It is the wee hours.
The dogs are asleep;
even the cat has settled down.
The neighbors' houses were dark
when I drove home.
Everyone is sleeping,
as I should be
and will be
soon enough.
But,
there is something delicious
about this stolen time with You, Lord,
like being a child
getting to stay up past bedtime
and get rocked a few extra minutes.
I have a picture of my grandfather
holding me as an infant.
He was a sweet man
who died too soon in my opinion.
He is gray haired, and skinny as the string beans he grew,
his wire rimmed glasses perched on his nose,
sitting in a rocking chair
on the porch of his farmhouse,
holding me,
looking at me,
and smiling at me.
That's how it feels right now, Lord,
like you are letting me stay up for a few minutes
while everyone else is in bed
just so I can feel You
holding me,
looking at me,
and smiling at me.
It is the wee hours.
The dogs are asleep;
even the cat has settled down.
The neighbors' houses were dark
when I drove home.
Everyone is sleeping,
as I should be
and will be
soon enough.
Soon enough.
Blessings,
David
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Reflections on Today's Street Fight
Today, at mid-afternoon, I was in a pleasant neighborhood, walking out to my car, parked in the lot behind a family-run restaurant on one of the main streets in town.
I noticed a commotion, and looking beyond my car saw a young woman atop a young man, straddling his chest and fiercely beating him about the head and shoulders while another young man watched with apparent disinterest.
I called out to them with some simple statement like, "What in the world are you doing?!" to get their attention. The woman glared at me, and got off of the man. The disinterested man said, "Move along, this is not your business," and flashed a gang sign. I didn't move along, I just said I don't tolerate violence and stood my ground. "You better move along," he repeated. I didn't. The three of them did.
St. Francis said, "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
Our society not only tolerates violence, it glorifies it, worships it like the Golden Calf. The moral values and influences of video games that award points for killing and stealing are not even questioned. Instead of "tag," we shoot paint balls at one another. While the commandment says, "Thou shalt not kill," we build more efficient weapons and dance around them. We put our faith in them, rather than in God who is Love.
Apparently there is still a lot of impossible yet to be done! Let us begin with a willingness to do what is necessary: to issue a personal withdrawal from the cult of violence and a surrender to the heart of love, and to invite others to do the same.
St. Francis reminds us that "all the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of a small candle." Likewise, Shakespeare wrote, "How far that tiny candle throws its beam; so shines a good deed in a naughty world."
Jesus, of whom John wrote, "The Light has come into the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out," offers the reminder that what we do to one another, we do to Him.
Let's replace the Golden Calf with the Golden Rule and see what happens.
Blessings,
David
I noticed a commotion, and looking beyond my car saw a young woman atop a young man, straddling his chest and fiercely beating him about the head and shoulders while another young man watched with apparent disinterest.
I called out to them with some simple statement like, "What in the world are you doing?!" to get their attention. The woman glared at me, and got off of the man. The disinterested man said, "Move along, this is not your business," and flashed a gang sign. I didn't move along, I just said I don't tolerate violence and stood my ground. "You better move along," he repeated. I didn't. The three of them did.
St. Francis said, "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
Our society not only tolerates violence, it glorifies it, worships it like the Golden Calf. The moral values and influences of video games that award points for killing and stealing are not even questioned. Instead of "tag," we shoot paint balls at one another. While the commandment says, "Thou shalt not kill," we build more efficient weapons and dance around them. We put our faith in them, rather than in God who is Love.
Apparently there is still a lot of impossible yet to be done! Let us begin with a willingness to do what is necessary: to issue a personal withdrawal from the cult of violence and a surrender to the heart of love, and to invite others to do the same.
St. Francis reminds us that "all the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of a small candle." Likewise, Shakespeare wrote, "How far that tiny candle throws its beam; so shines a good deed in a naughty world."
Jesus, of whom John wrote, "The Light has come into the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out," offers the reminder that what we do to one another, we do to Him.
Let's replace the Golden Calf with the Golden Rule and see what happens.
Blessings,
David
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Once Upon a Summer Day
A few minutes ago, I heard the song "Remember" by Watermark, from their album "Constant." The opening verse captured me:
"Must have been You out in the back yard
The mystery began in the heart of a child
I didn't know 'til now, that even then I knew You
And there were songs back then
There was a love affair"*
Like Remember's songwriters Christy Nockels and Nathan Nockels, as a child in the back yard, I had a sense of God, some kind of awareness, although certainly not in the convoluted, complicated and over-developed way I have perfected as an adult.
God, back then, was found when I would lie with my dog Duchess in the backyard and watch the birds gather for their migration south, the cool, soft grass cushioning us.
God, back then, was the sound of Duchess panting quietly beside me, the rise and fall of her soft fur beneath my hand as she breathed, the faithfulness of her presence.
God, back then, was found in tracing the amazing journey of a single ant through a forest of blades of grass.
God was the endless sky, the colors on the clouds at sunset, the maple seeds twirling to the ground, the sound of church bells pealing a few blocks away, the scent of autumn leaves, the first taste of winter snowflakes and the first full moon on a virgin snowfall, the tulips breaking through the still cold earth in spring.
I didn't need to know, to define, to understand; only to comprehend, to take in, to relax in the beauty and serenity and wonder. It was a love affair, with its mysteries and surprises.
Now I am decades - a lifetime - away from that young boy in the backyard. I am eager to forget what I have learned in the interim and embrace what I found in the purity of those first kisses. A different dog is beside me, now. Two of them, in fact, and we are about to go for a walk in the twilight of a summer day, under a sky of changing color, past fragrant blossoms, through the coolness of evening, back in time, directly back into the heart of God.
Blessings,
David
* "Remember" Publishers: ROCKETOWN MUSIC, SWEATER WEATHER MUSIC, WORD MUSIC, LLC
"Must have been You out in the back yard
The mystery began in the heart of a child
I didn't know 'til now, that even then I knew You
And there were songs back then
There was a love affair"*
Like Remember's songwriters Christy Nockels and Nathan Nockels, as a child in the back yard, I had a sense of God, some kind of awareness, although certainly not in the convoluted, complicated and over-developed way I have perfected as an adult.
God, back then, was found when I would lie with my dog Duchess in the backyard and watch the birds gather for their migration south, the cool, soft grass cushioning us.
God, back then, was the sound of Duchess panting quietly beside me, the rise and fall of her soft fur beneath my hand as she breathed, the faithfulness of her presence.
God, back then, was found in tracing the amazing journey of a single ant through a forest of blades of grass.
God was the endless sky, the colors on the clouds at sunset, the maple seeds twirling to the ground, the sound of church bells pealing a few blocks away, the scent of autumn leaves, the first taste of winter snowflakes and the first full moon on a virgin snowfall, the tulips breaking through the still cold earth in spring.
I didn't need to know, to define, to understand; only to comprehend, to take in, to relax in the beauty and serenity and wonder. It was a love affair, with its mysteries and surprises.
Now I am decades - a lifetime - away from that young boy in the backyard. I am eager to forget what I have learned in the interim and embrace what I found in the purity of those first kisses. A different dog is beside me, now. Two of them, in fact, and we are about to go for a walk in the twilight of a summer day, under a sky of changing color, past fragrant blossoms, through the coolness of evening, back in time, directly back into the heart of God.
Blessings,
David
* "Remember" Publishers: ROCKETOWN MUSIC, SWEATER WEATHER MUSIC, WORD MUSIC, LLC
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