October  17,  2020

ECHOES

If we echo our parents all our lives,

without realizing it 99% of the time -

then when we get together with 

our brothers and sisters at a funeral

or a wedding or family gathering,

     our parents long gone,

we ought to be listening to each other

and hear our parents perhaps for the first time.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 

 October  16,  2020

WAS  GOD  SURPRISED?

 

Was God surprised when they beat
on Jesus?  Was God surprised when
they spit on him and cursed him and
crucified him? Was God surprised
when the Son came home with broken
hands and thorns still stuck in his
matted hair and bloody skull?
 
Jesus talked about banquet halls and
homecoming celebrations. When the
Father saw him coming up the road,
did he wince and ask, “What were
they like?” And what did Jesus answer?
Did he cry? Did he say, “Like fig trees
they need more time. They need more time.”

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 October 17,  2020

Thought for Today

 

 “The one thing harder than sticking to a diet is keeping quiet about it.”

 

Someone

 October  16,  2020

Thought for Today

 

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure – which is,  “Try to please everybody.”   

Herbert Swope

 October 15,  2020

BECAUSE?

 

“They are talking about him behind his back.
But nobody is taking to him. Why not?
Why won’t they come right out and tell him?”
 
“Because?”
 
“Well,  because you just can’t go right up to
a person  and say, ‘You can’t do what you’re
doing. You can’t be the way you are?’”
 
“Because?”
 
“Well, because – you know – you just can’t
be that way. Besides, what would it be it be like
if everyone did whatever they wanted to do?”

“Because?”
 
“Well, I don’t know. It just causes stress.
It makes things queasy and uneasy. It allows
agita to be sitting in every seat in the room.”
 
“Because?”
 
”Because!” “Because!” “Because!”
You keep saying, “Because. Because!
Why do you keep doing that?”
 
“Because …."

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 October  15,  2020

Thought for Today

 

“Words can destroy.  What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters.” 

 

Jean Kirkpatrick, 1982, Speech

 October  14, 2020

             LONELINESS

 

 Loneliness, it hides in back seats
of buses – or in school yards when
someone makes fun of us for acne
or being fat.  It has friends – but
they are  not people but feelings –
feelings of jealousy – or dismissal –
or nobody is really listening to us.
Loneliness – the cure is eye and
ear contact with another – who is
on the same dark bus with us
as we travel through the night.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020