First Light

A walk through the trees along the river at first light carries the possibility of a restored clarity. Perhaps like the simplicity of standing before a judge and receiving a death sentence:

“On this day, at dawn,

you shall be hanged by the neck

until you are dead.”

Or as Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics put it ~

‘You can die on your sofa

safe inside your home

or die in a mess of flame and shrapnel

we all in our time go’

A knowledge that ought to produce gratitude for another day, one would think. Though on most, I confess, it does not shake me free from the ephemeral disquiet swirling around inside of me.

Today,

for a few rarified moments,

it did…

zjm

Father's Day

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass."  "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply.  "We're raising boys."  

~Harmon Killebrew

Vision

"Those who cannot see Christ in the poor are atheists indeed. " 

— Dorothy Day