I don't know how to be an elephant
in a room full of elephants.
Sometimes life utterly befuddles me.
I heard a cry the other day,
We cannot save ourselves,
as if death is a problem
from which there is a back-door escape.
God often goes to the well in thirst
and cannot drink.
So we go too
bringing a cup for the divine.
Tag Archives: Life
Necessary Things
How I have wrestled with the myth of Christ, tried to follow the teachings of Jesus and sought to live along the Way. And suffering remains, with the ingredients of fulfillment still written in a hand that I cannot read. The necessary things have carried me this far, far enough to know that I have lived today and that tomorrow never comes.
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. – John 11:38
One who brings all things to an end, disturb us but just for a little while for it is through our own glasses life looks livable and to have them removed shocks us moving us back into our tombs. Amen.
Picking Up Litter
I have placed discarded, empty bottles into the trash can at the end of a day. Why the bottles sometimes line the street is a question beyond the gathering of my mind. Garbage is garbage no matter where it lies or so the thinking goes on those better days. One day in the great memory bank of time I will remember having picked up litter. Will my place in the heavens after life be made, having cleaned up for the world on these days?
And Now?
Looking at a journal entry from many years ago, I run across the question, Can I start over again? Something simple, with a book or two. How is it that I could have a life and, at the same time, wish for another life? Children crying. A distant spouse. My own indifference. Too tired to even go to bed. And now?
He kept saying, “I am the man.” – John 9:9
Creator of all creatures, there are those who point fingers declaring what we are is what we cannot be; move us beyond petty comparisons keeping us behind false walls. Amen.
“May my heart’s disquiet never vanish” – Pär Lagerkvist
Not a disquiet where something is missing. More of a yearning towards the next moment. A desire for the means to be worthwhile. A sense that peace will soon be found. And a path, unending, reaching beyond the heavens.
Answer Location
Practice to perform, says life's manual. Many pages remain to be filled before it is time to close the little black book. Perhaps today will be the day when no clues are necessary to learn a search to find the answer lies not outside on some forgotten doorstep but very close to the heart.
“How can anyone be born after having grown old?” – John 3:4
divine mother of us all we age keep us new amen
Doodling
I have started the spiritual practice of doodling. Not the kind where I doodle my life away - though the thought of being lost in spirals and loops, twists and turns, circles and circles is appealing - but more like the kind which passes the time. I am learning that in the art of doodling no forethought of action needs to be followed. Big plans and small plans are not necessary. Pen in hand simply follows the will. What might my life look like tomorrow if I put this practice into practice? Surely the neighbors would point fingers as I made my way back and forth and around and about on the sidewalk walking around the block and never arriving.
A Thread You Follow 