June 8, 2019

SABBATICAL

Without realizing it,

I was given a Sabbatical

in my 79^th year of life.

I got sick.

I felt fragility with my triple by-pass.

I realized there are time limits.

In the Washington Hospital Center

I asked myself in the middle of the night,

“Is this it or will I have more time?”

I didn’t know.

The side effects of the anesthesia

and oxycodone unhinged my reality.

Time - and  I hope recovery

will give me answers.

I had the all already -

but why not more?   Why not?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 8, 2019

Thought for today: 


“When  she  started to play,  Steinway came down personally and rubbed his  name off the piano.”  

Bob Hope, 

on comedian Phyllis  Diller,  

WNEW TV,  May 7, 1985

June 7, 2019

GRACE

There are nights - darkness - death -

and there are mornings - light - grace -

and the consequences of our decisions.

There better be a God. There better

be grace. There better be justice in

the long run - because sometimes ….

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 7, 2019

Thought for today: 


“I have treated  many hundreds of patients …. Among [those] in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that  of finding a religious outlook on life.”  


Carl Jung, Time, 
February 14, 1955

June 6, 2019

THE  FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE

The first school house is the home

we’re brought up in - where we learn

love and language, laughter and how

to butter our bread - sweep the floor -

mirror our parents smiles - dance, sing,

pray and play cards - all those life

learnings before we go to school.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 6, 2019

Thought for today: 

“The motto was ‘Pax,’ but the word was set in a circle of thorns.”  

Rumer Godden, 

on a Benedictine motto, 

In This House of Brede, 

Viking 1969

June 5, 2019

THE GOLDEN CUP

God handed me the Golden Cup -

to take a taste of God’s Precious Blood.

I did - as well as a piece of the

Sacred  Bread. I did - as I realized

God without pause accepts me as is.

Wait! Stop! Pause! I just realized

God wants to taste of my precious

blood and my sacred body - but I
cannot fathom why God would  want

to be in Sacred Communion with me.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Chalice on top commissioned by
Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg
in 1791, Designed by Iver Windfelt