LIFE:

OUT OF MY HANDS

OUT OF MY CONTROL

Quote for the Day  - July 8, 2010


"Jesus' ministry
was clearly defined,
and the alternativeswere spelled out.
A choice was made -
life abundant,
full, and free for all.
Make no mistake about it,the day that choice was made,
Jesus became suspect.
That day in the temple
he sealed the fate
already prepared for him.
How was the world
to understand one
who rejected
an offer of power and control?"

Joan B. Campbell, Sojourners, August-September 1991


Fresco on top: "The Temptation of Christ", from around 1125 - in the Hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga, in the province of Soria, Spain. The Fresco was transferred to canvas.

HOT

Quote for the Day  - July 7,  2010

"And when I say heat, I mean the kind that thickens the whites of eggs left in the coop and that makes the lizzards, scurrying from the shelter of one little bush to another, flip over on their backs and blow their toes."


Juanita Brooks [1898-1989], "The Water's In" - Harper's Magazine, May, 1941


Today it's predicted to hit 101 or 102 degrees here in Maryland.

GOLF: THE GAME 
OF  LIFE 

Quote of the Day - July  6,  2010


"Those little lines around your mouth, those crow's feet around your eyes, the millimeter your derriere has slipped in the past decade - they're just nature's way of telling you that you've got nine holes left to play, so get out here and have a good time."

Bruce Willis, Moonlighting, 1980's

SUMMER CONCERT

Bugs, birds, chirps, squeaks,
bluebirds and frogs, owls
and a bark or two from two

dogs down the street,
wind chimes next door,
so many different sounds
coming through the trees and grass,
streaming across the invisible breeze,
warm summer evening – music
to my ears – sitting here,
in the semi-darkness, simply listening,
in a comfortable auditorium seat,
in a screened in porch.
Who says God didn’t want
to make music in the night
with Bernstein and Bach,
Ravelle and Rachmaninoff?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

PRIVATE BEACH

Walking along alone
on a morning beach ….

Unconnected,
carrying secrets
and situations,
I don’t care to share
with you or anyone
right now and this is
a further burden.

I meet you and you ask,
“So what’s new?”
And I stand there
hiding behind,
“Oh, not much.”

Inwardly, that too
makes me feel
a bit uneasy.
There are things
I just don’t talk about.
There are lonely
stretches of beach
that only I can walk.

Is that wrong?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

INTERRUPTED CONVERSATION

Interruptions …. Sometimes
in the middle of
one of those accidental,
wonderful, unplanned conversations….
an interruption enters the room.
“Oh no! Another person!”
Sometimes three’s a crowd …
but this third person doesn’t know it.
Hey, twenty minutes earlier,
we didn’t know it either.
Often great conversations just happen –
like running into an old friend
in a restaurant or museum.
Where do the not gotten to parts
of these unfinished conversations go?
Where would they have taken us?
What old forgotten memory
would surprisingly surface?
Okay, there are lots of museums
and movies we’ll never get to.
Waiters and waitresses are
used to picking up plates with half
finished meals – but sometimes
people take the rest of the plate
and the rest of the conversation
home with them in Styrofoam
boxes or doggie bags. “Woof, woof….”
Yet ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010

NO PROBLEM

You said,
“No problem.”

In fact,
you repeated it
with a laugh,
“No problem!”

But there is
a problem.

“It’s you!”
According
to me
it’s you.”

And I would
assume down
deep, according
to you, “It’s me.”

Now according
to me that’s
a problem.

But then
you always say
with a laugh,
“No problem!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010