October 3, 2022

Reflection

ROADS, RIVERS AND RAILROADS

Every once and a while, it's time to stop.

Every once and a while it's time to move.

Hit the road - sail the seas - get a ticket to go.

I often keep running into the question: "Is your main spiritual image that of the home or the road - the porch or the highway?"

I'll always be grateful for an old nun who asked us that question in a conference in the 1990's.

Just by asking that question - changed the way I was thinking - and I learned to relax and be at home more.

Okay, I can't dance. I can't sing. I can't do math that well, but I can sit and watch the show. I can celebrate all the work - that went into a piano concert - and a band marching up the street - or a football team playing the game down on the field.

Life is obviously both.

Life is obviously balance.

I think of St. Alphonsus' rule: Never waste a moment of time.

I think of St. Alphonsus's father saying, "Never enough, Fonsi. Never enough. More."

I think of St. Alphonsus - during the times he suffered with scrupulosity - always thinking, "I'm sinning. I'm doing wrong."

What would it be like to do a study - or write an article - trying to establish if Alphonsus moved to the center - when he got off the road - sat down with a glass of wine - and enjoyed the surrounding scenery.

I think of Thornton Wilder's comment about ice cream, "My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate." 

Is this what the Buddhists are calling for - in their message of mindfulness?

Is this feminist spirituality - the mother - the stay at home mother - stepping back - and enjoying her family - enjoying a meal together - the moment?

Step back Jack. Step back. Enjoy the trains - lower the anchor - enjoy the scenery.

 October 3, 2022

Thought for Today

"Morals are an acquirement - like music, like a foreign languages, like piety, poker, paralysis - no man is born with them."
                                                   

Mark Twain, 

Seventieth Birthday, 1907      

 October 2, 2022

Reflection

THE  HEAT  OF  THE  DAY

It's July.

It's hot.

The air conditioners are on - everywhere.

Electric bills will be higher now that Maryland has stopped the so-called electrical or energy price controls.

There could also be a breakdown on the a grid brown-out or even a blackout.

Then we have to go outside.

It's July.

It's hot.

I don't like July or January - August of February - at least in Maryland.

I do like seasons - appreciating warm days in winter and cool days in summer.

Do people use their money to live in cool spots in summer - and warm spots in winter? Yes!

I've lived in Tobyhanna - in the Poconos - and it had tough winters and great summers.

I now live in a humid area - near the Chesapeake Bay.

Real estate prices tell us what land is considered valuable and what land isn't.

Where I am living now is valuable property: Annapolis, Maryland.

Jesus why didn't you come to us as a Navaho or an Eskimo or South American Native American?

People don't seem to know you as is.

God's People don't know you as is.

Yet, God, you are here, in this place - with every people - and Jesus - you are Navaho, Eskimo, Guarani and Brooklynese - and we don't either know you - or we kill you.

In the meanwhile - where you are - when you are - turn the air conditioner on or put another log in the fire.

 October 2, 2022

Thought for Today

"A poetry bestseller is any book that sells four or five copies in any given store."

Michael Wiegers

Hungry Mind Review,

Spring 1997

 October 1, 2022

 Reflection

CHANGE #607

Last night I had my #607th conversation about the question, "Can another person change."

Can a person change?

Can I change?

We're always talking about others - especially about those who negate - those who drain us - those we don't want around.

Can they change?

And the answer I keep coming up with is, "Have I ever changed?"

My sister-in-law, Joanne, once said to me, "You've changed!"

Afterwards, while driving, I thought about that.

I'm too close to myself to see change in myself.

People who haven't seen us for years might see a nervous person who now seems much more confident.

I look at sermons I preached 10 years ago. They look so insipid. They seem so uninspiring. So yes I see that I have changed from 10 years ago.

Question: can I sit down and resolve to make a change and then do it?

Once more the question of specifics shows up. Be specific in the how of the changes you want to make.

I could go to be an hour earlier each night.

I could try to eat one orange or apple each day.

I could bite my tongue more and listen better.

I could take one hour each week to clean up and out my room.

I could us my black Progoff loose leaf filler each week.  

Will I?

 October 1,  2022

Thought for Today

"Poetry is the only way to fight television, because we make our pictures with poetry."

Kostis Gimosoulis.

BBC Radio 3, April 1994

 September 30, 2022

Reflection

MIDDLES

Middles are the places where we need persistence, patience, strength and the ability to push ourselves.

Beginnings are easy.  I can dream up a thousand projects a day.

I can start something new - with excitement - but it's that second chapter - it's that noon day devil - it's those interruptions - it's the need for naps - it's those next miles when I run out of gas.

I'm still in middle age - well a bit older - 67.

Translation: there are a lot of things i want to do before I die.

Translation: if I consider myself to be in my old age - then I'll coast.

Translation: I rather stay young - creating, dreaming, imagining, with lots of future possibilities.

So Lord, in the middle of every middle, give me the push - be with me when I stop to sit on a bench for a while - and then get young again.

Didn't Dante use the image of the middle - as the metaphor - the central metaphor for his great writing.

Here I am in the middle of the dance floor - so dance.

Here I am in the middle of the woods - them walk.

Here I am in the middle of the river - start rowing.

Here I am in the middle of my life - just do it.