September 25, 2019

EDGE

I find myself at the edge of people

at times - not knowing whether to

continue around corners, become

quiet, say, “Good bye!” or wait for

a “Next ….” I’m sure they're wonder-

ing the same about me. “Next ….”

I guess we all can be edgy at times -

knowing there is always something

around the corner - around the edge

of each other - the edge of a next.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

September  25, 2019

Thought for today:

“Nor can I suppose that when Mrs. Casaubon is discovered in a fit of weeping six weeks after her wedding, the situation will be regarded as tragic. Some discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” 

George Eliot 1819-1880, 

[Marian Evans Cross]

in Middlemarch [1871-1872], 

chapter 22. 

Dorothea makes that comment in Rome as she’s dealing with unexpected issues that have come up in her marriage.

I like this quote because it  articulates the silence we all feel when reality settles in after our imagined expectations crash into a wall.

Better put: “Often the way life works goes like this: Illusion. Disillusionment. Decision.”

At first things look good. Then we discover pluses and minuses.

For example, the restaurant looked good from the outside and the menu on the window. We went in - and wow were we disappointed.

It looked like a good investment, but ....

"I thought she was a good choice, but in time, wow was I wrong .... or wow I found out she must much better than I could imagine ...."

September 24,  2019

KNOCK! KNOCK! 

I’LL OPEN MY DOOR

“Just knock and I’ll be here

to open my door and let you in.

Just knock …. Knock! Knock!”

Others yawn and look at their

watches - giving the signal,

“I don’t have time for you now.”

“But I do. I’m about my Father’s

business - which is you. Just

knock. I have time for you. Now!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

September  24, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“If you want praise die, if you want blame marry.”  

Old Irish Proverb, 

page 111 in Maurice O’Sullivan’s 

book, Twenty Years A-Growing, 

Oxford University Press.

LIFE

Life doesn’t have to be as if 

we’re trying to run through 

peanut  butter or worse: trudge 

our way through a garbage dump -

moving through the mistakes of a lifetime.

To me that’s too crippling an image of life.

Life is learning, creating, forgiving,

accepting the grace of letting go,

seeing the funny in every day, the

giving and receiving of self,  family,

neighbor, working, playing, praying,

and enjoying the whole panorama.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

September  23, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.” 

Charles M. Schulz

IN  FRONT  OF  ME

In front of me today -

will sit, stand, stop,

start, stand around me -

at least ten people -

maybe twenty, maybe

even a hundred, who

will be unaware of

who I am as well as

all those around them -

as well as themselves.

But by sleep tonight,

I can know two or three

people better than

this morning: myself

and one person who

stops to talk with me

and one person who

walks away and goes

the other way.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019