Some Poor, Struggling Seaman

Oh, the daylight comes on like a hopeful answered prayer of the greatest magnitude, but is often never acknowledged.  But suppose for a moment that dawn didn’t come and the morning hour nine came, then ten and eleven and by noon there was still darkness, dark as coal, dark night.  Would not all our hearts break asunder.  Would not the pray-er cry out, the politician stand silent, the rioter drop his rock in fear, the sinner and the saint clutch their breast.  But it did come on today.  I sat before a fire and watched it slowly, like a divine whisper, gloriously, miraculously, become day, the light again, the star obediently letting there be light.  Oh, my heart softens in gratefulness; I am a child again, feeling the security of the touch, the peace that passes by and leaves me dumbfounded in ways to say how I feel.   “Let the lower lights be burning, send the gleam across the waves.  Some poor struggling fainting seaman, you may rescue, you may save.”        

God is good!  God is great!  Let us thank Him!

The light burning away the fog
uncovering the island across the way.

 

Enjoying Minutes

Time is what God gives older people because we have at last learned to enjoy minutes.

Found this lichen in the woods while hiking up 
Mount Brown, Sunday morning.

 

Turning Down the Bed

This is the perfect week: cool mornings, warm afternoons, vast blue skies, the quiet of the earth turning down the covers. 

 

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..."