Amazement of Creation

Wonder

by Natalie Merchant

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Doctors have come
from distant cities
just to see me

stand over my bed
disbelieving what they're seeing
they say I must be one of the wonders
of God's own creation

and as far as they can see they can offer
no explanation
newspapers ask
intimate questions
want confessions
reach into my head
to steal the glory
of my story

they say I must be one of the wonders
of God's own creation
and as far as they can see they can offer
no explanation

I believe
fate smiled and destiny
laughed as she came to my cradle
know that this child will be able
laughed as my body she lifted
know this child will be gifted
with love. with patience,
and with faith she'll make her way

people see me
I'm a challenge
to your balance
I'm over your heads
how I confound you
and astound you
to know I must be one of the wonders
of God's own creation

and as far as you can see you can offer me
no explanation
I believe...

The wonders of creation. Early spring brings all its own natural joys. We look forward to more time out doors, more direct interaction with the natural world. Many, including me will be gardening, planting, mowing, soaking up some sun. I contrast this with a year ago when I was not up to so much activity. The wonders of God's creation. It seems that "fate smiled, and destiny."

To be a 'child gifted with faith, patience and love' we make our way. Without the most basic elements, the air we breathe, the many wonders of creation, the lifetimes we experience would be very different. What would they be? Would they be? And yes, "I'm a challenge to your balance." Walking the way of faith is counter-intuitive; it is in many ways radical. To believe what you cannot see, to trust in the wind you only feel, may indeed be confounding. But do it anyway. You will be challenged and rewarded in many ways.

No one has really offered an adequate explanation for this earth. We try, but its vastness and many facets are daunting; to know that we are one "of the wonders of God's creation" is the most incomprehensible and amazing of all. We share in creation as both a Creator and as a result. While we're not perfect in the least, we are so very lovable, as one of God's creation. Happy spring.

 

In Grief, Through Our Losses

Fallen
by sarah maclaughlin
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Heaven bend to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight
Truth be told I've tried my best
But somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
And the cost was so much more than I could bear
Though I've tried, I've fallen...

I have sunk so low
I messed up
Better I should know
So don't come round here
And tell me I told you so...
We all begin with good intent
Love was raw and young
We believed that we could change ourselves
The past could be undone

But we carry on our backs the burden
Time always reveals
In the lonely light of morning
In the wound that would not heal
It's the bitter taste of losing everything
That I've held so dear...

 “It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.” —St. John Paul II

As many have learned, grief is the normal, inevitable response to many types of loss, not only death. In grief we feel something is altered, gone from us that we can no longer retrieve, and it prompts sadness. As an experience, grief of all types is more prevalent than death itself. It is highly specific to a given individual due to ones' unique characteristics, interests and relationships. For some, grief is a response to shattered assumptions about life, and ones' life in particular. It encompasses a complex of emotions, cognition, existential and spiritual coping as a response to many, many life events. There is a disintegration of existing, established life structures previously full with meaning.

For some grief is much like the feeling of fear, gripping one with yawning stomach and fluttering feeling. For many it seems to persist for a very long time.
The writer C.S. Lewis wrote a story concerning grief, A Grief Observed, later made into the movie, The Shadowlands with actor Anthony Hopkins.
In mourning losses, there begins the process, often first a sensation of numbness and shock, intense emotions often with a non-linear process. The one in grief may feel things such as anger, sadness, shame, regret, hostility over a period of time.

Philosopher Peter Kreeft called grief "God's jujitsu." The grief experience itself may be what allows many to overcome their grief he writes, to move beyond that initial point.  He asserts that God used the force of the devil's own evil to defeat the evil one.
We can endure evil and suffering and be strengthened. Writing in his book, Making Sense Out of Suffering, Kreeft writes of a deeply human account of compassion, the act of suffering with, and examines how religious traditions view this near universal human experience.
And many find ourselves fallen into a malaise, a gnawing sense of sadness, that things just aren't right. Maybe we're a bit angry too. In grief it is not only other people that cause us to feel loss, but also life events occur which result in losses less obvious. Perhaps it's the loss of earlier, more simple times, loss of health, loss of ones' good name or reputation, attacks to ones' character or the alteration or loss of a parent, friendship or marriage, maybe through a sense of wrong doing or maybe just by distance.

