GO AHEAD. . .Light a Candle. . sip a cup of tea. . .
Close your eyes
LISTEN AGAIN
THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF THANKSGIVINGS
AND NOT ALL OF THEM ARE
THE LAST THURSDAYS OF NOVEMBER
COMPLETE WITH TURKEY, DRESSING, MASH POTATOES, PUMPKIN PIE
AND ALL OF THE REST OF THE FIXINGS. . .
SOMETIMES THE BEST THANKSGIVINGS
AREN’T RECOGNIZED AS ANYTHING MUCH MORE THAN
MERE MOMENTS OF MERCI’S
I’m grateful for much and
for George Winston
before, during, after
all the Thanksgivings
(and a little more)
LIVING IN AN AGE
I apologize and I am a little embarrassed that C. S. Lewis isn’t one of my favorite authors, but I read a daily meditation from him. Some I like and some I don’t and some are more spot on than any spot that is on; here’s one of them and I hope it helps. I hope it inspires. I hope it encourages us to be the WE, the US, the ALL that we are called to be NOW, HERE, at this very moment . . .
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat at night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented… It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds. -C.S. Lewis
I don’t know what dog ear’s the pages in your book
but it’s important enough
that you don’t want to forget and. . .
and want to show Another
what to
R E M E M B E R. . .
SOME UP-CHUCKINGS
HOW ARE YOU DOING. . .
I know a lot of you have been asking what I think or more pertinently
direction on what to do, I mean s p e c i f i c a l l y
WHAT TO DO
coming from a scary, dark place of fear
And as much as I wish I could you the
A
B
C
steps for you to do NEXT
I am instead offering up a host of not so pretty or in orderly fashioned
UP-CHUCKING’S
(literally)
If there was ever a picture that kind of sums up what your head and gut feels like these past couple of days, maybe it’s a Snow Globe that’s literally been upended. . .
So many people have reached out through texts, phone calls, pop in visits not knowing what to think or do and NO. . . I don’t have, nor am I offering up any magical, abracadabra special
thoughts or answers, but like a lot of you some very honest,
“I DON’T KNOW’S. . .
A N D
some of these random flavored Life Savers
A N D
A N D
A N D
A N D
A N D
When I was going through a drive through Starbucks on
Wednesday morning there was a car in front of me
who paid for my cup of much needed Grande Blonde Roast Coffee
ACCIDENT
COINCIDENT
DIVINE INTERVENTION
One of the darkest places in our house
(my basement bathroom, and yes, I have bookshelves in there)
reminds me
(if I notice)
THE DARKEST PLACES
HOLD THE MOST GLORIOUS LIGHTS
Carve out a space
where YOUR LIGHT
can be lit
where YOUR LIGHT
can flicker away Darknesses
where YOUR LIGHT
can glow and enlighten
where YOUR LIGHT
can be seen and shared
because YOUR LIGHT
creates an Enlightenment
Anytime
Anywhere
I want to be
An Extended Hand
A hearing Ear
A Reasoning Refuge
Who Cares
instead of complaining
always looking for an easier way
to shrug my shoulders
frown my brow
grump apathetically,
“Who Cares?”
I choose to be better
and I invite you to help me
because that’s what gives me
H O P E
a hope I just don’t want to have
but can’t help but to share
DEAR HEARTS
This is what we get to choose
A casting of a vote for
H O P E
A vote for Peace
A vote for Love and Loving
as we are reminded of the powerful words of the poet Dinos Christianopoulus:
“THEY TRIED TO BURY US. THEY DIDN’T KNOW WE WERE SEEDS”
Please, even as you forgive these hodge podge of
UP-CHUCKINGS
. . .come Grow with me
JUST A MOMENT: LIGHT AND SHADOWS
I looked really hard, but I couldn’t find that little sideways oval space to blacken in a vote for
LOVE
or
KINDNESS
~~things that’ll never be, cannot ever be legislated;
but neither can my sincere honor to offer them. . .
BE THE LOVE YOU WISH TO RECEIVE
(is the only box you’ll ever need to darken)
THE COSMIC EYE PERSPECTIVE
The whole world is seeking it, aren’t they: PERSPECTIVE
When you are feeling BIG and need to feel a little smaller
When you are feeling SMALL and need to feel bigger. . .
Oh, the gift of perspective!
“Cosmic Eye” seamlessly zooms through all recognized scales of the universe, from minuscule elementary particles out to the infinite cosmic web. It uses actual photographs obtained with modern detectors, telescopes, and microscopes, plus renderings of modern computer models.
Pssssssssssssst: THIS IS A WEEK we all could use some PERSPECTIVE
BE OPEN
BE SENSITIVE
to the Smallnesses in the Bignesses in each of us. . . .
(My thanks to astrophysicist Danail Obreschkow and pianist Aakash Gandhi, via Scientificus.
THE SHADOW OF HALLOWEEN EVE
It’s an annual BILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS that casts a large shadow on a lot of pocketbooks and wallets and there’s no hint of it ever stopping on this
HALLOWEEN EVE
where things go bump in the night
and crash, boom, bam during the day
and the quickly falling shadows. . .
It’s amazing how we stand in our own shadow
and wonder loudly why it is so dark . . . .
THE SHADOW
I feared the most was
the one that could
hurt me the least
which made me fear it
all the more
The sound
The smell
The feel of skin crawling
hair raising on the back of my neck
itchingly
All SCREAMING
All YELLING
ABORT
BEWARE
R U N
All
just a shadow
caused something a Light
created but never clarified
An Illusion
of what could harm me
but never will
N O W
that’s a Treat any Tricky Shadow can appreciate. . .
MORE THAN A TALK
AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN
WHEN YOU TALK
AND
L I S T E N
especially when you ask
curiously
and
listen hard. . .
WE
L E A R N. . .
(A LOT)
FAMOUS IN YOUR U NIVERSE
(My thanks to Naomi Shihab Nye, via Poetry Foundation.)
U NIVERSEIt might as well be uselessI meanWhat exactly is aNIVERSENary another nothing until aUIs brought not just to itbut for ITWho would think(Not Many)That it takes a Uyour simply perfectly imperfectYou-est UTo not just completeincludeBut actually createThe Universewith the best part beingthat it is evermore beingCreated/Recreated because ofOh the holiest of holiesU
JUST A MOMENT: THE NOTES OF OUR LIVES
The notes of our lives are not played by ourselves. . .
. . .when we pause
to hear those notes
it’s just not some scale that we maybe used to know
it truly is a joy to the world
that we can’t hear at any other time. . .
Now the real question is not just will you hear that song you play. . .
Will you share that song?
In Just a moment we can all know
A BAD DAY
BAD DAY by Daniel Potter came out well over 14 years ago and we haven’t heard much from him since but he left us with a question: WHAT QUALIFIES AS A BAD DAY? And maybe even more: WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Ok. You had a bad day. Seriously, not to minimize, that but exactly what does the Bad Day look like for you? No matter what your definition is, we can bet that it’s varied between each of us and all of us a bad day arrange from a wrong cup of coffee in the morning to a fender bender to the loss of a pet to the loss of a loved one to a bad bad result from a test, to any one who has had to suffer and now endure the effects of recent hurricanes and flooding or living in the Middle East.
Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Pexels.com
Whatever a bad day is, can we safely assume that somebody that doesn’t look like they’re having a bad day, just may be having one and that maybe just maybe, we can make it less bad, not better, just less bad?
Now guaranteed. . .If you do that and you consistently do that. . . bad day’s may not completely go away, but they do fade and lose some of their sting. . .
IN THE MEANTIME:
Please, try hard not to make your bad day a bad day for Another
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