A Word From ~ Madeleine L'Engle

Wonderful insight into the relationship of fact, fantasy, and truth within a life of faith.

Don't let the minute count intimidate you - this is an hour well spent.

 



Long Lost Greetings

Hello all!

Well now...I think I've officially broken my previous record of "time-spent-neglecting-the-blog" by a long shot. ;}

In my humble defense...I was quite preoccupied with a shocking diagnoses concerning my health and subsequently indisposed following surgery in mid-May to remedy the thankfully removable threat. 

So now that I am finally physically and mentally recovered, I would most love to return to this most special space to share my inconsequential thoughts, grumblings, etc.

So to start off this latest Genesis, a sweetly sad reminder that truly fresh starts are maybe something we may never get this side of heaven:

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<> the effigy <>

 | via |

...

God is more than a face

that waits

pulseless

behind Death's

torn

veil

...

A Word From ~ Frederick Buechner

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"We have seen more than we let on, even to ourselves.
Through some moment of beauty or pain, some sudden turning of our lives, through some horror of the twelve o'clock news, some dream, some breakfast on the first and last of all our days, 

we catch glimmers at least of what the saints are blinded by. 

Only then, unlike the saints, more pigs always than heroes, we tend to go on as though nothing has happened.

To go on as though something  has happened even though we are not sure what is was or just where we are supposed to go with it, is to enter that dimension of life that religion is a word for."

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{via my recently finished copy of Buechner's "Alphabet of Grace"}

<> another year around the sun <>

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It was I who occurred

{more exactly emerged}

these many years ago

{so the story goes}

...

but the truth be told, 

I am not old

In fact, I am still arriving...

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Note to Self

 

p.s.

 You are quiet the social imbecile.

...and really shouldn't be let out in public more than an hour at a time...

A Word From ~ C.S. Lewis

"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. 

The world is crowded with Him. 

He walks everywhere incognito. 

And the incognito is not always easy to penetrate. 

The real labor is to remember to attend. 

In fact to come awake. 

Still more to remain awake." 

<> C.S. Lewis <>


 

{{Just finished reading Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr's "The Question of God"...thought-provoking read...highly recommend watching the PBS documentary of the same name which was based on the book...}}

I Am Not Where I Ought To Be

Discontent.
I am eaten away by this plague of comparison.
I move my hand between my forehead and that of the latest adversary to my true joy.
If I fall short - disappointment.
If I come out ahead - disappointment.

I am exhausted by life.
This barrage of faces and needs…
…constantly checking a word, a look,
For subtlety, context, connotation...

I am weary of caring.
Of doubt.

My heart,
Though never brash,
Was once sure in those things expressed.
Now it crawls humbly before the world,
Asking meekly for permission to form any harebrained thought.

Release comes in fits and spasms;
Like the tremors of the insane.
I purge my woes unevenly on the page
And after a sad look of recognition,
They are orphaned and buried.

I toe the lines set out for me without question.
Spread thin by the old mischievous inklings to rub against the grain...

I am tired.
I am tepid.
I am slow.

My limbs hang like shackles.
My wrists betray my frailty.

Sometimes...
In sparse moments of mental clarity...
I reach out to those beauties just beyond the lines of reality...
But they have forgotten my name.
I have been too long away.

In my play at responsibility
I have replaced the urgency for truth
With the stability of compromise.

I have worked so hard to be understood.
I have sacrificed much to avoid the hurtful tone of dismissal.

But to whom will I answer to when my heavy head lies loose and unhinged...?
What goodness will be found after I have let go the last whim...?

I wish…once more…to be bold…
To speak good in haste:
Without heed to convention,
Or need of sanction.

Fear and fear and doubt and compromise...
...I am not where I ought to be.

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{{simultaneously trying to be both a better person and writer. it is no small task...}}

War is older than Mankind...

...But it's younger than Grace...

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Joe Pug

Happy Memorial Day...

Beginning, The Trials of

{via}

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...But sometimes the memories trail behind like tin cans, 

clanging loudly with each forward step...

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...

that I can be comforted by the hand that chokes me

is the great irony of sin

...

{somber ponderings on the human condition stirred up by the words of O'Connor, Lewis, et al.}

{perhaps I need to take time to reread the Anne of Green Gables series again...}

A(nother) Word From ~ Flannery O'Connor & The Friday that Brought Good

"The poet is traditionally a blind man, but the Christian poet, and storyteller as well, is like the blind man whom Christ touched, who looked then and saw men as if they were trees, but walking. This is the beginning of vision, and it is an invitation to deeper and stranger visions that we shall have to learn to accept if we want to realize a truly Christian literature.” 

 <> O'Connor <>

{today we remember...Acts 17:27-28}

From the Vault :: Mending Paste For Mothers

she holds the broken pieces in her aging hands
memories further shattered
by her children's play
forever breaking and remaking
what is important

another apron string sliced
cord cut
from her past
a quiet tear for what was
and what isn't
...anymore...


i'm sorry the past is so breakable
i'm sorry your hurts can't all be fixed with glue and kisses
...and mine can...

A Word From ~ Flannery O'Connor

"There is something in us, as storytellers and listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted or lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration. When he reads a novel, he wants either his senses tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or mock innocence."

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Flannery O'Connor

The Burden of Living

The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life

...and that in turn another...

until who knows where the trembling stops 
or in what far place my touch will be felt. 

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Frederick Buechner

And unto us a Child is born, to us a Son is given...

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Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by your drawing nigh,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

p.s. Merry Christmas to all. ♥