What ever the initial cause of grief, it is felt by many most keenly. All those involved in these situations mentioned above may remain alive and well, though separate and apart. This can and does prompt for many, strong feelings of grief, of loss.
Sorting through these varied and complex situations and emotions over time likely results in a healthy accommodation to a new, revised reality in which one finds the energy to move forward. As Saint John Paul II wrote, grief is a type of suffering which may indeed clear the way for a new, transformed existence.

Liking and Knowing

Vision of Love

1990-- by Mariah Carey

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Treated me kind, sweet destiny

Carried me through desperation to the one
that was waiting for me

You took so long, still I believed

Somehow the one that I needed would find me eventually

Somehow the one that I needed would find me eventually

I had a vision of love and it was all that you've given to me

I had a vision of love

And it was all that you've given to me

Prayed through the nights, felt so alone

Suffered from alienation, carried the weight on my own

Had to be strong, so I believed

And now I know I've succeeded in finding
the place I conceived
I've realized a dream

And I visualized the love that came to be

Feel so alive, I'm so thankful that I've received

The answer that heaven has sent down to me
You treated me kind, sweet destiny

And I'll be eternally grateful, holding you so close to me

Prayed through the nights, so faithfully

Knowing the one that I needed
would find me eventually...

"Every person is indescribably complex, and so to speak, an uneven good."  --Karol Wojtyla, later John Paul II

Liking a person is very closely connected with knowledge, "who you turned out to be...," records the lyrics. The base of attraction is an impression, a disposition to regard the other as a value; it is the developed commitment to think of that person as a certain good. Such commitment can only be enacted by the will.
 'I want,' is implicit in 'I like.' Thus the will is committed by attraction, and attraction commits the will. This may be difficult to grasp intellectually; yet the song Vision of Love  makes this point emotionally, poignantly.

"Every person is indescribably complex, and so to speak, an uneven good," writes theologian Wojtyla. "Man and woman alike are by nature bodily and spiritual beings; they are such a being, seen by one another; in this way, each attracts the other.
All the potential goods or values that a given person may respond to derive from the object of this attraction. Each, then, attracts the other. For example, in y's attraction to x, the value most strongly in evidence is one which y finds in x, and to which y reacts most strongly."This one could say is the visioning, the imaging that the lyrics here speak to.

Also there's fact that y is particularly sensitive to it, particularly quick to perceive and respond to it. The mind, the thinking process, therefore plays a part in attraction, combined together with the emotions, such that a potent guide emerges in the mix as an important feature, strikingly evident in attraction.
"But this fact creates a certain internal difficulty in the sexual lives of persons. This difficulty is inherent in the relationship of experience to truth." Feelings often arise spontaneously. Where feelings are functioning naturally, they are unconcerned about truth. This is lust.
Truth for a man is a task of both his experience and his reason. This is why in any attraction, especially one of a sexual nature, the question of the truth about the person towards whom attraction is felt for, is so important.

Often people "generally believe that love can largely be reduced to a question of genuineness of feelings; although this is impossible to completely deny, we must still insist, if we are concerned about the quality of the attraction and the love of which it is part, that the truth about the person who is its object, play a part at least as important as the truth of the sentiment.'

"These two truths, properly integrated, give to an attraction [wholeness], the elements of a genuinely good, and genuinely cultivated love. Thus the object of attraction is seen whole, as a good, as a thing of beauty.
A human being is beautiful and may be revealed as beautiful to another human being." Love is a commitment to the good of each other. "For power is made perfect in weakness."
--2 Corinthians12:9-10

Faith and Action

Minute By Minute

Performed by The Doobie Bros.

