May 20, 2023
ILLUSIONS
We use them
to avoid facing
our knowing –
our knowing –
that we have
some unfinished business –
that ism’t
being done. It’s something
we just don’t
want to face.
It’s
something we just
don’t want to do. We’re lazy.
So we create
an illusion.
It’s a fake
truth we say
is a truth we know isn’t true.
But often
that slips into
a believed
reality and it’s
then we’re
living an illusion.
© Reflections, Andy Costello
May 19, 2023
IMAGINATION
Sometimes we
forget we have one –
imagination
that is. We forget we
can go to
places we’ve never been to –
during a
boring sermon or when we’re
stuck at
dinner next to someone who
doesn’t seem
to have any imagination.
They do –
everyone has one – since
our first
box of crayons – or clay –
or being asked
to be an actor in a
kindergarten
play or to dance at
a wedding.
Look at hippos or giraffes
and laugh
with God at what God
has come up - add, “and some dogs”.
Check our a
local pug’s face. Interesting….
© Reflections, Andy Costello
May 18, 2023
Diamonds – so too rubies – so too
our grandfather’s gold pocket watch ….
They last in boxes on our bedroom
bureau
top 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 17, 2023
SOMETIMES THEY KNOW
Sometimes the little old lady in the chair
in the corner knows much more than the
rest of the folks in the room. Beneath the
wrinkles – in some corner of her brain – is
a vault full of ideas – helpful answers to the
whys and wherefores of our questions....
Old Men too – but you have to ask – then
you have to take time to listen, listen, listen.
© Reflections, Andy Costello
May 17, 2023
Quote for Today
"Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly. Therefore it would be desirable and good for the doctors or theology to know something about it and to understand what it actually is. and cease unjustly and unfoundedly to call it witchcraft."
Paracelsus
May 16, 2023
Reflection
GATHERING
IN A CIRCLE
The scene’s the same:
circles of friends –
quilting parties – taking
the place of sewing circles –
exchanging family happenings –
gossip – worries – needs ….
The equality of a round table ….
Working together on a project ....
Who sits where? Who controls
the conversation? Who turns things around?
© Reflections, Andy Costello
May 16, 2023
Quote for Today
"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain. and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours."
John G. Reinhardt, Black Elk Speaks
May 15, 2023
Reflection
SUNRISE ON THE ATLANTIC
Woke up
early enough
to watch the
sun come up
out of the Atlantic
Ocean.
A giant ball
of red orange fire ….
The game of
a new day –
has just started.
“Play ball” –
“Hit the ball over”
the net on
this volley ball court of earth.
Lord, remind
me it’s a game –
this new day
of life – not
all work, work, work….
© Reflections, Andy Costello
May 15, 2023
Quote for today
"What attracts people most in a city are other people. It is amazing how many pedestrian malls are designed on the assumption that what people want to do is get away from other people. We see this in the design of sitting areas where the backs of people are turned to the main flow of people. A brief study will convince you of the deep desire of people to be in the center and at the crossroads. We became aware of this in our early research on street corner behavior. When people meet on a street corner, do they move out of the pedestrian stream or do they stay in the middle of it? My hypothesis was that people would gravitate to the little-used strip along the side of the stream. Quite the contrary, they moved into it, and the longer the conversation, the more likely that it would take place smack in the very middle of the traffic stream.
Learn to look at steps. If people are sitting on steps and actually blocking passage, it is a good thing. It means they are very comfortable there.
Probably the greatest public space in the city - the most unifying of all - is the street corner. Street corners are the place where so much of the congress of the city goes on, and it has a vey functional reason. Take 'smoozing in the garment district of New York. If you go along Seventh Avenue, any time from 10 o'clock in the morning until dark, you will see these knots of men standing on the sidewalks talking, sometimes not talking. Smoozing is a Yiddish term which means 'nothing talk.' Of course there is a lot of business talk, a lot of gossip, but then you begin to notice they resemble men standing around a country courthouse. It is a very ancient city position that fulfills some deep human impulse. Smoozing is not necessary talking. Right after lunch, usually three or four men will line up - three abreast. They are not necessarily saying anything but seem to be engaged in a contented amiable silence. Watch their feet. The feet reflect a communication. If a girl goes by, the feet reveal what they are thinking. Or some crazy person goes by and one guy stops his foot pattern and then another will take it up. Larger groups reveal similar foot motions, and you will also notice the tendency to reciprocal gestures.
I have never broken the code about the meaning of these foot motions, but I feel that there is in these non-verbal patterns a human congress that is terribly important, and that if we do not see them in a city there is something very wrong with the city. There are a number of places where you do not see this kind of activity: something about the collection of buildings and streets which prohibits this kind of thing. Now, I would give you other ways to buttress this point, but instead will repeat my former statement: what attracts people most to the city are other people.
William H. Whyte, "The City as Dwelling"
May 14.2024
MOMS
Off to the side a moment
after our birth – our mother steps back.
But if we looked at a mother’s face
at that time – we’d see the joy
Jesus talked about when
a new kid has come into the world?
Who doesn’t stop to wiggle
their fingers at a new born baby’s eyes?
The kid – we haven’t had the time yet
to mess up – so we all celebrate a baby –
but moms are with us forever -
always looking at their kids – hoping -
in the forever after that - no matter what.
© Reflections, Andy Costello
