It occurs to me…

Go into each day open to

              Purpose:

                             Its creation,

                                           Its promise,

                                                          Its restorative power –

                                                                        Purpose.

From Welcome Morning by Anne Sexton:

So while I think of it

let me paint a thank you on my palm

for this God, this laughter in the morning,l

lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,

dies young.

The whole  poem can be found at:

https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2013%252F06%252F22.html

Text from Thomas Lux, Poem in Thanks. A good reminder that prayer need not be complex. I suspect I have used this Galveston photo previously — oh well!

Full text of the poem:

http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2006/03/70-poem-in-thanks-thomas-lux.html

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”  Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is much in me that wants to fight with this, at least quibble with it.  But of course it is literally and figuratively correct.  But I still don’t care much for the darkness, particularly those “dark nights of the soul.”  Yet…

Photo taken on a recent Austin run. Text inspired by an email exchange with a friend.

From a card on my desk, these “Five Simple Rules or Happiness” that, in my meanderings through this world, this life, aren’t all that “simple:”  Still, that doesn’t diminish the list.

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Sentiment and photo from a recent fishing trip on this Galveston pier. Or as I have heard — The fishin’ is good, it’s the catching that is the problem.

Another great line from James Taylor’s song, Secret O’ Life:

“Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill.  But since we’re on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride.”

I am capable of believing, convincing myself, that my presence on the hillat “the top of the hill” is a function of my own efforts, though anyone with half (or less of) a brain can recognize that belief as pure folly.  Whatever my position may be on the slope of the hill, it is at least half chance, with much debt to others.  But that only support’s the point – “since we’re on our way down,” and we are all on our way down, “we might as well enjoy the ride” Indeed! Ang songs like this provide a good background playlist.

The Secret O’ Life

Though released by James Taylor in 1977, this song was well beyond drinking age before I “discovered” it and put it on my playlist.  Such a great song.  I stumbled on this recent concert version and fell in love with the song again.  Taylor’s voice ain’t what it used to be, what is, but if anything that adds to the message.

“The secret o’ life IS enjoying the passage of time.”

The haiku is a paraphrase of one of my favorite quotes. The original is from Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and is incorporated in an opinion he wrote:

“Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.”