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.

asking at the end of day

what did you see
today

and what did it
say?

And so i ask myself what these windows say to me? I decide they speak of aging and also of perception.They are old, boarded up, and what some may call “useless.” But on second look; uniquely beautiful.They remind me of something i have witnessed recently in my parents relationship. After 69 years of marriage Dad is still at home on the farm but mom is now living in a nursing home. One thing i have noticed about my parents relationship in the past year is it’s newfound sweetness. My father has become much more adept at voicing his love for mom and giving her compliments on her beauty. He has referred often to how beautiful she was to him in their youth.  And how beautiful she remains in his eyes. After all these years he is learning to communicate that fact to her in words as well as actions. It is wonderful to witness. The following quote seems to fit so well.

"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl.

An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become.

A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be.

But a great artist, a master, can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is....and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be....

and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive,not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body.  He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart....no matter what the merciless hours have done to her.  ~Robert Heinlein

Dad has become a master artist.

I'm practicing and hope to be one someday too.

at evening time

when they came

the words were less

than a whisper

lighter than

mist

“oh child

of mine,

it is time

to

rest”

“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”  Mother Theresa

among the lily pads

they are there

among the lily pads

in the variation

the variegation

of lines

the subtlety 

of color

pristine proofs

of everything

every

little

thing

finely

and faithfully

fitting

together

"He is before all things. And in Him all things hold together." Col. 1:17

“This passage can be applied to the structure of the atom. The nucleus of every atom is held together by what physicists call "weak" and "strong" forces…..

There is thus an active force imposed on the universe, which actively holds the very atoms of the material world together moment by moment, day by day, century by century.” 

                                     Physics and the Bible, Lamber Dolphin

home place

there’s a stream

that flows

by the side of the road

where the grass

is the greenest green

choke cherries bloom

white 

and the morning dove

the dove of

mourning

coos softly

I've been spending a lot of time at the home place lately. Though it’s a beautiful spring there, it’s the season of winter in my parents lives. Change is in the offing. And with that,  in a few days we will be celebrating the marriage of our youngest son. Joy and sorrow mingled. What could convey that paradox more than the presence of Good Friday and Easter Sunday back to back in the pages of history? 

Happy Easter friends. In the end, JOY wins out. 

“Behold, I am making ALL Things new!”  Revelation 21:5