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.

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Consider:

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

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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)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4541

I walked through a grand home, built in a past century, carefully wrought by craftspeople. So fine, so sturdy. Were the old ways better ways?

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I roam the fields, thinking of how I used to behave toward my neighbors, filled with resentment. Today I am at peace with the whole village. Were my old ways better ways?

Lord, let me retain from the past only what is worthy.

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Consider:

Can I embrace growth today?

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Reading:

❖ “New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth.” — James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis” (1845)

❖ “To journey and to be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.” — Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (2000)

❖ “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4540

Someone came to the open land near mine, and began building a home.

I watched from inside as the structure grew. They came to work on it almost every day. We never spoke. They: occupied, perhaps fearful to visit. Me: remote.

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Why did I not walk to them and bid them welcome? Why must they come to me? Now I may have a neighbor I do not know.

Let me bid all welcome.

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Consider:

Can I be a friend to all today?

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Reading:

❖ “Help to make them feel at home; find out where they are staying, ask if you may render them any service.” — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks (1911)

❖ “Hospitality, therefore, means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” — Henri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out (1975)

❖ “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” — 1 Peter 4:9 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4539

All these days walking this small patch of land, I have experienced the full range of human emotions. Elation, despondency, joy, terror, peace.

Each experience I have is unique, yet each feeling is one also known by others.

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We have this in common, me with my neighbors.

Let me see myself as one of many.

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Consider:

Can I embrace what I have in common with all?

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Reading:

❖ “No heart that beats, but has its grief; / Nor wealth, nor youth, gives full relief;” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “The Common Link,” Shells (1873)

❖ “Love and belonging are irreducible needs for all people.” — Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart (2021)

❖ “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” — Romans 12:15 (KJV)

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

~B.R.