July   24,  2020

CRUMBLE

Crumble:

we crumble so we grumble.

Crumble teaches us

we are not God.

Crumble teaches us this

in the crumble of the cookie

in our kitchen

and in our sidewalks

as we walk down the street.

Crumble happens in

the breaking of our toys

and in the wrinkles of our skin,

in the painful arthritis of our bones

as we sink and start to crumble over

downwards back into the earth.

Grave thoughts,

but this reality of being human

can also crumble our pride

till we finally look up 

and cry out for the divine,

WHO made us up out of

mud and clay -

these fragile elements -

in the first place

in our mothers womb –

our mother earth -

and this God can

raise us up

on our last day again

Crumble teaches us.

We know we can’t. Amen

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July  24,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“If you want truth to go round the world you  must hire an express train to pull it;  but if you want a lie to go around the world,  it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath  will carry it.  It is well said in the old proverb, ‘a lie  will go round the world while truth is putting its boots  on’.”  

C.H. Spurgeon [1934-1892] 

in Gems from Spurgeon  (1839)

July  23,   2020

FAIR

Who said, “Life is fair”?

Yet it seems that’s the assumption

we’re all born with – or given – or have.

You hear kids saying it all the time.

“Hey, that’s not fair!”  "unfair!"

People jump ahead of each other

on lines all the time – or they try.

“I got one scoop of ice cream and it

was delicious till I saw you got two.”

“She got the lead in the play

and I got to give out the programs.”

“They just built this fire house

just down the street from us.”

“Not fair.  Lefties can get to first base

a step quicker than righties ever time.”

“Jesus Christ, not fair. My birthday

is on December 25^th.  Not fair.”

Who said, “Life is fair”?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July   23,  2020

Thought   for  Today

“There  was  a  reviewer a while back who wrote that my  pictures didn’t have any  beginning or any end.  He didn’t mean it  as  a compliment, but it was. It was a fine compliment.”  

Jackson Pollock [1912-1956]   

Francis V. O’Connor, 

Jackson Pollock [1967]

July   22,   2020

DUMB

Sometimes we do the stupid thing –

like not taking care of the right front

tire – till it’s too late and it goes flat -

some 256 miles away from home.

To self-destruct – that’s something

we humans do – and too, too often.

We eat too much. We say the wrong

thing. Then we blurt out, “Dumb!”

To walk in the light – seems to appear

only in church services and prayers –

not in real life. To be smart, to get new

tires: now would trigger us to do that?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July   22,  2020

Thought   for   Today

“The first hole made through a piece of stone is a revelation.”  

Henry  Moore, 

in Listener, 

August 18,  1937

July 21,  2020

Thought for Today

“Few, save the poor, feel for the poor.”  

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 

[1802-38] English writer, 

in The Poor.
Potato Eaters by Van Gogh