Letter 4435

I imagine you have prepared the dawn just for me, eagerly awaiting my discovering of it. Could it be you made the world for your own amusement and I but inhabit it?

Zoom out, see me walking alone across an open and empty field. I am simply part of the picture. Here, in the shadow of the mountain, we tend our gardens and dwellings unaware of the greater plan.

❖

Grant me a glimpse, Lord, that I may sustain this journey.

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Consider:

Can I see the plan I am a part of?

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Reading:

❖ “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.” — Blaise Pascal, Pensées

❖ “He showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand… I thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered: ‘It is all that is made.'” — Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

❖ “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” — 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4434

The same light shines across the valley floor, shines on my simple dwelling.

The same light that warms my limbs, shines on the one who vexed me yesterday.

❖

The same sun I saw this morning will rise tomorrow.

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Consider:

Can I have the equanimity of you who shine down from above? Can I be calm before the sun?

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Reading:

❖ “The self-same sun that shines upon his court / Hides not his visage from our cottage, but / Looks on alike.” — William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (4.4)

❖ “Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like death for rage and anger.” — Rumi

❖ “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” — Acts 10:34 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4433

Awake before dawn, disregarding the cold floor, I am eager to get to my chores. Wherefrom came this willingness? On other mornings I drag myself to the barn.

Love can be motion. My body moves toward what it tends, and the heart catches up later, surprised to find itself already there.

❖

Love can be waiting. I stand still, and let my heart run ahead, so my body arrives to a made bed.

Let me keep this gladness, Lord, when the floor turns cold again.

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Consider:

Can I love a thing by simply showing up to it?

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Reading:

❖ “Work is love made visible.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (“On Work”)

❖ “While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes.” — Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness

❖ “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” — Colossians 3:23 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4432

There will be a river to cross; I do not know how we will ford it. Perhaps the bridge still stands. Perhaps there is a ferry. We may swim.

Such precarious balance, as we set out.

❖

Let me trust that we will find what power we need when we need it.

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Consider:

Can I trust fully in you today?

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Reading:

❖ “When we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” — Wendell Berry, Standing by Words (“The Real Work”)

❖ “To come to the knowledge you have not you must go by a way in which you know not.” — John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel

❖ “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” — Hebrews 4:16 (KJV)

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

~B.R.