Woes, up in smoke.

Yesterday’s burdens sit in a heap, fuel for a bonfire. The new day promises light and air.

I thought lightening my load would free me to bear others’ woes. The new load is even harder to bear than my own was.

❖

Lord, can I cast others’ burdens on the same bonfire? What do I act as if they are mine?

What if I walked into the light you promise?

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I shed even others’ burdens?

Reading:

“To lay a burden down is not to abandon it, but to return it to the ground that knows its weight.” — Wendell Berry, Sabbath Poems

❖

“Compassion that exhausts itself has crossed an invisible line.” — Simone Weil, Waiting for God

❖

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” — Psalm 55:22 (KJV)

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

On the way.

A close walk with you, Lord. A bracing walk in the woods, over meadow, through tended yards, back home.

When setting out, do I fear the path? Do I cower in thinking of the garden?

Wherefore then do I worry over the coming days upon days?

The path you have laid out for me winds and winds, and upon me rain may fall for moments.

❖

I start from home; I end at home. Is not the way more noteworthy than the destination?

Let me be on the way.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I appreciate my journey today?

Reading:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

— Marcel Proust, La Prisonnière

❖

“Where you are is the entry point.” — Kabir, translated by Robert Bly

❖

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” — John 14:6 (KJV)

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

Yes.

New day. One day. Am I enough?

I am a jar of clay, existing to be filled by you, Lord. What I hold will be what is valued.

But when empty, am I worth nothing? Clay, from mud, so meager. Yet in its usefulness so grand.

❖

Even a simple, empty vessel: let me be that today.

Even empty, I am enough.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I be a vessel today?

Reading:

“We mold clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful.” — Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11

❖

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

❖

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” — 2 Corinthians 4:7 (KJV)

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

Am I seeing myself?

I walk a lonely path, winding up a mountain in solitude. I company with you, Lord, more and more as the way goes higher and higher. There is both joy and sorrow in this way you had taken me.

Sometimes, rounding a switchback, I see another path across a chasm. A lone figure, walking stick and cloak, going up and up.

❖

Is it a neighbor, on another lonely path, upwards and upwards? Are we fellows without being together?

Am I seeing myself, later?

Let me live as if I have chosen your will, Lord, for that is what I have done.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I live as if I have chosen this life?

Reading:

“Solitude is not absence of people but the moment when my soul is free to speak to me and help me decide what is worth doing.” — Henri J. M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude

❖

“The path is the goal.” — Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi

❖

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” — — Psalm 37:5 (KJV)

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