Month: April 2018

Time for Beauty

Time for Beauty

There is very little time left.

 

But Spring is setting in.

The snow starts to show colour.

So there is that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then

The snow returns with a vengeance

Layering everything at least a few inches

And the ground gains a quick 6 inch topping

Smothering the melted 6 inches from yesterday.

 

 

 

 

And as the sun sets leaving a clear sky the tidbits of the shore colour it just a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The details up close show the grand colours of the night with a few wisps crossing the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as the night moves in on us the moon shows up across from the sun set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That may be all.

Enjoy, Smile, and Hope.

Remember

Friday the 13th
Remember
All the things that happened on Friday the 13th.
All the times joy grew by leaps and bounds on Friday the 13th.
All the times by the oceans of loss and grief that the Spirit brought comfort invisible on Friday the 13th.
All the times the water flowed freely, seemingly even uphill, on Friday the 13th.
All the times the joker arrived once again on Friday the 13th.
All the times the rain fell softly, the snow fell silently on Friday the 13th.
All the times that humour bounced off walls like soccer balls inside on Friday the 13th.
All the times the hole in the wall was lit up with joy on Friday the 13th.
All the times that love flew freely on Friday the 13th.
All the times that honour and honesty embraced us all on Friday the 13th.
All the times we desperately needed God’s grace on Friday the 13th.
All the times we sat alone beside each other on Friday the 13th.
All the times in crowds of millions we’ve known screaming loneliness on Friday the 13th.
All the times the birds in the trees sang, the deer in the woods danced free, the coyotes howled their cries across the miles, the water lapped the sand of the shore, the canoe plied the deep water, and the loon sang it’s cry for solitude’s repair on Friday the 13th.

Remember …
Gently, carefully, hopefully
For without memories true
The chaos of evil’s deceptions will ruin life, love, trust, faith, and hope on all days including on Friday the 13th.

Remember and see clearly:

The sun sets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look more closely if you hope to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


And more closely yet, get beyond the weeds and distractions.
Do you see it yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


There do you see it?

Do you see even the fresh pristine white snow is turned purple with the red of blood mixed with the blue of the sky on Friday the 13th.
My blood, your blood, our blood, everyone’s blood, spat back onto the earth from the sun’s energy in a mix of sky and evil,
God’s offer of passion, love, and life
Rejected so often by me, you, us, by everyone for so long that even the sun cannot absorb the chaos of this evil exuding from us
Not only on Friday the 13th.

Yet, not the red of chaotic re-spat blood of rejected passion, love and life,
This red is the price of Grace, freely given, fully bought and paid for Grace.
Red of passion, love and life, re-sent to colour every inch of our world
With beauty.

Look closely
or not.
Regardless Grace flows freely also on Friday the 13th.

A View on a Walk Before Bed

A View on a Walk Before Bed

After a day of writing, skiing, and grocery shopping, the sun set at 20:00 ish and though the solar power had held out through the whole day I was ready for fresh air and then to be done for the day, not to run late with generator power.

So out I stepped, took just ten paces west to take in the whole western sky after the sun had slipped from sight.

 

I looked at the photo thinking that the camera had somehow changed the clouds to be edgy.

Not at all, to my surprise. The clouds were identical in the sky as on the display.

But some of the view simply was not in the photo, so

I set the camera to panorama and turned it to portrait to capture more of the view.

And the results are a file ten times larger, and a photo without the intensity of the first, but with the whole view.

Satisfying to be able to capture the whole great view, but then lacking in the focus and intensity of the experience that is captured more with the first simpler photo.

A small adjustment to the exposure brings the photo closer to the actual view.

 

Which do you like better?

 

And which do you prefer for questions of life,

To see the larger view, a bit distant and aloof, an observer detached and able to forge a path towards a goal,

Or

To engage in each moment fully focused on the intensity of it, letting it slip out of its context and allow oneself to move from moment to moment without a compass, a context, a tradition, an ethic that would guide and inform you of what you see?

Or

Do you want both and cannot keep them both in view

OR

Do you have it all in view and cannot sort out the big issues from the intense events

OR

Can you see everything, live each moment to its fullest, and know the greatest peace assured that the big picture is both in view and not your own direct responsibility, only that you see the world

Through eyes of Grace, with Forgiveness your primary mode (for yourself and for others) of responding to great beauty and destructive ugly evil from where/whom-ever, just so that you can still experience the beauty of grace dancing on the light sparkles and shadows of the mundane spectacular!?

 

Forge a path, it is not foreordained where or how you will step next.

Choose wonder, grace, beauty, truth, and always faith, hope and love.

They say you can’t go wrong …

But you can and you will … so learn to forgive yourself and others freely, so that your next step is graceful.

Finding Ones Way Home

Finding Ones Way Home

There are developments
So late
In life
That they really are
A part of
Death,
Or rather
The final stages
Of living.

So I was reminded at a funeral this past week. Instead of the usual disheartening eulogizing, her son repeated some of the beautiful humour Carolyn shared with them in her final days, humour and care for them, when they least expected it.

One needs to find the beauty
That is all around
While one can.


Sometimes the wonder is clear as the sun sets.

… and the humour …

That comes in so many forms.
Take the pallets burned with garbage left all around by some fools a week or so ago:
Yesterday
two people full of humour
Decided to visit the same campsite,
with rocks bared showing the fire ring,
And burn a few more pallets, wood and nails, right next to the fire ring.

They must have had lots of joy,
Because they were simply too full of themselves,
Too busy,
Too important,

and/or

too stupid
…
To pick up the countless nails the burned pallets left behind,
Which is actually criminal.

Then there is the humour and beauty of being alive when so many people have threatened my life,
and
Of being gracious to the cruel enemies whose lies have brought so many people to think that my life
Is only worth ending,

that my life is their’s to claim in a false or misplaced revenge

for things I did not do, but others have done to me.

 

They find their way home, foolishly resolving their conflict by
inflicting on me the repute and punishment that is properly their own.
Their homes must be crawling with invisible mice and rats of great humours.

My home is a huge place, the whole outdoors
and a small place that may indeed
(if just one error picks it’s day to appear here too soon)
sink as ice becomes mush.

But for now the beauty is all around.
Breathe,
One has at least a few more days
To share the goodness of life,
Before the cost of one’s enemy’s lies are unjustly one’s own to bear.
At least the left over nails from the pallets cannot be used in a crucifixion
…
Or can they?

Is this
The path
Home
Through wind blown
Snow?

 

So today there is the beginning of path or roadway of sorts that may survive long enough to allow home to move on top of soil before it is too late.

How are you going to find your way home, today and each day,

while you still can?