September 10, 2022
Thought for Today
"There is nothing in Christianity or Buddhism that quite matches the sympathetic unselfishness of an oyster."
Saki,
Chronicles of Clovis [1912]
Saturday, September 10, 2022
September 10, 2022
Reflection
COLD
Cold creeps - coming into an area - and one's toes feel it first - and continue to feel it.
Cold is quiet - invasive- pervasive - and doesn't just stick to hand surfaces. It penetrates hard surfaces - like green metal fences and black iron banisters.
Cold is hard - like ice - freezing water, ponds, puddles, lakes. It freezes, thaws, re-freezes, cracking and crumbling rocks in its story.
Cold is the heart after another dumps us.
Cold is the mind after another gyps us or lies to us - or uses us.
The killer is described as cold hearted - also the tax collector - as well as the church says "No!" to the beggar.
The judge, the principal, the truant officer, has to stay cool, neutral, like Jack Webb in Dragnet. "Just the facts, mam. Just the facts."
Cold is a pause, a stepping back, a calming down - being cautious, stepping back from a situation to consider cause, concessions, compromise, calculating all comers, corners in a situation.
Cold turkey is stopping drinking or smoking or drugs, on the spot, not a slow stopping or turning off from...
To have a cold is to avoid contact with others - till one is better.
Friday, September 9, 2022
September 9, 2022
Reflection
RAIN
It's raining.
Beads and bubbles of rain sitting on a newly washed and waked car.
The sound rain makes on street from tires going by this house.
Rain - the sound on sills and windows after the cars have disappeared.
Rain - nice if needed - not wanted this day because of this wedding this afternoon.
Rain - rare in Arizona - plentiful this day - in Maryland - this late March.
Rain - a bit damp - a bit cold - a bit uncomfortable - but we don't appreciate the coolness of rain - unless we want coolness and rain.
Rain - why this word - why the sound in this word.
"It's raining!"
"We need rain!"
"My roof is leaking. Enough with this rain."
Kids - little girls - boys sometimes too - loving rain - so they want to go outdoor with yellow plastic boots on and a chance to love the rain.
Window shield wipers getting a chance to show their necessity.
Rain ....
The rain of God - rhyming with "the reign of God". Is there any connection.
The two times - a week each time - I was in Arizona - hearing, "You have to be when it rains. The desert blooms when the rain falls."
It didn't happen when I was there.
Rain....
It's sunny today, March 19th, 2007. Spring will be with us - in two days - and hopefully, busy April showers. as well.
Rain ....
Thursday, September 8, 2022
September 8, 2022
Reflection
THE AFTERMATH OF CLARITY
After an argument there is clarity.
After an argument, hopefully, there is also charity - but here I'm talking about clarity.
How many times have we figured out what we should have said - or not said - but we're on our way home - after the argument.
If we are going to see the person or persons we were arguing with again - or if we are in the same home - bedroom - family table - workplace - club - as us - then we can say, "Oh I was thinking about the fight we had the other night, and it hit me afterwards, "I was wrong!" or "What I was trying to say was ...." or "My button was pushed and I apologize for losing it' or "I never did listen to your point."
After the argument there is clarity.
The fog lifts after the battle.
There is such a thing as Monday morning quarter-backing"
If - is a powerful concept.
Second thoughts are often better thoughts.
Yesterday, some ladies were pushing for doing more Divine Mercy stuff. It's not my cup of tea. They were pushing for the Divine Mercy rosary. They were complaining that some churches didn't have statues. Some churches did not have the tabernacle behind the altar. Some people were not praying. Complaints. Complaints. Complaints.
Should I respond or remain quiet.
I blew it. I said something.
But on the way home I saw that I should have shut up.
It was then that I saw what I could have or should have said.
After the argument comes clarity.
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
September 7, 2022
Reflection
SIBLINGS
If someone used the word "sibling" when I was a kid in the 1940's, I would have had no clue what it meant. I'd probably think it was someone's last name.
Today it's used. Is it because there are less kids in families? It seems to me that kids know and like that word "sibling".
I had 3 siblings: a brother and 2 sisters.
Our siblings are with us for a lifetime. And it sometimes takes us a lifetime to figure our what's with our brothers and sisters.
In listening to people talk about their life, I hear expectations they have about their brothers and sisters - their siblings.
In listening to people talk about their siblings, I hear them say they have not told different siblings their expectations of them.
In listening to people talk about their siblings, I sometimes hear them say they are still living in the shadow of a brother or a sister.
In listening to people talk about their siblings, I sometimes hear about the absence - or distancing - they experienced from one or their siblings.
Sometimes it's just the opposite.
Jesus was an only child - yet he often talks about brothers - and there is mention in his life of his visits to Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus.
Jesus called brothers: James and John, Peter and Andrew.
And Christianity talks about all of us being siblings to each other - but they don't use the word "sibling".
Interesting ....
Yet blood is thicker than thoughts and words - so we drink the precious blood from the family table - so that we become family and siblings to each other.
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