A Moment

Letter 4549

Across the lake, a moose browses the shore. I watch.

It seems unaware of my presence. For many moments do I watch. Finally the great creature leaves the shore and disappears into the woods.

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What lasting impression is left? There is no statue to be made, no story to tell. I saw a forest creature, and then I did not. Yet the moment itself stopped me.

Let me see these moments as the gifts they are, Lord.

Consider:

Can I appreciate even the fleeting?

Reading:

❖ “Some things that fly there be, — / Birds, hours, the bumble-bee:” — Emily Dickinson, Poems

❖ “For He willeth we know that the least thing shall not be forgotten.” — Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

❖ “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Lessons

Letter 4548

I thought I had learned this lesson before. Patience, humility, sacrifice.

Had I forgotten it? Does it brook repetition? Is there some other purpose?

Repeated pain, repeated trial, eventually — repeated overcoming.

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Perhaps the lesson is not what is being repeated, but the relief of what I learn.

Let me stride forward and through, with bold courage. These lessons are what comprise a life.

Consider:

Can I accept today’s lessons?

Reading:

❖ “All common things, each day’s events, / That with the hour begin and end, / Our pleasures and our discontents, / Are rounds by which we may ascend.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ladder of St. Augustine

❖ “I imagined I then understood it completely, but I soon came to realise that the more one advances along this path the farther one seems from the goal.” — Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul

❖ “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” — James 1:3 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Future Worry

Letter 4547

I worry over what may happen. Will my garden perish? Will a flood wash away the bridge? Will the animals escape? Will my neighbors turn against me?

I am the master of my own fantasies, and I use this power to create dramas that lack you, O Lord. Were I to imagine future scenes with you present, there would be no calamity nor woe.

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You are here with me and all is well. Why do I imagine a future without you?

Let me imagine a tomorrow as glorious as today already is, Lord.

Consider:

Can I have peace as I think about the future?

Reading:

❖ “Our doubts are traitors, / And make us lose the good we oft might win, / By fearing to attempt.” — William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

❖ “Think only of the present, abandon the future to Providence.” — Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

❖ “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” — Matthew 6:34 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Within, Without

Letter 4546

My rooms have become untidy. While clean, there is yet clutter: books are piled, bedclothes strewn, objects not put away.

I must work around the confusion.

What is the state of my thought life, and my spirit life? Does the same debris impede my inner life as it does my outer?

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Does one affect the other?

Let me order my surroundings, Lord. Let me start where I can.

Consider:

Shall I today begin to set things aright?

Reading:

❖ “The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:” — William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much With Us

❖ “Our outward and inward lives alike must be closely watched and well ordered, for both are important to perfection.” — Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

❖ “Let all things be done decently and in order.” — 1 Corinthians 14:40 (KJV)

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

~B.R.