June 2014
Mostly I walk with my head down,
gathering shells,
looking for the best ones,
staying focused on the task.
I have the collector’s penchant
for keeping things organized,
knowing my priorities,
expanding my holdings.
Even when surrounded by beauty
I have a goal:
take it all in,
don’t miss a part.
Help me to stop
and take a long, loving look
at just one shell,
at just one smile.
Teach me how
to put a frame around a moment,
to pause reverently,
to see simply.
Robert M. Hamma, Earth’s Echo
To
exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating
oneself endlessly. – Henri Bergson, French philosopher.
one of the songs that Anna's class sang at their graduation:
"Forever
Young" –Bob Dylan
May
God bless and keep you always
May
your wishes all come true
May
you always do for others
And
let others do for you
May
you build a ladder to the stars
And
climb on every rung
May
you stay forever young
Forever
young, forever young
May
you stay forever young.
May
you grow up to be righteous
May
you grow up to be true
May
you always know the truth
And
see the lights surrounding you
May
you always be courageous
Stand
upright and be strong
May
you stay forever young
Forever
young, forever young
May
you stay forever young.
May
your hands always be busy
May
your feet always be swift
May
you have a strong foundation
When
the winds of changes shift
May
your heart always be joyful
And
may your song always be sung
May
you stay forever young
Forever
young, forever young
May
you stay forever young.
Some
stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not
knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without
knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity..."
- Gilda
Radner
To be human is to live with paradox and hold it in our hands.
~Parker Palmer~
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our
exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first
time. T.S. Eliot
celebrating the
gift of Elizabeth running alongside me in the second half of the marathon and pushing me to the finish and the gift of running alongside Abby and Jens in their journey of Jens’ double lung
transplant in May (and the reason that the best medal I’ve ever received was this stethoscope pictured above…)
If
we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our
neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like
artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their
faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in. -Frederick Buechner
Sometimes we are so stuck in a past that we cannot change, or
so afraid of a future over which we have limited control, that we don’t really
appreciate the present—the very moment before us. We worry about what happened
or what will happen, and we forget about what is happening. We squander the one
thing we have for certain—now.
-Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
What to Do in the Darkness
Go slowly
Consent to it
But don’t wallow in it
Know it as a place of germination
And growth
Remember the light
Take an outstretched hand if you find
one
Exercise unused senses
Find the path by walking it
Practice trust
Watch for dawn
-Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Weavings