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Hey, don't worry, I've been lied to

I've been here many times before

Girl, don't you worry, I know where I stand

I don't need this love, I don't need your hand

I know I could turn, blink and you'd be gone

Then I must be prepared any time to carry on

But minute by minute by minute by minute

I keep holding on

Oh, minute by minute by minute by minute

I keep holding on

You will stay just to watch me, darlin'

Wilt away on lies from you

Can't stop the habit of livin' on the run

I take it all for granted, like you're the only one

Livin' on my own

Somehow that sounds nice

You think I'm your fool

Well, you may just be right

Cause minute by minute by minute by minute

I keep holding on

Oh, minute by minute by minute by minute

I keep holding on...

Sometimes, somehow we deceive our self. We think, almost without any regard for what lays beyond our front door that we are entirely clever, that we keep others around for our own comfort or pleasure. That we are the master of destiny--ours of course and others are around like actors in our film.
With claims that we feel guilty "because we only have them around to feel better," or because they relieve our depression or stress.

How ironic, how amusing! To think that the world needs, requires me, uniquely to function; to think that others are so blind. Maybe the old French saying, "He who accuses, accuses himself," is so much more closer to what is truthfully occurring.
Yet with a view to what others are actually doing, we may gain insight. Is it I, or is it another who is the maker, the doer of the speech or action? Who keeps who around?

And like the lyric, 'I know I could turn, blink, you'd be gone..." there must be more to it than 'thinking I'm your fool,' but what? Who fools whom, and what if the other person also feels comfort and pleasure too--what then? Does that go by the same name to describe a relationship?
Do they 'keep holding on'; rightfully so -- in faith and charity, cynically?

To give a response to all this meandering thought, Cistercian monk and writer, Thomas Merton wrote about obedience and acceptance; he explores the values of both. "We must be convinced that it is very profitable for us to exercise ourselves in obedience, even to commands that are not perfectly rational or prudent. In doing this, we are not blinding ourselves or telling ourselves lies about the case.
We simply accept the situation as it is, with all its defects, and obey for the love of God [the Creator]. In order to do so, we have to make a fully rational and free decision, which in some cases may be quite difficult."

"Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith (words, ideas) without works is useless?" -- the Bible, James 2:20

Paul's Trials, Big and Small

Paul's Example and Teaching*

"proclaim the word;

be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;

convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching."

--2Timothy 3:10-17

In the days of one's life there come many joys and many sorrows. These sad times are a trial; many of them have to do with personal relationships. And yet despite the angst, the stress and the grief they may also be times of personal growth. For if we master our troubles, they will only make us stronger. Resolving the glitches and contradictions of life are the times when a 'bomb it and pave it' mentality just won't do.

The Gospels tell of a story, James 1:2-3  about the importance of patience; there is another view of trials, they may be opportunities to new ways, better things or a mastery of what formerly bedeviled us. This leads to a calm tranquility, to patience and to the special love that patience may bring to us.
The story of the Christ brings us to the sure knowledge that day in and day out we can make our way, we can succeed, despite the sometimes erratic and dismal behavior of those around us; when we manipulate others, when we fail to see them in their dignity as creation, when we deceive or injure, when they treat us in like ways. Yet the message remains the same: bear the wrongs of others patiently.

Contrary to the secular view, bearing wrongs patiently is not the same as bearing them stupidly, and not the same as if the one who wrongs and supposes they remain undetected--in arrogance or ignorance. 
 Do remain steadfast; hold out hope that there will come a view, a light, a vision which guides one to the love that our hearts yearn for; that we may not be abandoned for convenience or spite.

On Eagle's Wings

by Michael Joncas

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...And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand.

The snare of the fowler will never capture you
And famine will bring you no fear
Under His wings your refuge
His faithfulness your shield.

And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand...


* Refers to Saint Paul, the disciple of the Christ

Committed to Food Co-Op Ideals?

