From Roger Miller’s Leavin’s Not the Only Way To Go, this excerpt that seems to apply well beyond the lost love story of the song:
“People reach new understandings all the time
Take a second look
Maybe change your mind”
It occurs to me that putting those three lines between thought and action could keep me out of a lot of trouble.
Originally sent in 2012, photo taken of a willing subject who spent a lot of time at the base of the fountain in the back yard at our previous home. The fountain moved with us, the frog didn’t.
From Hope, by Lisel Mueller:
Hope…
“It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.”
Photo taken recently in Galveston. Text from Howard Thurman:
I ran across this today via Howard Thurman – lyrics from a hymn (Dear Lord and Father of Mankind) I was unfamiliar with which is in turn based on a poem (The Brewing of Soma) by John Greenleaf Whittier I was unfamiliar with:
Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace
I am reminded here that peace has an internal component. For all the efforts to create peace by controlling external factors (sound, location, scent, etc.) it also requires something (or perhaps nothing) of the seeker. In this I am reminded of the anonymous quote that has long been on my desk:
“Peace – it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”
Peace!
Retrieved from 2009; I have no current memory of where the photo was taken. I also realize now that I have an extra syllable in the second line. Oops!
Awareness…
…that life is not transactional, at least not precisely so.
It is not a $1 for a vending machine Coke precise.
Sometimes you get two Cokes for your $1, sometimes none.
At times it spits out a Coke as you walk by, pockets in hand, not even thirsty.
Sometimes you get a Sprite, though you are certain you hit the Coke button.
Life is not transactional, not cleanly so.
Still, the glow from the lights, the humming of the machinery, reassures us to some measure.
So we stand there, pocketful of quarters,
Thinking we can share the extra Coke,
That we weren’t that thirsty anyway,
That Sprite is okay, maybe better.
We stand there, pocketful of quarters.
Who knows what may come out next?
Since I am spending a couple of weeks in Iowa, this 2010 Haiku seemed appropriate — though it was shot in Missouri.
From Howard Thurman, today, this reminder to maintain awareness, to keep the nous open.
I will lift up mine eyes. I will lift up mine eyes in life, that I may read the guideposts along my way and not miss the important turning in the road. I will lift up mine eyes to love, that I may not close the door of my heart to the knocking hand, the tender cry, the anxious reach. I will lift up mine eyes to God, that I may meet His spirit not only in the high place, the great moment, the penetrating call, but also in the byways, the little duties the stinging irritations and the sad and bottomless renunciations. And for me this is enough.
Dredging the archives yields this timeless image and words from 2007. Photo was, as I recall, taken in Scottsdale, Arizona. Can’t recall where the text came from. I run into it from time to time.
It occurs to me... 