October  29, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Maybe the desire to make something beautiful / is the piece of God that is inside each of us.”  

Mary Oliver in her poem, 

Franz Marc’s Blue Horses.  

Page 21 in Mary Oliver, 

Devotions, The Selected 

Poems of Mary Oliver.

October 28, 2019

EMPTY  APOLOGIES

I hate fake apologies,

throw-a-ways, excuse me’s.

I want to see apologies,

changes that are obvious,

different.  I want to see

changes that last till the end

of this month and year - at least.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

October  28, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man.”  

Jose Ortega y Gasset, 

The Dehumanization of Art -

an essay in Spanish, 1925.

Then Princeton published 

the first English translation 

of the essay paired with another 

entitled "Notes on the Novel." 

Three essays were later added 

to make an expanded edition, 

published in 1968, under the 

title The Dehumanization of Art 

and Other Essays on Art, 

Culture and Literature .

October 27,  2019

BUDDHA

I’m no Buddha.

I’d get leg cramps

if I had to sit like the Buddha all day.

I wouldn’t notice

kids playing or nudging

each other if my eyes

were closed like that all day.

Well, then are you the Christ?

I talk to people at water fountains.

I see sparrows and learn lessons

from the flowers of the field.

I’m ready to share my bread and wine.

But to be honest,

I’m not ready to pick up a cross each day.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

October  27th, 2019

Thought for today: 

“I have a memory like an elephant. In fact elephants often consult me.”  

Noel Coward. Quoted 

J. K. Galbraith  in 

A Life In Our Times 1981]

IF  I  WERE  A  TREE?

If I were a tree, what kind of a tree would I want to be?

Would I want to be a redwood tree and last at least 923  years?

Would I want to be an olive tree and last 1000 or is it 2000 years in the garden of Gethsemane?

Would I want to be a palm tree giving palm oil and gracious shakes and shimmies  to all looking at me down at  a beach?

Would I want to be an apple tree sending forth apple blossom scents  in the spring and handing out delicious red apples in the fall?

Would I want to be a Christmas tree - all decked out with the finest of ornaments, with gifts left at my feet, indoors, on a rug or a neat wooden floor -  being the background  for dozens of photos and the cause of a 1000 smiles - but by the way, I’m dead?

Would I want to be a banana tree bringing delicious bananas to the breakfast table and be the cause of swing to dozens and dozens of frisky monkeys?

Would I want to be the tree of the cross - being a back and then the death bed for Jesus - becoming the symbol for Christianity?

Would I want to be a mighty oak tree - a sign of hope and a symbol of  strength for an old man sitting on a nursing home porch?

Would I want to be a weeping willow tree - near a small pond on the side -  of a side road - in the suburbs?

Would I want to be a Japanese cherry blossom tree that thousands come to see every spring in Washington D.C. - telling us countries can share beauty and life with each other.

Would I want to be a fig tree  caught by a farmer for doing nothing - but given a 2^nd chance - but now am  living under the gun needing to produce?

If I were a tree, what kind of a tree would I love to be?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

[This was a fun reflection on the  parable of the Fig Tree in today’s gospel Luke 13: 1-9 - for the 29^th Saturday in Ordinary Time.  I know a few people who know all about trees - and types of trees, but I’m treeologically illiterate - so here was an attempt to bring in something about different trees.]

October 26, 2019

OVERHEARD  FROM KIDS 

ON  THE  NEXT  TABLE 

“Like what?”

“I do.”

 “Me too.”
“This is better.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I understand.”

“I like.”

“I did that one.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah, give me one.”

“I’ll never go there.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Unbelievable.”

“So boring.”

“I know what class she’s in....”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019