Rest

Letter 4400

The tasks of this day are not especially taxing. Cleaning, arranging, light repairs. Yet before this easy day I shy.

Now is when I pull inward and rest, even as my energy flows like sap. The light worry is enough to make me sit.

❖

Lord, enter my heart and rebestir me. Let this rest renew my courage to walk and act.

Consider:

Can I seek and accept rest?

Reading:

❖ “To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.” — Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

❖ “We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment alone with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

❖ “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Not the World

Letter 4399

The world is not the world. More lies underneath and above.

The fence is not the fence. It is simply a border in one world. What does it separate in others?

The hills are no more than a backdrop of the person in this world, sitting on this cushion, looking through this window.

❖

Above it all lies another place, where the physical forms fade and the only dimension left is nearer or farther.

Nearer or farther from peace. Nearer or farther from you, Lord.

Let me, even in this world, draw nearer to you.

Consider:

Can I draw myself nearer to the spirit?

Reading:

❖ “We are made for God. Nothing less will really satisfy us.” — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

❖ “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.

Shivering

Letter 4398

Summer creeps upon the land, bright dawn and clear skies, yet the morning brings chill.

These glorious days, their cost is a frigid morning.

Walking through my rooms, I regret my light bedclothes and wish for a cap.

❖

At noon I will be grateful for the beauty and I will be strong. For now, I shiver.

Let me accept momentary discomfort, Lord, do your glory.

Consider:

Can I accept momentary discomfort?

Reading:

❖ “A Light exists in Spring / Not present on the Year / At any other period — / When March is scarcely here” — Emily Dickinson, Poem 812

❖ “Where God wants you to be, God holds you safe and gives you peace, even when there is pain.” — Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love

❖ “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” — Psalm 30:5 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Companions

Letter 4397

Rarely do I walk with another. Today I have a companion on my journey into and across the valley.

After early talk, we fall into a rhythm of walking and silence. We speak when necessary: rest time. Avoid these rocks.

❖

This neighbor, by whom I live, with whom I walk, knows my ways as well as I know theirs.

Yet we converse in silence. The currency of our bond is the years spent distantly, each working on our respective chores.

Let me speak friendship, finally and after many years. Perhaps this is the last walk.

Consider:

Can I express my love for others today?

Reading:

❖ “The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward.” — Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

❖ “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” — Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

❖ “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” — Proverbs 17:17 (KJV)

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

~B.R.