a few minutes.
 
The back of benches in church
work just as well – a chance to
stretch back into the hard of wood.
 
Support, rest, a chance
for a break, to just be me -
a leaning into a solid something. 

But sometimes this happens
when I’m on a cross - when pain – or
a glimpse of death is pushing into me.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October    16,  2021 

Thought for the Day

“God speaks in the silence of the heart.  Listening is the beginning of prayer.”

October 15, 2015

 THE  GIRL  

WITH  THE  RED  HAIR  

Does every person have the courage
of the girl with the red hair?  Do I?
 
Do I have the courage to resist lies
and laziness and become a thinker?
 
Do I have the courage to put my life
on the line to save the lives of others?
 
Do I realize that the greatest love means
I am willing to lay down my life for others?
 
Do I realize every country can get sucked
into accepting big lies by the millions? 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October    15,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“Everybody needs his memories.   They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” 

 

Saul Bellow

LEAF

 
A raspberry red leaf –
the only one – all others
still green in mid-October.
Why?  Do you really think
God is in on such a surprise?
Do you really think God is in
on the death of a grandmother
two doors down? I wonder
about these things – like the new
baby I saw in Macy’s today.
Yes – but I wonder about deaths.

 

                                                                                        © Andy Costello, Reflections 2021 

October    14,  2021

 

 Thought for the Day

 

“One is always surprised by the drumstroke in Haydn’s ‘Surprise’ Symphony no matter how many times one has heard it, and one is always interested by a poem that genuinely contains a mystery.”

 

T. J. G. Harris,

PN Review

September-October 1993

October  13, 2021

A  PRECIOUS  RING

 

Brass, bronze, platinum, gold, a
ring with some letters engraved on it –
a gift, given in a ceremony, an award,
a graduation, a marriage, recognition,
accomplishment, love, a “Thank you!”
 
Lost, found, forgotten, recovered,
several times in a lifetime – twisted,
turned, sacred, handed to a grandkid
at the time of death – received with
awe and “oooh” – a new, “Thank you!”

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October   13,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“Fobia: fear of misspelled words.”

Charles Burgess

October 12,  2021

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Everyone ought to write their autobiography.

I have a story.  I am a story. I am details.

I am connected to persons and places.

I am family: a mom and dad and home.

I am with others in my day to day moments.

So just take the time to jot down the details.

Capture the history.  Capture the mystery.

Capture the moments with ink and paper.

Begin by reading other person’s autobiography.

Begin by talking to each other – who’s who.

Begin by filling page after page with your stories.

Find the letters.  Save the letters. Read the letters.

It won't all be perfect. There will be broken moments.

There will also be love and generosity and the good.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 October    12,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

 Philip Pullman

 October  11,  2021

SOUNDS

 
I see sounds.
 
A yawn …. The movement
of a chair whenever she speaks ….
 
A stretch.  He’s taken out his car keys....
 
Looking at his watch.  He definitely
wants out of here – maybe to get home ….
 
Standing up…. Looking at his coat ….
Going to the bathroom …. Looking at me ….

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October    11,  2021 

Thought for the Day

 

“That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”

 

Jhumpa Lahiri, 

The Namesake

 October 10, 2021

HE  BARKS

 

I heard a wife complaining
about her husband: “He barks!”
 
“Barks?”

“Yes! He shouts at me and
he snaps at the kids – in fact anyone
who doesn’t do what he wants.”
 
Just then I saw him petting their dog.

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October    10,  2021

 

 Thought for the Day

 

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 

The Shadow of the Wind