Sunday, November 25, 2018

November 25, 2018



Thought for today: 

“I prefer  winter  and fall, when you feel  the bone structure in the landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of  winter. Something waits beneath it - the whole story doesn’t show.”  


Andrew Wyeth, in Richard Meryman, 
The Art of Andrew Wyeth, 1973

Painting by Andrew Wyeth

November 25, 2018


ROUTE  13

Just traveled down most of Route 13
and then back in Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, on the Delmarva Peninsula -
heading back and forth for Thanksgiving
Week with the family in Sandbridge, Virginia. 

Found it déjà vu like with birds on wires and
birds in the air - all the way down and back  
in the car on Route 13 with my sister.

I’m wondering about when I was with family everyone had a cellphone in hand - sort of like
a bird in hand - waiting for calls - from the air -
or through wires - if that’s the way this works.

Me? I don’t have a cellphone - so I’m talking
to myself - to my sister - to others - the old
fashioned way - face to face - eye to eye.

Me? Wondering: to whom are they talking -
and listening to? I’m don’t want to be labeled
out of date or an old grouch, but I tempted
to say “This new way is for the birds.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018



Sunday, November 18, 2018

November 24, 2018


ROOTS

Rairly noticed, necessary, needed,
without whom I would not be here,
wearing the shoes and socks
of earth, dirt …. Roots: all these people
who have gone before me - buried
beneath my feet - names and numbers
on their gravestones and now on my DNA.


© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018



November 24, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Religion is not an opiate, for religion does not help people to forget, but to remember.  It does not dull people.  It does not say Take, but Give.”  


Bede Jarrett, The Catholic Mother, 1956

November 23, 2018


TEXTURES

Stop complaining.

Study textures.

Touch the carved heart in the tree.

Taste the potato chip.

Pet the dog.

See the bent back of the old man.

Watch the little kid take her 678th step.

Stand at a grave and ask, “How was it?”

Study the palm of your hand 
and then 
wave and say, “Hi!” to someone.


 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2018



November 23, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Religion, whatever it is, is a man’s total  reaction upon life.”  


William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902



THANKSGIVING 
AND 
TYPES OF PEOPLE 


INTRODUCTION

Robert Rodenmayer wrote a book called, “Thanks Be To God.”

In it  he says that there are 3 kinds of giving:

·       grudge giving,
·       duty giving,
·       thanks giving.

1) GRUDGE GIVING

A grudge giver says “I hate to give.”

This person gives little, for “the gift without the giver is bare.”

2) A DUTY GIVER

A duty giver says “I ought to give.”

This person givers more, but there is no song in it.

3) A THANKS GIVER

A thanks giver says, “I want to give.”

This person givers everything. They show forth the image of God to the world.

QUESTION

What kind of a giver do we tend to be most of the time?

WILLIAM BARCLAY

“The rabbis had a saying that the best kind of giving was when the giver did not know to whom he was giving and when the receiver did not know from whom he was receiving.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

in today’s gospel, we have the 10 people with leprosy and only one came back to give thanks.

One out of ten is pretty bad.

ME -- YOU

Me? You?

What kind of a person am I?

Am I a person filled with gratitude or am I person filled with grudges?

Did the 9 other people get healed of their leprosy and not get healed of their grudges?

We don’t know.

Picture how easy it would have been to hang onto grudges -- after years and years of being shunned, pointed out, rejected, called, “Unclean!”

Leprosy was a double whammy.

Why / how did this one get freed?

Jesus says it was “faith”.

DR. HANS SELYE

In his book, Stress of Life, Dr. Hans Selye, said that “one of the simplest ways to reduce stress is to develop a sense of gratitude.”

The person who focuses on life’s blessings invariably experience contentment and peace while those who focus on crosses complain about them.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion is obvious.

Keep your eye on the good stuff and give thanks.