It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.

~Frederick Douglass~

Waiting and Hoping...

From the rain and sleet of the Southside of Chicago...




Blessings and goodwill.

The Other Side of the Holiday

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world,
which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime,
and falling in at night...

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay ~

The Bath
Laura Gilpin

I stand here bathing her
while she sleeps
in a far place beyond my reaching.

I bathe her
as I have been taught to do:
first the eyes, then the forehead,
the face, the neck.

And as I work
I talk to her--in case she hears me
(believing that hearing is the last to go).

I tell her--I don't know why
but I tell her the time, the day,
the season, what the weather is doing,

lifting each arm to wash and dry it,
laying it down again at her side,
then the chest, the abdomen, each leg.

She offers no resistance,
except that of gravity,
the earth pulling her
down while I lift,
as though something between us
is being weighed.

Then I turn her to wash her back
talking to her about what seems to matter
in this life--though I make no promises.

Only this morning
the promise of spring was in the air
and I tell her that.

Time to Lighten Up for the Holidays...

The History of the Church of England

Wisdom from Tobias

The surest way to become a sect is to establish something other than Christ as the focus of your unity or identity.*

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG

*like a covenant, the episcopate, the chair of Peter, a confession, national boundaries, a political agenda, a program, a locale, a tradition, a language, a culture, whatever

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.”

Self Pity (D. H. Lawrence)

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.