Unions and food Co-ops, are they the way of the future? A look at Co-ops 50 years later.

The very idea of a food cooperative (co-op) is not new; it is based on the age old principle of the community working together and sharing the rewards for the betterment of all. It's an idea popularized in the 1960s embracing the ideals of a democratic, self-run association of individuals with an orientation to serve the community, in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner, to name a few of the goals which many food co-ops express.

This has however, sometimes, engendered the politicalization of food, or food politics. Many wish to participate in food cooperatives with the intention that they may also express their political will and social bonefides in addition to filling their grocery cart. It is also as a community activity, one which naturally fulfills a social need for some to congregate, and to support others with various needs.
In the early years many food co-ops were faith-inspired initiatives whose bounty of good will flowed to the communities that they served. Often churches and other civic organizations sponsored or fostered the local co-op. They were focused on the social and community aspects of food distribution, seeking to eliminate poverty and inequities of access to wholesome food products.
Some simply spurned what they viewed as a defunct capitalist system; co-ops were a way around this. The member-supported and directed co-op became a boon to those who wished for lives more free from the interference of commerce, embracing ideals of sharing, togetherness and ecology for example.

However it seems in many areas of the country today food co-ops are perhaps suffering from their own success. Once one of the few ways to obtain organic, fair-trade or local produce at fair prices in urban areas, many co-ops now find themselves threatened by competition from bigger, national chains who have recognized the desire for wholesome organic foods for the masses. For example Kroger, the nation's largest dedicated food retailer, now routinely offers similar or same organic and fair-trade items in its stores at prices more favorable than the local co-op can match. Other stores and traditional retailers have jumped on board with similar offerings. If the local food co-op is to survive, in many areas, they have been forced into a more traditional, commercial role.

The Bloomington, Indiana magazine, The Ryder has recently taken an extensive look into the local co-op there and some are now finding it problematic. There is the intense scrutiny of the organization as a business. Many feel corporatization is necessary to  survival in today's world. Some say that co-ops which today are not run like a traditional business, aren't likely to survive to foster any revolutions or see the light of any social justice initiatives.
And there's more; the necessity of the corporate structure has come to many co-ops today leaving those associated with them feeling that there is a two-tiered system of owner-operators, and employees on the second tier who have few capital resources but labor day after day in the co-op stores themselves.
These persons feeling at the second tier, feeling dis-respected, unappreciated and often taken advantage of; a number have invited and even agitated for unionization of their co-op. Yet some founding, long-time members point out that the co-op model was not imagined to be a worker's collective; rather its focus was as a member owned entity.
This member owned ideal is at the heart of many collectives; indeed a food co-op conceived as such would be included here, but what's in it for those who don't join or those who work diligently but don't have the resources to buy into the co-op as a business or corporate entity?

For many the answer has come in the form of unionization of the local co-op, and organizers for the United Food and Candy Workers Union (UFCW) see a definite role for themselves here. For Bloomington, Indiana's Bloomingfoods, UFCW local 700 has become the answer. Now the workers may vote, be represented, strike and negotiate for better pay, training and working conditions.

If the local food co-op is to survive many are now seeing that it must be more than a local icon, a  branded destination, it must take its social initiatives seriously, making its mission a journey of the spirit and not simply the congregating point for the well-heeled consumer on Saturday mornings.

Want a Friend? Get a Dog.

"Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool so as to become wise."   -- 1Corinthians 13

Back Stabbers
Performed by Seal

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...Blades are long, clenched tight in their fist
 Aimin' straight at your back
 And I don't think they'll miss
 --What they do! --
 --They smile in your face--
 All the time they want to take your place
 The back stabbers --back stabbers--

...What can I do to get on the right track
 I wish they'd take some of these knives off my back
 --They smile in your face--
 All the time they want to take your place
 The back stabbers --back stabbers--
 Low down... dirty...
--What they do! --

 ...--They smile in your face--
 Smiling faces... smiling faces sometimes tell lies--Back stabbers
 --They smile in your face--
 I don't need... low down, dirty bastards--Back stabbers

In the everydayness of our modern world there are many things tugging, pulling at us for our attention. There are our own wants and desires and those same desires of others around us. Many times these issues are satisfied in healthy, productive ways; they respect ourselves and they entertain the respect of others, in equal measure. We may then be both confident and calm in the knowledge that we can manage our lives well.
At times we may find that some of our wants, or desires turn to fascination; we are then vulnerable to impulse, to suggestion, particularly the suggestions of others.

Day to day we come into contact with other personalities some of whom are compatible with our own, some less so. As sociable beings, humans both want and need a variety of interactions with others. Positive relationships are not without occasional discord; what they are about is both the 'give and the take,' uniquely sharing with one another those things that matter, that make each one of us real, alive.
 Both giving and taking in equal measure, we find our satisfactions. In a great wheel of life, there are turns and counter-turns. Some spiritual traditions refer to this as "cause and effect." For other traditions, this is a simple indication of the opportunity for evil-doing in the world, an indication of  'free' choices.
And others who may find the same through interactions with us. Then there are the personalities who suggest, goad and initiate activities which at first provide (and answer) an outlet to our social desires, at least at first, but over time capture ones' soul in a web hard to untangle. They prey uniquely upon the weaknesses of others.
In warning, classic writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Dante, Machiavelli, Goethe, Hesse, Nietzsche,  the Biblical writers and even the childrens' fable, Pinocchio, tell a tale about the downfall of the prideful, the angry, the greedy and those lacking clear understanding about their own and others' deepest motives, often evil motives. Is it right or just, that a person, vulnerable by his or her own human weakness should be preyed upon?
When over-washed by strong emotion or unbridled desires, many become uniquely vulnerable to the manipulations of others, who simply seek to gain advantage; The Bible implores us to master our own emotions, lest we become slave to the very same.
Romans 6:16-18    And many of us do become slaves for this very reason.

Ultimately this slavery does not lead to our satisfaction, nor to the peace or the joy we seek for our hearts. It does, however, often lead to trickery and treachery.
It must have been this very experience that lead someone to write song lyrics so poignant and title them, "Back Stabbers," a spiritual awakening for sure.

Staying Together

Lets Stay Together

by Al Green

performed by Seal

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I, I'm so in love with you

Whatever you want to do is all right with me
'Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you

Let me say that since, baby, since we've been together
Loving you forever is what I need
Oh let me be the one you come running to
I'll never be untrue

Oh let's, let's stay together
Lovin' you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad, alright, oh yeah
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad

Oh tell me why, why, why, why, why, why
Why people break up, turn around and make up
I can't see, you never, never, never do that to me
You better not do, staying around you is all I
All these eyes will ever see

Why won't you say that me, everybody says
That let's, let's stay together
Lovin' you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

Everybody says, "Let's, let's stay together
I'll keep on lovin' you whether, whether
Times are, oh times are good or times are bad
Whether, whether good or bad, happy or sad
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

In today's disposable, scientific world there is a decided trend towards absolute consumerism. We want products and services that will please us, that will perform to our expectations. When they don't, we often leave them aside and search out something else, as if at a smorgasbord.
It is pervasive and growing, even if perhaps without conscious awareness. A consumer, after all, is someone who consumes, eats it all up, and then goes out for more.
When it comes to people, we sometimes treat them like things too.  More people, more relationships, ever hungry for more and more, if for only a momentary pleasure or thrill before the sameness, the stress and loneliness sets us to searching once more.

Many want to "dump" what is challenging, what is uncontrollable, and find what suits. Our modern language and electronic media trends reflect this.
And yet deep down, in the stillness of the heart, in the soul, what satisfies is a sense of "can do" as in 'I can do this. We can succeed."   We want to know where to place our confidence, where our heart may rest. We may want to know that what lies in you, lies in us too.

