Letter 4527

I spoke with my neighbor over our shared stone fence. We were together for hours.

I shared what weighed heavily on my spirit, a deep wound from when I was a child. They shared what troubled them, their family in turmoil with a feeling that they could do little.

We shared one another’s burdens, each lighter than before.

❖

Previously our words had only been greetings. Now, we each are known.

Let me go on from here with this lesson.

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Consider:

Can I share more deeply with others?

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Reading:

❖ “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” — George Eliot, Middlemarch, Chapter 72

❖ “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” — Simone Weil, letter to Joë Bousquet, April 13, 1942

❖ “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4526

Acrimony between neighbors.

The one has long held their beliefs. The other has grown into a new person. Yet when two walk apart, who can tell which moves?

The land shudders over their dispute, as they share a fence.

Who is to forgive whom? Can they live in this village as neighbors?

❖

The winds came last night. An uprooted tree crushed the fence line.

We both now must make repairs.

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Consider:

Can I see my neighbors’ humanity?

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Reading:

❖ “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…” — Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”

❖ “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

❖ “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” — Mark 12:31 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4525

What is hard for me is easy for another.

What is easy for me is hard for another.

Wherefore then do I judge? Why then do I worry of others’ judgment?

By this measure can I rightly judge my own acts: How aligned they are with your will — how truthfully am I trying to find that alignment.

The sun peeking into my room, it illuminates a tidy desk as well as remnants of last night’s meal, uncleared. Meanwhile here I sit, in devotion to you, seeking your will.

❖

I am untroubled by judgment over my table. Let me carry this through the day.

Let me see and do your will.

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Consider:

Can I release judgment today?

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Reading:

❖ “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” — Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks and John Moyne, The Essential Rumi

❖ “Shame needs three things to grow exponentially. Secrecy, silence, and judgment.” — Brené Brown, Unlocking Us, “The Power of Regret”

❖ “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” — Matthew 7:1 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4524

The sun rises ever later; where I used to sit in early sun, my room is now dark as I sit in devotion. Into this room I allow only a small lamp, and I keep the light low.

❖

Just two months ago the lamp was not necessary, bright sun spilling through the window. Why now am I so careful with the light, preferring gloom? Could I not choose bright light? The dark setting brings with it the temptation to fall asleep rather than seek you, Lord.

Let me devote myself to you at noon as equally as dawn.

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Consider:

Can I seek you, no matter the setting?

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Reading:

❖ “The eternal stars shine out again, so soon as it is dark enough.” — Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present

❖ “I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light.” — Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

❖ “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” — Psalm 139:12 (KJV)

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

~B.R.