Wow . . . Lush and green are like synonyms. The roses still are arresting my breath;
we have enjoyed an abundance of them
this season; even the winter pansies have continued blooming. This morning -- the
weeds look good!
Gardening chores are a welcome relief given today’s
headlines, or too much information on BBC world news: a newsreader
dispassionately reports slaughter, chaos and more violence.
Our
Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in words alone, but in
every leaf in springtime. --Martin Luther
But . . . shortly the plants and I will be HOT and dry! And
as summer stomps out the bright freshness of this season’s garden, this morning
will be a happy recollection.
The wordless
evangelist across the street is enjoying this morning also – as if the
sunshine and breezes are making her laugh, even though two pockets of dead branches
blemish her. I can’t get too far from
the certainty; disability and death are always the context of what is delightful.
This twosome is the ruin ever-circling my autumn’s
garden.
It
is important to speak of suffering and death in a way that dispels fear.
Indeed, dying is a part of life. - Pope John Paul II in Austria: Message to
the sick and suffering June 1998
When the cancer that later took his
life was first diagnosed, Senator Richard L. Neuberger remarked upon his "new appreciation of things I once took
for granted--eating lunch with a friend, scratching my cat Muffet's ears and
listening for his purrs, the company of my wife, reading a book or magazine in
the quiet of my bed lamp at night, raiding the refrigerator for a glass of
orange juice or a slice of toast. For the first time, I think I actually am
savoring life. _Better Homes and Gardens_
Providentially, I read separate blog pieces that are grand weed-killers, powerful antidotes for fear and grief. May I commend them?
. . . My problem with
euthanasia is not that it is a immoral way to die, but that it has its roots in
a fearful way to live. (Dying
and Euthanasia)
.
. . For those who may, this day, be fearing the dark and feeling lost... there
is a light shining in the darkness... trust it... follow it... there is safe
harbor there for your souls. (A
Light for the Darkness)
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