Thursday, June 26, 2008

Oh, the Grand Inelegance of It All...


This poem arrived this morning in Writer's Almanac and it fit so perfectly with things I've been thinking about lately that I had to post it. (Plus it made me laugh.) I am so thankful that God delightedly accepts whatever inelegant, pieced-together, lopsided creations we offer him throughout the day and sees only pure love, radiance, hope, and the faithful heart of the innocense in which they're offered:


Naming the Animals
by Anthony Hecht

Having commanded Adam to bestow
Names upon all the creatures, God withdrew
To empyrean palaces of blue
That warm and windless morning long ago,
And seemed to take no notice of the vexed
Look on the young man's face as he took thought
Of all the miracles the Lord had wrought
Now to be labeled, dubbed, yclept, indexed.

Before an addled mind and puddle brow,
The feathered nation and the finny prey
Passed by; there went biped and quadruped.
Adam looked forth with bottomless dismay
Into the tragic eyes of his first cow,
And shyly ventured, "Thou shalt be called 'Fred.'"

"Naming the Animals" by Anthony Hecht, from Collected Later Poems. © Alfred A Knopf, 2003.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Happy, Shining People


Here is one of the many reasons why I love Thomas Merton:
    In Louisville, on a corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of a shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I was theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers...I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. If only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around Shining like the Sun!

[The bold is his emphasis, not mine.]

And today is Anne Frank's birthday, so here is a connecting quote from her journal. The Writer's Almanac says that Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is the second best-selling nonfiction book in history. Only the Bible is ahead of her book in sales. Wow!
    Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love!

Be blessed today, aware that you carry the good news of love incarnate, shining out through your every thought and act!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

For Those Waiting Times...


From today's Writer's Almanac. Perfect.
    Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale

    by Dan Albergotti

    Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
    Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
    with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.
    Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
    Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
    for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
    each of your life's ten million choices. Endure moments
    of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you.
    Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound
    of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart.
    Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope,
    where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all
    the things you did and could have done. Remember
    treading water in the center of the still night sea, your toes
    pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.

"Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale" by Dan Albergotti from The Boatloads.© BOA Editions, Ltd., 2008.