August 20, 2022
Thought for Today
"You will find something more in woods than in books. Tree and stones will teach you that which you can learn from masters,"
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Friday, August 19, 2022
August 19, 2022
Reflection
MESS
Mess happens.
We knock over a glass of milk. We drop the box of Christmas bulbs. We leave the vegetables in the trunk of the car.
Mess happens.
We sin. We make mistakes. We say the wrong thing. We do the wrong thing. We promise, but we can't deliver.
Mess happens.
We don't have time to clean the garage or the cellar or the dishes and things pile up.
Mess happens.
Pat Livingston has a wonderful book entitled, "Bless This Mess."
Jesus jumped right into mess. He gets put in a buzz saw of a situation when they drag a woman to him. men want to stone to death because they catch her in adultery. He tells the story about a father of two sons - two sons who are very different. He runs into ten men with leprosy. He falls three times on his way to his execution at Calvary.
Mess happens and Jesus can be found in the mess and mass of humanity.
It's called, "The Incarnation."
It's called "Christmas" - Christ being born in a messy stable - not the Inn Place.
It's called, "The Christian life."
It's called, "Humility."
It's called being made by God out of the mud of the earth and returning to the earth 30, 60, 82 years later.
It's called "War? and "The rumors of war.'
It's called, "The Evening News,"
"It's called, "The stuff or story."
Mess happens.
Thursday, August 18, 2022
August 18, 2022
Reflection
DOES ANYONE CARE
WHAT I HAVE TO SAY?
We've all sat at meetings - we've all been in discussions - and we've listened to what others have had to say.
It happens one out of ten times when someone looks at us and says, "Do you have anything you want to say?"
If people have been drinking - or if egos are running around the room - saying, "Hey look at me!" - then the odds are 100 to 1 that I'll be asked that question.
Sometimes we have nothing to say. We're not sure about an issue - or we need to talk to someone else about that issue.
Or we need to do a lot more listening.
Or we have to figure out the most important questions - especially ones that are not being asked.
Or we don't care.
If we do care and we have ideas, sometimes we do speak up - or off to the side after the meeting.
And sometimes we don't speak up until someone asks.
I am often surprised to be the recipient of ideas from someone about what was going on - but afterwards.
I say to myself, "Why didn't they bring that up?" or "Oh my God they see the big picture - the whole story - and the rest of us were just scattered - talking in ten different directions at once."
I do get a lift when someone asks me, "What do you think?"
If they just ask, it's good for my ego - even if I say, "No. I'm still thinking abut all this."
It jars or jams my morale when I am not asked - especially if it would have been nice if I was.
So I wonder if round table are better than rectangular tables.
Are small groups better than one big group.
Are group circles better than question and answer periods in long big halls.
Is it better to go for a walk with someone after a meeting - or to chat with someone at a coffee break?
Is it better to meet and mix with strangers than those we always talk with? Are three's better than two's?
Is it not too smart to always be just with myself all my life?
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
August 17, 2022
Reflection
DEATH
Everyone from time to time faces death.
Deaths trigger thoughts and feelings about death.
Death gets us to ask the question: "Is there life after death?"
Then the question: "If there is, what is it like after death?"
Death gets us to question our life.
Death brings up further questions: "Is there an accounting?" "Is there a judgment?"
The wife in the movie, Moonstruck, asks several people in the movie, "Why do husbands have affairs?"
She gets several answers. The answer that jumps out of the movie screen is, "Death!"
People get scared of death.
Is that true?
I'm 66 and I'd like 10 more years - and if I make it to 76, will I want 10 more years? I wonder what my thought patterns on death will be like in 10 years.
When people ask about people who are moving towards death - people who are bedridden - or have dementia - the question of quality of life comes up.
I think of a couple - who live on my sister's street - in Pennsylvania. It's noticeable how they walk together each morning - how extraordinary their marriage has been - she much younger than he is.
What is an extraordinary life?
Obituaries in the newspapers just give a bare minimum of statistics and data and dates.
Isn't it the unofficial obituaries that really count?
Much more important - I would think - it's the question and quality of life - right now - and up till now.
[It's now August 17, 2022 - and as stated in this piece - I wrote this back when I was 66. I'm now 82 going on 83. I was never in a hospital since my birth. - that is, till I needed a triple bypass - on my heart three years ago - and then two years later a TAVR operation on my heart. In those who moments I was blessed to have faced death finally. It's coming.]
August 17, 2022
Thought for Today
"So the church has become a spetacle of marvelous beauty, overwhelming to those who see it, but to those who know it by hearsay altogether incredible. For it soars on high to match the sky, and as if surging up from amongst the other buildings it stands on high and looks down on the remainder of the city."
Procopius [AD c. 499-565]
Byzantian administrator and historian
of the church of the Hagia Sophia
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