The Best Wine Served Last

Weak and worn, shuffling along, head filled with old dreams stuffed in cotton, joints hurt, body sore, a Jag in the barn, the prime gone, the steel hulk all that's left.  There are periods, stretched-out time like used elastic, good only for reminding me of the taunt me I used to be.  It doesn't hurt me as much as it hurts my feelings (pun intended), but it surprises me in its wholeness, all cells in me feeling the ancientness of having been around 68 years.  There is a great joy, though, the joy of feeling all the cells that used to go unnoticed, knowing there is a lot of me that I am now aware of.  There is a lot of me left, and I like to imagine it is the best left for last, as the quest said, “the best wine served last.”  

  

 

Half A Star

Last evening my lover and I sat by the river to watch the sunset.  It was halfway down, and instantly we became cold; the earth we lived on cooled considerably.  I started laughing, raising my hands and praising in glee that we had a whole star and not half of one.  I told my lover, “Who, with just a bit of common sense, could experience this and not become overwhelmed with gratitude for being blessed with a whole star?”  Who is this Three God that is so kind to give us a whole star to warm us?  You can worship the star or the One who made the star, but definitely one of them is worthy of all our laughter, praise, and worship.   

Sleeping On the Bed of Winner

Victory, a great win, is good for the soul.  Us 26-them 10 and my lover and I saw it all.  It is great to win.  Life is a win-or-lose proposition.  There is no other outcome.  You win, or you lose.  Winning is accompanied by an overwhelming sense of gratitude and abject physical (you will act crazy), mental, emotional, and spiritual euphoria.  We win=euphoria. We lose=lost.  This is life.  It all comes down to this.  Everyone had better find out how to win.  Winning is the key.  How to win.  A well done or a depart from Me, win or lose.  It's good to lay down your weary body on the bed of winner. 

The faces of winners.

  

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's the hap-happiest season of all...   (Just a good thought on beginning Luke this morning.)

A maple tree on a hike in Canada.  For those who
need a little good news.  "And hearts will be glowing..."

Be It Ever So Humble

Back home.  Warm and sunny.  Back to labors of joy.  Our children had all come during our trip and worked, moving firewood down from the mountain, mowing, cleaning, and vacationing.  Kept Fair Haven company while we were gone.  It is good to be home.  

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.  Home again, home again, jiggity jig.  Take me home, country roads.  Home is where the heart is.  Keep the home fires burning.  Tennessee, Tennessee, there’s no place I’d rather be.     

 

Fair Haven Cathedral

Wake up in a hotel room next to an airport.  How many times have done this?  Far from home, around the bend, all my worldly goods packed into a bag, my lover, headed home.  A cup of coffee, the Ancient Text, The Ancient of Days, a few lines in my journal, a moment to meditate, think, and set my heart, my life, my day in order…in a strange room, next to the airport.  I listen to good clarinet music. My lover stirs.  

We dropped off the RV yesterday.  She was a great old girl, kept us high and dry through some hard rains, more than one blow, and across New England and Eastern Canada.  She was in many ways a sanctuary.  But tonight we will lay our heads down in a greater sanctuary, a basilica, Fair Haven Cathedral.  We are headed home.  My lover is up.  Let the day begin.   

 

Turning Home

We turn home today, one of the great events of life.  It is always good to be in a foreign land, in the wilderness, among the forests and trees.  It puts all things in perspective.  How wonderful America and our people are.  American southerners are especially good because they look at you and often say a hearty, “Good morning,” welcome to the neighborhood, where we are friendly.  It is hard to get people in Canada to look at you, much less speak.  But when they hear us say, “Good morning,” they awaken to a relationship being offered and reply; not heartily, but sincerely.  

We should all experience a turning toward our land, toward our people, our roots.  It places all the tomfoolery going on around America into the buffoonery category.  I digress.  Turning south from Prince Edward Island.  It is good to be going home!   

Betty standing in the Bay of Fundy as the tide is out.
Largest tide fluctuation in the world.