Morning

The delicate combination of morning sun eeking over the residual dampness of night is such a beautiful sight, sound, and smell. Something inside me both relaxes and quickens at the same time, in part knowing that all is well in a world that tries to hold so much more than it should. I love these simple reminders from God through the natural world. I find myself increasingly conflicted about the organization of my life that misses these simple but powerful realities so much of the time. What do I do to remain more in earshot of such voice from God? What am I clinging to that prevents the simple embracing of such things…in a way that trusts God for ‘the rest’, the things that call out that ‘I need to take care of’, that propel me on into the whatever of this life and away from the quiet beckoning of my ‘trust me’ God?

Or, is the starting phrasing of this question (what do I do, what am I clinging to) more a reflection of the ache in my soul still submerged in a cursed earth that yearns for a home just not yet fully available to me? …ah, the agelessness of this familiar question. One that makes me both tired with its ever-presence and closer to an opportunity to ask a better question…a question closer to ‘God, how can I be with you in this earth-bound, human state?’

Would Jesus not have felt something similar? …after knowing in the most intimate of ways what it was like to be un-earth-bound with the Father, even as He was traveling in his humanity here. It is hard for me to imagine that He didn’t know these questions far more deeply than I. And, while I feel like these pull me apart…I suspect for Him, they were the very opportunities that drew Him ‘in’…towards His Father. I wonder if that is happening for me. I think it might be. But my daily memory fails me, and the voice of the Accuser says again that this is not an accurate description of what is really happening, that I am being separated from something rather than grafted into it.

But the morning’s voice remains calm and silent and even more powerful…as I wait for its mysterious effect to do its soul-salving work. Perhaps that is a more fundamental issue, my willingness to wait…for His time-honored Way to love me as I need to be loved and not yield to the false voice trying to name the loss and death I will surely experience by choosing to simply wait.

One more time, I will choose to wait…not perhaps for the ‘last time’, but more hopefully for the first ‘next time’. Thank you, Morning.


The relationship between God and man is more private and intimate than any possible relation between two fellow creatures.

-- C.S. Lewis

The only thing that counts...

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

-- Galatians 5:6

In Love with People

What saves me from the tedium of another day is falling hopelessly in love with the people I meet: the curly-haired barista at the coffee shop who hands me my change as if dipping his fingers into holy water; the girl with Down syndrome who talks loudly about vacationing with her grandmother; the elderly couple who grow giant bubblegum-colored puffs of dahlias at the corner of Twelfth and Chambers; the toddler girl across the street who bleats sweetly, "Mama, come see!" I fall in love with the deep timbre of my brother's laugh; the way my mother says my name; the way my father calls me sweetheart; the way my sweetheart calls me baby.

-- Bobbie Willis, Oregon from The Sun

The Morning Light

The morning light makes promises it has no intention of keeping, but why quibble? Look how it shines on my aging face and my fading to-do list. Look how it caresses my wife of twenty-five years. As if darkness has been banished. As if everything is lit from within.

-- Sy Safransky

Nothing to Lose But Our Illusions

Derrick Jensen: What do you say to people who feel they are busy struggling to get by and don't have time to help others?

David Edwards: Once you start to see through the myth of status, possessions, and unlimited consumption as a path to happiness, you'll find that you have all kinds of freedom and time. It's like a deal you can make with the universe: I'll give up greed for freedom. Then you can start putting your time to good use.

Jensen: And if someone says, "But the problems are so big, what can one person do?"

Edwards: Once you realize that helping others is also helping yourself, the size of the overall problems becomes irrelevant. You're not a one-man or one-woman army out to save the whole world. You help simply because it does good and it feels good.

-- The SUN