Envy is kin to bitterness
Love and forgiveness carry a family resemblance.
Coveting a neighbors wealth
Plants seeds of resentment.
To dwell on things you lack
leads to angry resentment and wrong doing.
So like Cain,
Feeling sorely mistreated,
You find yourself pining away
Marked fallible.
For wants confused with needs
Create human misery.
So recognize the gifts received
And appreciate the given
And with your neighbor make friends,
Practice love and forgiving.
THH
11/30/24
This morning
Watching my breathe
Basking in sweet quietness,
Stretching out liked a contented old dog,
Freedom dawned in me.
True, I’ve always been free.
I know the common understanding,
But put in perspective
I’m seriously lucky to be me.
Many people have fewer options;
Their freedom of choice limited by
class, race, and abject poverty. I’m privileged enough to do about what I want — free as one can be.
Only obligations founded in my heart limit my options:
Family first and their security,
Friends that remain,
Community and neighbors to help where I can,
Commitments made with connections to which I maintain loyalty; but at my age most have moved on; wife and two children taken by rude fate, beyond comprehension, are gone.
Death and broken connections left an old bachelor behind with time on hand,
Healthy and able to reimagine yesterday’s dreams; time to explore sundry directions without the burdens of past obligations.
At first I grieved my losses
Felt deserted,
Even thought why me,
Angry the lives of loved ones were cut short,
As the family was torn apart, leaving
me alone and forsaken.
And I miss the old connections,
The habits of our hearts
The camaraderie despite attending costs.
But now I see a new door flung open.
A freedom I can choose to walk through with complete abandon.
So my losses cost,
And circumstances brought pain and some desperation with my grieving,
but the gain I now perceive is in the time available to spend as I please.
What dawned on me is this freedom to explore once more, the past intentions and lost reveries long shelved as no longer possible, are now options,
Opportunities knocking.
The time that remains is my own :
Time to read,
Time to write and travel,
Time to make new friends
Time to reflect, and make amends,
Time to discover the authentic me.
Free to go as far and as deep as I’m willing.
THH
11/28/24
On Christ the King Sunday
Jesus stood alone
Deserted and beaten
before a magistrate of Rome.
His kingdom proclaimed:
No armories,
Or boundaries,
No petty rivalries,
Nothing for a worldly judge to fear.
His Truth stayed hidden.
The Kin-dom gift is for all to see.
And to this life of loving and forgiving
He gave up body and soul to make it so.
But none joined the fight, not even the disciples. No one answered His call.
For sacrificial living was death defying,
Seemed life denying.
So His Truth remained hidden.
Jesus spoke of an other worldly kin-dom.
To the judge just empty words,
Of a deluded Jewish prophet,
Hoping to impress Rome,
With talk of an invisible magic kingdom;
So with no army to suppress
The judge from his worldly throne
Mocked Him roundly.
And the people enamored by the idea of a King,
Angry and thirsty for an idol with power,
Ready to bow before a stone idol
Like Israelites of old had demanded,
Like the one many would crown King today.
All loudly insisted —
We have no King but Caesar !
Let him tell us what to do and who to hate.
Let him bring order and make
our dusty world safe
from all bandits and demons.
Still His Truth lay hidden.
So failing to be the King desired,
Jesus got crucified.
And in His dying hour
He spoke His truth once again to power.
To the beloved disciple at His grieving mother’s side: here is your mother; here is your son.
And on that Good Friday
By simple example
His Truth was revealed :
All of us from beginning and the end are Kin.
For only in a life giving Kin-dom
Will His kingdom come.
In Christ no tyranny reigns.
Christ heals with friendship and love,
Offering hope someday we will
Learn to live His lesson of
Love forgiven.
Then there will be nothing hidden.
*Thanks to Sarah Reynolds
THH
11/26/24
Grieve today,
Not coming in first,
Then rest,
Let go of anger,
Disappointment
And your fear of worse.
Notice the rain wash clean the streets,
Settle the dust.
Splash in puddles if you must.
Breathe autumn’s air,
And then as before
watch and wonder as colors fall,
Covering old ground and dying grass.
Take delight as leaves blow free,
Then ready yourself for the cold winter
you flee.
Raise your head from preparing the fire
and if you will,
Rejoice for the spring that soon will come;
Make necessary amends,
Hold hands my friends,
Then go build the rainbow bridge
You intend,
For no one knows how or when
This struggle will end.
THH
11/6/24
Enter the doorway of time carefully
For your mind will demand to go out shopping.
To step into the marketplace
Full of wants invented
With cares to redress;
Push a cart on wobbly wheels,
Down well stocked aisles of
Potential sustenance,
Difficult to resist,
Or wisely consider
For color, freshness, and flavor.
With promises of relief and
total satisfaction,
A hungry body and thirsty mind
Could be forgiven carelessness,
Mistaking taste for true nurturance.
Available at one low price
Desires and curiosities charm;
Cheap warranties and hidden costs
abound,
Claim more and more time,
Impose a slavery without manumission.
Passions owned tend to last and last,
As spellbound hearts chained
To purchases from your past,
Closed to requests for refunds and returns.
Stay focused on the real,
For time flies fast on tempting wings
in one stubborn mortal direction.
And if your mind shops unfocused
Resentments and envy will dominate
Full of regret for poor and unwanted
bargains,
Bound now to your silver shopping cart
Forced to trudge into a cheap future.
THH
11/1/24
Thoughts Have Hands 