I invited a dear friend and guide that I never got to meet to make a guest post on my blog.

OF THE EMPIRE

We will be known as a culture that feared death

and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity

for the few and cared little for the penury of the

many. We will be known as a culture that taught

and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke

little if at all about the quality of life for

people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All

the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a

commodity. And they will say that this structure

was held together politically, which it was, and

they will say also that our politics was no more

than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of

the heart, and that the heart, in those days,

was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

Mary Oliver (1935-2019)

During the first week of every month I spend some time reading over the previous month’s journal entries.

Here are some thoughts and quotes from January that jumped out at me.

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– The Spirit leads us like a mother’s hand on our heart.

– Lord, the simple truth is that I have no idea how to offer thanks, but I am so very thankful.

I hope and trust that you do see my small offerings and occasional showings of gratitude.

I pray that you will keep your hand on my heart, and help me follow. Perhaps pleasing you a tiny bit along the way.

-We are right with God through God’s love for us.

We are right with others through our love for them.

We show our love for all by walking mercifully, justly, and humbly.

We show our love for the one in front of us by recognizing Christ in them.

-There’s no getting around the fact that it hurts and distresses me when people I love say that I am not following God.

-Lord, I do so want to walk with you, but I feel I know how to do that about as well as I knew how to play the fiddle when I took those few lessons.

I needed the frets marked, I had a clumsy touch, and a scratchy rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was my strongest number.

Teach me Lord. Help me keep walking. Help me make music with my life that is pleasing to you.

– “Birds can fly because they own nothing.” (Mary Oliver)

– “Why am I always going anywhere instead of somewhere?” (Mary Oliver)

-Some days it feels like the world is out of control. To say it’s raging doesn’t come close. There are too many frightening weather events. There are way too many folks drunk on power, using humans as if we are a commodity.

I would give anything to find the switch that calms the storm and to flip it.

That isn’t my role.

It seems my role is pretty simple: Husband/Father/Granddaddy/brother/friend, man servant for three dogs, a little gardening, loving my neighbors, learning to pray, an occasional act of kindness, seeking the truth, trying to stay in my lane on the path of life.