Letter 4503

The grounds around me carry so much beauty, especially on these mornings when mist covers the ground to the horizon. The mountain watches over it all.

The beauty touches my spirit.

Inside, reading, writing, sitting, does my mind go out into the lands? Do I take in the surroundings?

I go inward, seeking you, Lord. There I find reality, even in the face of all that presents itself outside my window. The world is not the world.

The world carries messages to me from you, from your love, from your providence. The rains tell me of challenge. The sunshine tells me of peace.

❖

Let me live in reality, Lord.

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Consider:

Can I live in the unseen world?

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Reading:

❖ “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” — Eden Phillpotts, A Shadow Passes

❖ “Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.” — Iris Murdoch, The Sublime and the Good

❖ “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” — 2 Corinthians 4:18 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4502

Like a child, the morning finds me wondering what the day will bring. Moment to moment, I look to you, Lord, to guide me from here to there to there.

I have a diary for the day. Yet it describes outlines only. What will happen within each container of time?

❖

Grant, Lord, that I will know what to do and say in each moment.

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Consider:

Can I rely wholly on you to guide me?

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Reading:

❖ “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, ch. 64

❖ “You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” — E. L. Doctorow

❖ “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” — Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4501

I built this home, this garden, this fence. Yet how much was already here, on which I depended? The stones, the wood, even the earth.

I live with delusions of self sufficiency and power, when I am wholly dependent on my neighbors for market goods.

❖

Remove my prideful independence, Lord, that I may better see reality. We all live under your sunshine as your children.

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Consider:

Can I recognize the gifts you have given?

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Reading:

❖ “We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” — George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion

❖ “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

❖ “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” — James 1:17 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4500

Awakening beside an alpine lake. There are chores back home, but here I am.

A moose browses along the opposite shore. A fish jumps.

❖

While here, let me attend to the leisure for which I came. Tomorrow and its duties will wait.

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Consider:

Can I enjoy leisure today?

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Reading:

❖ “Leisure is the mother of Philosophy.” — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

❖ “Our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God.” — Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

❖ “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.” — Mark 6:31 (KJV)

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

~B.R.