connected

oh the power

of roots intertwined

the help we can find

in weaving and

heaving 

together

"Everything you do has an impact.  Who you are--that you are--actually matters.  In an interconnected world (the only kind we have), our actions and the actions of others are inextricably linked--we are always and forever in a dance of mutual influence with those with whom we directly and indirectly participate.  It is the unavoidable reality of being social creatures, only magnified by an ever-increasingly complex and interwoven societal structures.  We matter to each other."

                                   ~Paul Greiner

*Photo taken in Door County WI. 

what's that smell

i read today

about a lady

who can 

smell parkinson’s disease

it’s true

and i’ve read in the past

about cats 

who can smell

cancer

i can’t 

of course

but ask me about

spring lilacs, summer rain

or the air on a 

musky autumn morning

and i’ll tell you

the smell of 

foreverness

"But a smell shivered him awake. It was a scent as old as the world. It was a hundred aromas of a thousand places.  It was the tang of pine needles....It was the muscular rot of mushrooms...It was the spice of oak....It was the husks and burrows and moss.  It was solid and alive--so alive! And it was close. "       -Stephen M. Irwin

uncommon grace

in every quiet headland
in every evening still

there

doth mercy
spill


As i reflect on this image i am struck by the vastness of our Creator's mercy.  How, i ask myself, can such a peaceful scene be found, especially when the news of the day is of hoarded baby fetuses, mass shootings, and opioid overdoses.  The beauty before me could never be possible without a God of long-suffering patience.

"You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God."
                                   Graham Greene, Brighton Rock

Photo taken in Door County Wisconsin.