"The one who perseveres to the end will be saved." Matthew 24:3-13

Small Packages, Big Things

We May Never Pass This Way Again

by Seals and Croft

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 Life, so they say
Is but a game and they'd let it slip away
Love, like the autumn sun
Should be dyin' but it's only just begun

Like the twilight in the road up ahead
They don't see just where we're goin'
All the secrets in the universe whisper in our ears
All the years come and go, take us up, always up

We may never pass this way again
We may never pass this way again
We may never pass this way again

Dreams, so they say
Are for the fools and they let 'em drift away
Peace, like the silent dove
Should be flyin' but it's only just begun...

So I wanna laugh while the laughin' is easy
I wanna cry it makes it worthwhile
I may never pass this way again
That's why I want it with you

'Cause you make me feel like I'm more than a friend
Like I'm the journey and you're the journey's end
I may never pass this way again
That's why I want it with you...

Recently there was a talk given to the public at large which included a good number of young, art students. The speaker, an artist himself was exuberant, joyful and rather a bit nervous. And he had a lot to say, a lot. Time was short; his remarks crunched into a 45 minute segment. The students in the audience had other places to go and things to do. For his part the artist-speaker, a middle aged man had much to tell, some thought too much.
And then there were the traditional nude drawings that he and so many before him have studied and replicated. The human figure, it seems, is an unending source of wonder and beauty.

While he showed  many examples of his "body" of work, it was clear that he is quite competent renderer, and he clearly enjoyed cartoon figures; his profession as a graphic artist somewhat limited his progress in these areas. This man's personal story was bold, irreverent, witty, amusing, and at times, startling, if not simply shocking. And he became a bit defensive. His youthful student audience was some, a bit offended.

Should he have defended what is his work, the beauty of nature? Or was it simply marred by his interpretations, his perception of that nature? Maybe he would be better to allow the work to speak for itself, to allow the viewer to take it in, to possess what one may grasp of its essential nature-- but he, the artist, did not allow for that.

He displayed himself quite dramatically in response by pulling up his own shirt! The audience was aghast. And to a Simple Mind, he was sweet in his own clumsiness and part-ignorance. It seemed more that he was trying to get at the lyrics of the song above, but never did, so mired in himself he was. And it's true, "we may never pass this way, you make me feel like more than a friend; you're the journey's end..."

For this man, the process of life is clearly as important as the result. May he be forgiven for his clumsiness, his brashness and his desire to shock for control; big things most often do come in little packages. This one was no exception.

"There is an appointed time for everything,

and a time for every affair under the heavens..."

~The book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-15



Springtime, A Temperate Mood

SONNET 116
by William Shakespeare

view video1
This Love, Sarah Brightman

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediments. Love is not love

which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever fixed mark
that looks on tempests and is never shaken;
it is the star to every wandering bark,whose worth’s unknown,
although his height be taken.

Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickle’s compass come:
love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
but bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

Compare the original above with a modern version here for meaning:

"I hope I may never acknowledge any reason why minds that truly love each other shouldn’t be joined together. Love isn’t really love if it changes when it sees the beloved change or if it disappears when the beloved leaves.
Oh no, love is a constant and unchanging light that shines on storms without being shaken; it is the star that guides every wandering boat. And like a star, its value is beyond measure, though its height can be measured. Love is not under time’s power, though time has the power to destroy rosy lips and cheeks.
Love does not alter with the passage of brief hours and weeks, but lasts until Doomsday. If I’m wrong about this and can be proven wrong, I never wrote, and no man ever loved. "

While casting for a topic, I came upon an intriguing video composition combining the famed novelist, Jane Austin's (there are three novels in the series), Sense and Sensibility, Shakespeare's sonnet 116 and the modern, English soprano singer Sarah Brightman performing This Love. Quite a combination! It's not what one might expect.

