Tag Archives: Time

Day Off

Fridays are my days off.  And yet,
this one begins with a meeting
followed by another over coffee
followed by a luncheon to talk 
about the latest real estate deal
followed with a visit to the hospital.
The afternoon will give me time
for a brief nap and a short read
and then back to day-off work
as things left undone throughout
the week remain and must be done 
before the next week begins.
Perhaps the evening will provide
space and moments for breathing
without demands or needs.
And then the promise of rest.

Lengthen – A Short Lenten Meditation

The shadows of trees lengthen on the church lawn
as the sun settles behind the horizon.
Did Jesus know how his short time on the cross
would lengthen into the days and nights of history?
The nails hammered into His hands need to be lengthened
to allow Christ's arms to embrace the whole world.
Lengthening the time spent in prayer in the hope
of galvanizing God's will to your own is not required.
God the Creator already lengthened creation
and does not need to be invoked to do more work.
My daughters asked, "How much longer?" as if the asking
would lengthen their desire for a shorter trip.
I replied, "Not much longer," knowing our time 
together would lengthen into eternity.

“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away…” – Matthew 5:18

Creating God of all things perishing
and of all transient time,
so many wish to hold on to forever
as they hold on to their ways and means
believing what they have is all that is,
we seek to know better and to be lighter,
freed from the weight of stuff 
and loosened from the ticking of time
to pass away as the earth ceases to turn
and heaven fades into the heavens.
Amen.

Forever Time

"In this time I could stay forever." - Wendell Berry

Sometimes the biggest victory
of the day is not to get upset
at oneself after spilling
a gallon of milk on the kitchen floor.

To take the second moment,
where God is often found hiding,
is the practiced breath of faith
in the ongoingness of time.

To stay forever there
may be a wish for all to come true.
But off we go,
into the wonder-full day.

But Jesus answered John, “Let it be so now.” – John 3:15

God of the Present Moment,
God of the Past,
God of Possibility for the Future,
pour out your Now upon our heads;
anoint us into What Is;
not because What Is Now is better 
than any Other way of being Alive
but because Now is all we have
while the great suck of Time
continues on its Journey
daring to separate Us
from the Here and Now.
Amen.

This Morning

This morning I write when I do not feel like writing
without thought of ought or should
or striving to meet any standard of perfection.  
The words are all there in the air and,
whether I pull them down through my typing fingers
or leave them for another day or for someone else
to use for me, they patiently do not call for attention.

This morning the busyness of the world can go ahead
and compete against itself believing one side
or another can and will prevail.  I choose not to be
in the press of such effort but in the rhythm
of small places where people once stood
thinking there was something more to all of this.

Colors Across Time

What seems like an answer to a question
may appear behind the leaves whose color
is finally revealed across a long season of waiting.

Conversation with the whirling, complex colors
of the kaleidoscope can dance from one meaning
to another across the lengthening of shadows.

When I was young I scribbled across the lines
because I wanted so very badly for colors
to move beyond the boundaries set by time.

The colors we color now don't have to feel
like questions hurrying us across the roads
that we have made loving what we have lost.