CAN’T SLEEP

Can’t sleep,
angry at a noisy clock,
ticking, ticking away,
like so many
second thoughts
about a bad day ….
Can’t sleep.
Don’t know what to say.
Don’t know what to do,
You. Did you ever feel
this way too?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2008

TABLE  AND  CHAIR

This frozen night
both of us are lucky
to be sitting here
in this warm house
at this kitchen table
far away from the frozen forest.

© Andy Costello, 2008

A MARRIAGE

Yes, there are the big scenes,
the “Where we first met?”
or, “How we first met,”
and the decision moment,
the “Yes,”
then the wedding,
the honeymoon,
the “I’m pregnant”
the births, the first word,
the first steps, the clapping,
school, plays, recitals, going to games,
graduations, marriages, grandkids,
and oh yeah, the big mistakes,
the ones that can’t be forgotten
and sometimes hard to forgive,
the hurts, the cries of pain,
the cries of passion … but let’s be honest,
marriage is the small moments,
mostly small moments,
the holding the door for the other
remembering the other has an appointment,
the recognition that something is different in the other,
the small looks, the slight touches,
the looks across the kitchen,
the putting down of the papers,
the turning off the television to talk,
moments on a couch together,
the asking of the questions,
listening, being quiet, asking again,
trying to understand the meaning,
the feelings, the small stuff,
all those moments called, “Life”,
called “Being married to you!”
called, “Thank You, God. Thank You!”

© Andy Costello, 2008

QUESTIONABLE?

Wedding rings mean something,
even when so much of the sacred
has been squeezed out of a marriage –
a marriage that has become
like an empty, wrinkled, flat tube
of toothpaste left on the sink –
a marriage of two who don’t seem to care
for each other any more –
especially if there was the quick slipping off
of a ring in an affair:
the death penalty to most marriages.
Can there be a re-marriage to a marriage?
Can the blessing return to a ring?

© Andy Costello, 2008

GOD SMIRKS

A little girl is laughing and singing
in a car all the way to church ….
She dances her way
across the church parking lot ….
She delights as she sees sunlight
playing on her maroon coat.
She skips up the stone steps
of the great big grey granite church.
She loves it as she enters
into this joyful crowd
of Sunday morning people.
Standing on the bench
she whispers a loud comment
to her daddy’s left ear.
Heads turn. Then come
the loud looks: ““Shush!”
“Be still!” “Listen.” “What are
you doing here?” “Bad girl!”
She sits and tries to slump
into the hard wooden bench,
but the only thing soft
is her daddy’s hug.
It’s no longer fun to be in church
till she hears
the gospel words,
“Let the children come to me
if you want to see
the kingdom of God.”
She smiles. God smirks
in every child’s heart.*

* Luke 18: 15-17

© Andy Costello, 2008

BALANCING ACT

Lord, so much of life
seems to be a juggling act,
appointments and disappointments,
scheduling and rescheduling,
committing and recommitting,
sometimes weather permitting.

Lord, so much of life
seems to be lines,
lines I like and lines I don’t like,
standing on lines, traffic lines,
and sometimes there are lines
I never knew were there before.

Lord, so much of life
is a balancing act,
playing roles, sometimes wearing different hats,
sometimes even a crown of thorns,
dealing with other people’s expectations.
Is this my way of the cross for today?

© Andrew Costello

THE REAL
TEN COMMANDMENTS

1) Protect your turf. (PYT)

2) Cover your butt. (CYA)

3) Mind your own business. (MYOB)

4) It’s whom you know. (IWYK)

5) Volunteer the other person. (VTOP)

6) Me first. (M#1)

7) Don’t trust anyone. (DTA)

8) Blame the other person. (BTOP)

9) Everybody does it. (EDI)

10) Money talks. (MT)

© 2008 by Andrew Costello