New Soil

Letter 4396

I stand on new ground. My roots grasp new soil.

My face is turned to a new sun.

My skin feels a new breeze. There is a new scent in the air.

What will become of the old days and ways? A shed skin, left on the ground, forgotten as I trudge brightly into the forest.

❖

Shall I spare a thought for what was, even under the new skies?

O merciful Lord, that you rescued me with all this newness!

Consider:

Can I feel the new all around me?

Reading:

❖ “The world is charged with the grandeur of God… There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” — Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”

❖ “Let nothing disturb thee, nothing affright thee; all things are passing; God never changeth. Patient endurance attaineth to all things.” — Teresa of Ávila, Nada te turbe

❖ “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)

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

~B.R.

Yield to Water

Letter 4395

Plans drawn. Stakes driven where my new walls would rise.

The creek. Small and stubborn, flowing through the land on its own course.

My walls will need to rise elsewhere. My home will need to turn.

My path will go another way.

❖

Such a small thing, this trickle of water, to create such a large shift.

Let me be a trickle of water, Lord.

Consider:

Can I learn to accept the flows of the world?

Reading:

❖ “The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. It flows to low places loathed by all men. Therefore it is like the Tao.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

❖ “The soul must long for God in order to be set aflame by God’s love; but if the soul cannot yet feel the longing, then it must long for the longing. To long for the longing is also from God.” — Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

❖ “He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.” — Psalm 23:2-3 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

The Broken Bridge

Letter 4394

My neighbors knew it was me walking in their field, for I had told them of my plans to journey through on a free day.

I came upon a broken bridge. I easily forded the creek. Yet I worried: would they think I had made the damage?

The rest of my walk, I planned all the ways I would tell them it was not me.

I had not stopped to repair. I had not turned back to tell them.

❖

Lord, let me accept the tasks you set today, even those unplanned and seemingly not mine.

Consider:

Can I stop for the work I did not plan?

Reading:

❖ “Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer.” — Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus

❖ “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” — Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

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

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

~B.R.

Deceit

Letter 4393

Yesterday I awoke, and knew great things would happen today. I would succeed.

The day ended as it began, with the sun on the horizon and me quietly in my rooms. Little had changed.

The prior day I awoke, frightened over the calamity sure to befall. That day ended without tragedy.

❖

Today I awaken in my room. I can grasp equanimity if only I can see clearly. The day is marching forward.

Consider:

Can I see without self-deception?

Reading:

❖ “How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?” — Michel de Montaigne, Essays

❖ “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” — Meister Eckhart, Sermons

❖ “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)

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

~B.R.