Plenty

Letter 4545

The cupboards seem bare, yet all around me as I walk through my day I find heaps of treasure. The riches of the day spill over: sunshine, warmth, a kind gesture, satisfaction of completed chores, a growing garden.

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Even as I worry over penury, there is enough to eat and my neighbors come looking to borrow sugar.

Let me see the wealth you have created for me, Lord.

Consider:

Can I see and accept your providence in all its forms today?

Reading:

❖ “There is no Wealth but Life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration.” — John Ruskin, Unto This Last

❖ “They were poor in earthly things but rich in grace and virtue.” — Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

❖ “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.” — Psalm 104:24 (KJV)

Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Foundations

Letter 4544

Upon what do I rest?

When at home, my feet trod floorboards that sometimes creak and groan.

In the field, I stand upon wide open ground.

In the stream, on shifting river stones.

In the heights, upon a mountain that itself rests on the foundations of the world.

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Do I, then, have just one foundation? Are not my underpinnings dependent on the day and hour?

Let me seek you, Lord, sure support underneath all.

Consider:

Can I seek a true foundation today?

Reading:

❖ “The good man builds himself up; the bad man destroys himself.” — Henry David Thoreau, Familiar Letters

❖ “God alone, I have only God.” — Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

❖ “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” — 1 Corinthians 3:11 (KJV)

Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Progress

Letter 4543

Yesterday I walked many miles, to the village and then back.

I recall when the journey required an overnight stay. I could only manage one direction without needing rest.

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What feat can I imagine will be easy tomorrow?

Lord, let me go from strength to strength.

Consider:

Can I see and celebrate progress today?

Reading:

❖ “We have not wings, we cannot soar; / But we have feet to scale and climb / By slow degrees, by more and more, / The cloudy summits of our time.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ladder of St. Augustine

❖ “He will by little and little strengthen that soul, so that it may come forth victorious.” — Teresa of Ávila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

❖ “They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” — Psalm 84:7 (KJV)

Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Tolerance

Letter 4542

Years of accumulated items in my shed needed to be organized and discarded. Part of this work involved laying the objects out on the field, an unsightly pile.

Will the neighbors complain?

Last year, one burned a pile of leaves and the smoke vexed me.

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If I am to experience tolerance, then I must be tolerant.

Let me be tolerant today.

Consider:

Can I offer the same acceptance that I hope to receive?

Reading:

❖ “O, it is excellent / To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant.” — William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

❖ “Try to bear patiently with the defects and infirmities of others, whatever they may be, because you also have many a fault which others must endure.” — Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

❖ “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” — Romans 15:1 (KJV)

Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.