Remembering to Breathe

We are enjoying unseasonably cool weather in Maryland. The tornado-like storms that preceded our arrival by one-hour cooled and dried the typically muggy conditions that define a July day in Maryland. The wonder is that for as foul as the weather was, our flight was quite smooth – and one hour late. Had we been on time – well, who knows?

Cool dry air is a mood elevator. So, too, is coming in range of Berger cookies, blue crabs, family and friends. Not in that order, of course.

Berger Display at Grauls

Our vacation abode is as haunted in warm weather as it was over the Christmas holidays. Looking out across a lawn sloping to Spa Creek, I see wonderful shadows of lovely memories of the best people in the world! I also see my own insensitivity to how blessed, abounding, and irreplaceable the times were that we shared.

How much brighter this joy and peace seems in light of the news from Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and our southern borders.  Yet, those enchanting memories happened amidst news I found convenient to ignore.    

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? 

—every, every minute?”

(“Our Town” by Thornton Wilder)

Is it just my age and stage that makes the here and now scarier?

Perhaps I'm old and tired, but 

I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do 

is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.

~Douglas Adams

 

What Really Matters

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Guide me safely through the night,
Wake me with the morning light.
If I should live another day,
I pray the Lord to guide my way.
Amen

                                                     **

Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of heaven

(Lyrics by Amy Grant)

Sailing Lessons