|
Photo by Dan Chapman ©2001 Stanyan
Entertainment Group
A Thought for Today
Love is an act of giving; giving is an
act of love.
Good morning. Now that the 4th
season of the year has started
here are a couple of meditations.
IN WINTER
In winter we return home again
to whatever. Cold comfort. Warmth of friends. Strangeness. Death. We
hibernate like bears. Seek private places to stay private in. Ward off
colds. Christmas for the children. Loneliness for others.
There is a purity to winter. A calmness. The young are left alone because
their elders dwell on loss and limits. This time excuses for reassessing
involve the new year. Maybe the purity of winter has more to do with snow
than stuff of stronger substance.
-Adapted from “A Book of
Days", 1981
WINTER
AGAIN
I never thought that I had
wasted love even when I gave it freely to those I might not, could not,
would not go on loving. I learned by loving and I was taught by experts.
Groomed by the selfish and the selfless too. Love seldom tied me up in
knots. The closer I’ve been held, the more I’ve learned freedom. I am only
bound when I’m alone, chained when no one’s here to love me back.
-Adapted from “A Book of
Days", 1981
FOR A SON
AT CHRISTMAS
When Christmas comes around
this year, I’d like to give you something that you least expect: your
father’s wisdom. If, indeed, he’s yet acquired enough to share. Your
father’s charity, if he can truly say he has done nothing all these years
to harm his fellow man. Your father’s understanding, if he understands
your needs well enough to listen to whole paragraphs of your young
troubles without judging you mid-sentence. Your father’s absolution,
though he has yet to be absolved for the recklessness he’s passed down to
you both knowingly and unknowingly. Your father’s future, if he can see
untroubled days ahead. Your father’s needs, that you might meet the ones
he never filled himself.
I hope, though, that your father, your old man, is not so selfish as to
burden you with his unanswered prayers. You will need all the God that you
can get to answer some of those requests you are making now and many you
have not thought up yet, but will.
-Adapted from "An
Outstretched Hand," 1980
See you tomorrow with a
Christmas story. Sleep warm.
|
