May 13, 2023

LONELINESS

 

I’m telling a joke,

someone walks in and my audience

walks away – looks  away. They

start talking with the others – not me. So

I’m dropped. It’s seems to be  happening

more and more lately. Feeling: I guess

I’ve become rather boring.

Two people are whispering – hands

covering their mouth. I feel I don’t count.

Do I?  Aging seems to be a death sentence

and I am not ready for that right now.

I feel like I’ve become a me to me situation –

a me to me – me plus me situation. I feel sorry –

sorry for being me right now.

 

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 13, 2023

Quote for Today

"I never felt so lonely as in that particular hour when I was surrounded by people but suddenly realized my ultimate isolation. I became silent and retired from the group in order to be alone with my loneliness. I wanted my external predicament to match my internal one.

"Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude. We have a natural desire for solitude because we are men. We want to feel what we are - namely, alone - not in pain and horror, but with joy and courage.  There are many ways in which solitude can be sought and experienced. And each way can be called 'religious,' if it is true, as one philosopher said, that 'religion is what a man does with his solitariness.'"

Paul Tillich in  Eternal Now

 May 12, 2023

EPIPHANIES

 

We have them from time to time –

"a ha" moments – sudden surprises -

oh yeah – yes – that’s what happened.

The sun rises – comes up out of East -

pushing aside the clouds of darkness –

revealing Christ – Bethlehem – in

my backyard – or Calvary – if we’ve

been hurt – humiliated – or condemned  -

all for others – others – another.

© Reflections, Andy Costello

May 12, 2023

Quote for Today

"Divine worship is as natural for men almost as neighing is for horses or barking for dogs."

Marsilio Picino,

Platonic Theology

 

 May 11, 2023

SURPRISES

 

How many surprises do we have each day?

Do some people have more than others?

Does it depend on your inlook or outlook?

Is it whether you’re a walking grudge or gratitude?

What is your face like: smile or smirk?

Like miracles, there are a million surprises each day.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 11, 2023

Quote for Today

"The miracle is not to walk on water.

The miracle is to walk on the green earth,

dwelling deeply in the present moment

and feeling truly alive.

Thich Nhat Hanh

 May 10, 2023

THE  FLUTE

 

Breath and flow of a singular melody –

totally forgetting my surroundings –

totally knowing this is the world around me -

as well as insects, cicadas, buses and children.

Grateful – for being alive – one with the little

old lady – heading for the store – shopping –

and the 36 year old heading for work – or the

school crossing lady – there for the  protection –

of little 3nd graders - getting them across the street.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 

 May 10, 2023

Quote for Today

"By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little."

Edmund Burke [1729-1797]

Reflections  on the Revolution in France  (1790)

May 9, 2023

 

LASTING

 

Diamonds – so too rubies – so too

our grandfather’s gold pocket watch ….

They sit there in boxes on our bedroom bureau

to be noticed when we are moving – like

to a nursing home – or when we die.

But what really lasts is a nasty comment,

an affair or the moment we met our spouse.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

May 9, 2023

Quote for Today

"Love's a disease, but curable."

Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) 

English novelist,

Grewe Train (1926)

 May 8, 2023

STEPS OR SLIDE

Do I see life

or do I do life

as steps or a slide?

If it's steps,

I take one step at a time.

If it's a slide,

I'm like everyone else, my dear.

© Reflections, Andy Costello

May 8, 2023

Quote for Today

 "When one is at ease with himself one is  near Tao."

Chuang Tzu [369-286 B.C.] 

 May 7, 2023

DUST

 

What was it – this dust?

My newspaper or my skin?

I had my window open – so

maybe it snook into my house

that way. I don’t know.

It’s a good reminder

we’re all coming or going.

Dust: the great realizer.

We might not be a chip

off the old block – yet

we’re all connected to this

great big wonderful world.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 

May 6, 2023

ADVERTISEMENT

 

The ad is not the hamburger.

It’s not. It triggers taste.

But you have to take out

your wallet or the coins

or cash in your pocket

and buy the burger.

So too people. You have

to taste them – chew them –

digest them at a dozen meals.

Then – only then – you might start

to get them at their carb or protein level.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 7, 2023

Quote

"All my experience in public life is in favour of the employment of what the world would call young men instead of old ones."

Robert Peel to Wellington in 1829

 May 6, 2023

Quote for Today

"You campaign in poetry.  You govern in prose."

Mario Cuomo

New Republic, 

Washington DC,

April 8, 1985

May 5,  2023

 

JUSTIFICATION

 

I’ve heard about “justification”

when it comes to religion and God.

Now that I’m in my 80’s, I realize

how nuts that is – in fact, crazy.

How can we know God’s mind and

thoughts on each human being.

Each human being has to get to

know God to get that. When?

In the meanwhile we play God and

try to justify ourselves to ourselves

and to others every day. We do ….

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 5, 2023

Quote   for  Today

"Where the blue of the night

Meets the gold of the day,

Someone waits for me."

Bing Crosby

1931 song

 May 4, 2023

ALL  IS  HOLY

 

All is holy – sacred – a sacrament.

The little kid draws the picture of a cow.

He saw her out the bus window on the way

home from school. That picture was on the

refrigerator door for at least a year – sacred.

So too mom’s hair brush which her daughter

wanted after mom died 11 years ago. She

had taken care of mom and her hair the

last year of her life. So too dad’s shoe horn

and the hundreds of things in the museum

called “our home.” All is holy. All is sacred,

but you have to ask, “What’s this?”

and, “What’s the story? And I notice

the brush has some gray hair in it?”

© Reflections, Andy Costello

May 3, 2023

LIMITS

 

Things have edges. They do.

Go too far and you can fall off.

We  have to accept limits.

Difficult at times – but we

can figure this out from oneself.

Sleep is a good place to start  - then

work – then walking – then talking –

then being with each other – knowing

the other has limits – but especially

they have gifts which make up

for my limits and for what’s missing

on the other side of my limits.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 4, 2023

Quote for Today 

"It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, 

and another to put him possession of truth."

John Locke

in An Essay concerning 

Human Understanding 

[1690] bk. 4, ch. 7, sect 11

 May 2, 2023

PAGE  263

 

Any book with a lot of pages

Has a page 263.  Check it out.

Was it carved out? Was it rushed?

Or was it like ten thousand conversations?

I’ve  had – forever lost in the wind –

of words. Oops! I still have it.

It’s written down. It’s in a book.

Check out – look at  page 263.

 

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 3, 2023

Quote  for Today

"To be adult is to be alone."

Jean Rostand

Penses d'un blologiste (1954)

 May 1, 2023

MOSQUITO

 

Mosquito ….

I was about to chase you down-

and kill you – and that would be that –

and I would continue doing my nothings ….

But no, I decided to get my window open

and my screen up and watch you fly  out

Into the world – with my blood in your belly.

Hope you remember me – and I hope

next time, you land on a race horse –

or a fox or a giraffe or a gorilla.

Any of those would certainly be

be a lot more interesting

than just me in your belly.

Me ….

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 2, 2023 

Quote for Today

"Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet 'em on your way down."

Wilson Mizner in Alva Johnston,

The Legendary Mizners (1953) chap. 3

 May 1, 2023

Quote for Today

Quote for Today

"I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist  as someone waiting for it to rain. And i feel soaked to the skin." 

Leonard Cohen