October 29, 2022
Thought for Today
"There is one important thing to say about poetry: you don't need to know a lot of it for it to have value and meaning in your life or the life of your society. Two or three poems, even two or three bits of poems, known by heart and genuinely cherished can stand everybody in good stead."
Seamus Heaney,
Friends of classics online, January 13, 2004
October 20,, 2022
Reflection
Rigid is good in armaments, fortresses, walls, tanks, shields and shore lines.
Flexibility is better. At least that's my position. I better not be too rigid about that - otherwise I'm contradicting myself.
Bendability - that's another word and characteristic to consider.
When talking about seminarians or priests or politicians or journalists who might be conservative, I found myself searching for language. The word conservative is not the right word. There must be a better word to use.
I am looking for a word that touches on some of the negatives that I want to avoid. The only word I came up with so far is the word "rigid".
That word doesn't sound right - so I have to keep looking - for the word that describes what I'm looking for.
Rigid, frigid, cold, iron jawed, all mind. steel, immovable, unable to compromise ....
In other words, I like it when there is more allowance for variety, differing opinions, colors rainbows like creation.
The sky is different every evening.
No two snowflakes are alike.
Imagine if every woman at the wedding had the same dress.
The team all had the same uniform. So too the army and the altar servers.
The religious order had everyone in the same outfit.
Wat's with this - when everyone has the same face - and it isn't smiling.
Sometimes those in the same group - but with different outfits - wear a pin or an emblem - to show that these folks are all the same group.
Smile. You're different.
Glory in it.
Okay, the Rockettes are dressed alike - wearing the same outfit - but are dancing in the same pattern and the whole audience is clapping for their uniformity.
October 28, 2022
Reflections
GREY
Grey or gray is the color of the unnoticed - the hippo half underwater in the river - the elephant in the room.
Grey is a blend - as in "Blend in!"
Grey is being there but not wanting to be noticed.
Grey is the crayon that lets the red, yellow, black, green, and blue crayon to go ahead of it.
Grey says little - short sentences - waiting for the others to go ahead of it - at the restaurant - and give their order off the menu.
Gray is the anatomy of background - as in walls - as in skies on non-picnic or parade days.
Gray is not called off - but it still is not all there.
Gray is a fading - a blending - a blurring - a sky on most days in February in the northeast.
Gray is not in stained glass windows. Did you ever notice that?
Gray is the color of ashes after the house or the forest has been burnt - after the roaring red fire is out - the morning after the disaster.
Gray is the color of granite - oatmeal - seagulls and pigeons.
Gray is the color of skim milk - ugh - the last choice in selecting milk from the fridge - for cereal - hoping there is also some fruit in the fridge.
Gray is the color of God for some - God the Father - the old guy with the grey hair - who is quiet - moving along alone - like an elephant or a lone wolf.
October 27, 2022
Reflections
RESENTMENTS
Resentments roam the forest and if we enter the forest, beware they might bite us.
And if they bite us, they can remain as scars and hurts - reminding us of the time we roamed that time in forest.
Paths help.
Compasses help.
GPS helps.
Awareness helps.
Companionship helps.
And we can't go through life, without going through some forests.
That's the reality of life.
We can see the forest - and - or - we can see the trees - and - or - we can see both.
Sometimes we resent - get angry at - complain about realities - especially the people who are part of our reality. Sometimes it's the whole group; sometimes it's an individual.
Resentments come from anger and vice versa.
Resentments can beget angers.
Resentments come from the reality of comparisons.
Comparisons beget the complaint called, "Unfair."
And unfair is the mother of resentments.
And we can feel great resentments - especially those about ourselves - but many's a time we don't notice or pay attention to their origins or down deeps - or how they seeped into us.
We do something stupid. We waste time - like a whole day - like a whole afternoon - like a whole hour - or a whole year. We blame others - once more the group or once more - an individual - specific person.
Yet it's us.
Resentments can be long lasting. They crazy glue themselves to our memories - and last till we get dementia.
