Seasons Cycle

Letter 4372

When I step on my porch, and the spring, damp air fills my nostrils, and I feel quickened in my chest, do I mourn the later loss of summer? Eventually all this will pass again into bare winter branches.

When the birds alight and call to me, do I focus on the time they will leave again, and I will hear no song?

❖

Let me come to be fully present here and now, Lord, that I may experience the rebirth all around me without fearing its later death.

Consider:

Can I live in today’s moment and appreciate spring?

Reading:

❖ “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” — Ecclesiastes

❖ “Forever is composed of nows.” — Emily Dickinson

❖ “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” — Psalm 118:24

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

~B.R.

The Sun

Letter 4370

The sun rises, the day calls. Yet I tarry inside.

This time is it retreat from the world. I am gaining experience with each moment on this cushion, as I talk to you, Lord.

Tasks wait. The shed, the path, the small duties that mark the day. Yet in here, power gathers. The ground beneath me is being turned, though I do not move.

❖

Lord, let this stillness be part of the work you have given me.

Consider:

Can I trust that waiting with you is also a form of going forth?

Reading:

❖ “Sit, walk, or run, but do not waver.” — Zen Proverb

❖ “In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” — Deepak Chopra

❖ “Be still, and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

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

~B.R.

Drowsy

Letter 4369

The sun peeks over the horizon, the birds have begun calling. Still I sleep, holding to the warmth of my bedding.

Am I tired and resting, Lord, or am I fearful and hiding?

❖

The day marches forward whether I am standing or sitting. Let me not shrink from it.

Consider:

Can I awaken myself?

Reading:

❖ “I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.” — Robert Frost

❖ “You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again… So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein

❖ “Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:6

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

~B.R.

Knowing and Doing

Letter 4368

I know the way to the village square. I know the way to the overlook where we placed a bench. I know the way to the summit that rises through the trees.

So many paths are known to me. If I want to look across the valley, I must walk the road, no matter how familiar I already am with it.

❖

The knowing is not the doing.

Lord, make me willing to join the efforts to which you invite me.

Consider:

Am I willing to walk the roads down which I am called?

Reading:

❖ “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore… whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” — Isaac Newton

❖ “Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow.” — T. S. Eliot

❖ “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” — James 1:22

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

~B.R.