Even a simple mind doesn't easily put it all together. But further consideration gives the idea from Jane Austin, that in the middle way, a temperate mood is beneficial to one's life and happiness.There is something to the idea that a calm, steadiness lends itself to prosperity when standing on shifting ground.
The plot of the novel (written in 1811) illustrates this value, strengthened with Shakespeare's words that a true love is real, and remains, unfoundered. And while I can't ascertain the logic or philosophy engaged by the maker of the video, nor the sense or appropriateness of its music or lyric combined with the novel, I think it attracts because of the strong soprano voice of Sarah Brightman and an emotion she conveys when paired to the visuals of the movie. It forms a sort of synthesis which says more than either alone.

And I suppose one must read "between the lines" to find the meaning in it all. Finally, it is the music--maybe-- surely (maybe minus the lyrics) that seems to offer some kind of answer.

Follow You, Follow Me

Follow You, Follow Me
by Collins, Banks, Rutherford, Genesis

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Stay with me,

My love I hope you'll always be

Right here by my side if ever I need you
Oh my love

In your arms,
I feel so safe and so secure
Everyday is such a perfect day to spend
Alone with you

I will follow you will you follow me
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year

With the dawn,
Oh I see so very clearly now
All my fears are drifting by me so slowly now
Fading away

I can say the night is long but you are here
Close at hand, oh I'm better for the smile you give

And while I live
I will follow you will you follow me
All the days and nights that we know will be

I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year there will be...

The Lord of Hosts calls, reminds, implores that we come to know:

If I speak in human and angelic tongues,
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.  

1 Corinthians

 be not afraid; I am with you always.
--Luke 4; John 14

Over the Sill, Close the Door

"Love sails around me; I walk two steps on the ground and four steps in the air." --Thomas Merton

Many without any other influence might come to think the world of a contemplative serious or even dry, but this and other thoughts by the late Thomas Merton shows another side to living a simple life-a life that is simply full. Read more of his thoughts:

"It's love; it's consolation. I don't care if it's consolation. I'm not attached to consolation. I love God. Love carries me around. I don't want to do anything but love. That love, secret, hidden, obscure love, down inside of me and outside me where I don't care to talk about it... I have only time for eternity, which is to say for love, love, love... Love is the only thing that makes it possible for me to tick... I am all dried up with desire and I can only think of one thing--staying in the fire that burns me...Sooner or later the world must burn...sooner or later it will be consumed by fire and nobody will be left--for by that time the last man in the universe will have discovered the bomb capable of destroying the universe and will have been unable to resist the temptation to throw the thing and get it over with... But love laughs at the end of the world because love is the door to eternity, and before anything can happen, love will have drawn him over the sill and closed the door, and he won't bother about the world burning because he will know nothing but love." 
--Thomas Merton, Cistercian monk, priest and mystic
A Thomas Merton Reader

The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Stories

For the many who love a good story, not only books fulfill that interest but movies as well. The classic American poet and author, Edgar Allen Poe is one of those timeless story tellers. His well known tale, The Tell-tale Heart along with four other stories are wonderfully rendered in a modern context in the DVD, Requiem for the Damned, an independent film shot in West Virginia and Pennsylvania with the "magic" provided by the Allegheny Dream Works Factory for special effects.
These stories are told again and again due to the reason that they describe the human condition and pose questions as to its resolution. The author challenges his audience in unexpected ways.

Another film of note, American Violet, explores social justice and the just treatment of individuals in modern America. We like to think that atrocities are occurring somewhere else, be it Africa, Cuba, the Chinese ethnic regions, or other places.
American Violet tells a true story of the victimization of innocent lives for sometimes financial gains in the pursuit of Federal government funds.This story takes place a mere 10 years ago. It makes one realize that at any given time, anywhere in the world someone is suffering; sometimes that someone is us.

We learn that schoolyard ditty: sticks and stones may break my bones; names can't hurt me, however  in the end, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart".
This story is the triumph of love and community.