They leave a residue. They leave an aftertaste - an oooh sound. Bitter. Bitter. Bitter.
Resentments have a memory. When we walk by certain places, trees, graves - sometimes they itch us with an "Uh oh!, Oh No!" feeling.
Resentments roam the forest. They will never be an extinct species.
OCTOBER 26, 2022
Reflection
WHERE IS GOD?
He asked, "Where is God?"
He asked a dozen times, "Where is God in all this. Why doesn't God help me? Why doesn't God change things? Why doesn't God do something?"
He said, "I prayed."
He said out loud the prayer he says to God every morning.
His chemical unbalance in his brain was a problem.
The psychiatrist said, "There are 100,000 people in the United States who are not helped by drugs."
He smoked.
Anxiety, high anxiety, crossing and uncrossing his legs, itching, lots of itching - all were part of his patterns.
He would make phone calls during our hour together. He would be polite. He'd say, "I'm trying to reach a lawyer.
He would go to a movie. He would sit there without really seeing it. He would go back and forth to see that movie. He saw one movie 16 times.
He'd ask, "Where is God in alll this?"
He was out of his job - his own company - on disability.
He was thin and nervous.
He'd say, "I have no reason to live/ Why doesn't God take me?"
He walks 2 hours a day.
I didn't know what to say.
I once said, "God cries!"
But I once also said, "God laughs."
He got a call to go see a kick ball game that night.
He said, "I'm not a spectator."
I asked, "Is God a spectator?"
I mentioned that Jesus healed and helped some cripples. He helped them walk again.
He replied, "But where is God for me, here and now?"
I remained quiet. I didn't know what to say.
But I sat there and prayed and prayed, "Where are you God? Where are You? What do you have to say?"
October 25, 2022
CHILD PSYCHIATRIST
It took him two years to become a child psychiatrist.
Oh - after college he went to 10 more years of school and
studies and research – first to become a medical doctor – then to become a
psychiatrist – then to focus on child psychiatry – but he couldn’t get a grasp
on just what to do – when it came to kids who had down deep deadingly patterns.
Silence and staring – with little seeing – seemed to be
their scenarios.
A sentence in a lecture by a world famous psychiatrist
triggered his choice of being and choosing to be and to work with kids – as a
psychiatrist.
The sentence: “The bigger the problem, the earlier the
problem.”
He felt so helpless trying to help some little kids who
couldn’t or wouldn’t cry – kids who could hardly speak – kids would couldn’t
play games.
He brought into his hospital ward grandmothers – teenage
girls and boys – other kids – to be and to play with these kids - but some kids had deep, deep what seemed like
undiggable problems – especially a few kids who had no interaction with anyone
really for their first 3 years of life.
Then one day this child psychiatrist was in church and the
gospel was read.
Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like?”
Then Jesus in his unknowability said, “To what can I
compare it – this dream of God the Father for all?”
Then for some reason Jesus took a tiny mustard seed –
planted it in his garden – watered it – and then watched it grow – watched it
become a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.
Did he do this – learn this from Joseph – or someone in the
neighborhood?
Then one day he watched a woman take some wheat flour –
some yeast - some water and watched a
whole batch of dough become leavened – become bread. Then she baked it.
Delicious taste. Delicious scent. Delicious mind and heart changer. Give us
this day our daily bread.
Was it Mary – his mother - whom he watched doing this?
The child psychiatrist said, “Eureka! I got it!”
He got pots and
earth. He started a small garden - in the back of the building. He got mustard
seeds – watermelon seeds – flower seeds - and he and the kids became amateur
farmers.
He went to a small kitchen in their building and got the
necessaries to make bread. He and the kids then became amateur bakers.
It worked. Slowly the kids were healed. The psychiatrist as well.
[Mass for Tuesday 30th
Week of the Year]
October 25, 2022
Reflection
RAIN
Rain - needed, necessary, noticed.
Rain - a nuisance but prayed for when it is not falling - and the fields are turning brown and green is what we want.
