A right turn towards the lake instead of the usual left that leads to home. Down a short gravel road, park, a five-minute walk through bare trees and dried leaves to the water’s edge. Azure sky, blue water, red dirt. The piercing golden sun hovers over the horizon. Waves […]
I was cutting through the outpatient entrance at the hospital today a I made my way through the maze of hallways from a doctor’s appointment in the adjacent medical building. Subtlety, time began to slow. The ticks of the second hand on my watch began moving slower and slower. I eased into noticing much of […]
Dragonfly hovers Grace and time appear to pause To taste the moment
This moment, mortal as you or I, was full of boundless, senseless, silly joy, as if it knew something we didn’t. — Adam Zagajewski (via)
Oh do you have time to linger for just a little while out of your busy and very important day for the goldfinches that have gathered in a field of thistles for a musical battle, to see who can sing the highest note, or the lowest, or the most expressive of mirth, or the most […]
Well I look in the mirror What the hell happened to me? Whatever I had has gone away I’m not that young kid that I used to be So I push the hair back out of my face That’s okay, I knew this would happen But I was hopin’ not today Hey baby, I’m not […]
I return to my favorite place along the river Sitting on the grass in the cool shade of a tree Watching, listening, being… An old philosopher said “You can never go to the same river twice.” I wonder— What changes What stays the same And what exactly is a river? The water, the banks, the […]
From Br. Joseph — This is the last reflection of a series on seven signposts. The first reflection began Lent, and now this one bridges us into the Easter season and beyond. Signposts give us direction. They point to some place. They involve action, movement. Many signposts call us to remember something important, some thing […]
I pulled into an isolated parking spot overlooking the lake. I had been given the precious gift of a couple dozens of minutes of solitude—the absence of the need to be somewhere or by someone. I chose to be quiet and pray and reflect. It was warm enough to roll down the car window to […]
From Thursday’s collect in Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours (emphasis added): My mind is scattered among things, not because of my work, but because I am not detached and I do not attend first of all to God. On the other hand, I do not attend to Him because I am so absorbed in […]
From Br. Joseph — There is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find. (William Blake) I saw this quote the other day. My mind searched for a specific time or moment to label as “Satan free.” Was it in those precious few moments just after waking before the thoughts of the day rush in? […]
What a coincident! In light of some of my recent journal entries, I happened to open up a daily prayer book for 2003 this morning and found a very timely reading. The ironic thing is that I have not opened this particular book since June. I have been reading the Church’s daily readings through the […]
Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love. — Thomas Merton