Rain - keeping the windshield wiper makers in business.
Rain - too much when our roofs leak and floods fill our downtown areas and our basements with an inch of water.
Rain - too much when people spend too much time in the basement of their minds - feeling deep blue damp feelings - dwelling too much on the past - on mistakes - disasters - sins.
Rain - too much - especially when our homes and our buildings are screaming to the skies - "Enough!"
Rain - enjoyable to walk in and dance in - when it's summer and we're in love.
Rain - what they wish would happen on other planets.
Rain - without it, we would not be here.
Rain - sinking down to our roots - into our earth - helping trees, flowers, wheat and weeds to grow.
Rain - the soft constant rain of Ireland - keeping it green - and giving Irish comedians somethin to make jokes about.
Rain - if the ocean/ earth/ lakes are 75% water - expect rain.
Rain - giving weather forecasters something to report about - and pessimists something to complain about.
Rain - something we have a love-hate relationship with - but something that better be around for a long, long time.
October 25, 2022
Thought for Today
"Poetry makes some kind of claim of honesty. If, at a party, I say I'm a poet, people have a hard time responding, almost as if I'd said I'm a priest."
Tobias Hill, The Independent, August 9, 2006
October 24, 2022
Reflection
MORALE
Morale is an issue around here.
Morale is an issue around everywhere.
Morale is an aftertaste - a result of a feeling - a pervading atmosphere - that slides and sifts and shifts into a womb - and a room - and a mind - into a person - a group - because of what happened - as well as what is happening around here.
Is being an optimist - or a pessimist - genetic?
Is it the result of nature or nurture?
Morale is the temperature in a room.
Morale is the issue behind and underneath the regular question: "Is everything all right?"
Morale is the question we want answers to - when we are evaluating another - or a marriage - or a team - a classroom or a situation.
"How you feeling?"
"How's it going?"
"How are you doing?"
"What's up?
"What's happening?"
There are some people who can take the temperature better than others.
There are some people who don't seem to care about team spirit - or morale - and they affect the morale or the spirit of the group.
Behind morale in a person is the ability to have a sense of others - to know there are different ways to skin a cat - that it takes work - to really listen to another or others - as well as oneself.
Behind morale is the ability to accept pluralism - as well as unwanted expectations.
What were my mom and dad like?
Who influenced and formed me?
What were they like?
Tell me your stories.
October 23, 2022
Reflection
MY WILL BE DONE
My will be done when taking the roads of life.
I bring my car to get it serviced. I leave it there and they get me back home. Nice.
They call. It's finished. I ask one of the guys here to drive me there. They say they know where the place is. They drive a different way than the way I would take.
Surprise! Their way to get there is a better way.
We're at supper. The other person uses their knife to take some butter from the butter plate. They spread it on their piece of bread - onto where they had bitten into. They do this 3 times. I say inwardly, "Oooh. Oh no!"
We said that, "Oooh. Oh no!" because their mouth was on the bread which they put their knife back and forth into the common butter.
Picky. Picky.
We notice tiny things like that. The other doesn't. At least it seems that way.
That same person licks their spoon - which they then put into the jam jar for more - and they do that three or four times.
Each time I inwardly say, "Oooh. Oh no!"
That's just at when we're eating.
I guess I have a list of complaints.
I want my way. I expect others to do things the way I expect things to be done.
We begin to notice we're not getting our way - in the ways others drive their car.
We begin to notice that at the heart of every disagreement or fight, is his question of ways and means.
We begin the notice that at the heart of every drip, drip of anxiety, is not knowing the way things are done around here - or what's next.
We figure at the heart of all this is the question of power and control.
Down deep, we want our will to be done.
We wish another not to be and to do they way they are and the way they do things.
We wish another would see things the way we see things.
Marriage is all about will. Marriage is a marriage of wills - wills becoming one - or at least a marriage with compromises - starting with understanding what each wants.
Is "My will be done" the basic prayer and hope of every person?
Is this the heart of the prayer to God: "Thy will be done"?
