Just Noting ......

Spent a large part of the “warm” weekend pulling snow off of the roof. Tons of snow that had a 3” layer of crust over it. Breaking loose, the slabs would slide down, gaining speed as they neared the eave, and glide over the edge, shaking the deck as they hit. I’d brace myself against the ladder and they’d hit me in the shoulder before smashing to the driveway or the patio. What fun!
Father Pat (a Francisan brother) came over for lunch on Sunday and we talked about the state of the church in the US and the necessity of using the laity to lead – lessening the hierarchal aspect of Catholicism, as well as the need to amend and augment the lessons learned in seminary school.
Over time, I’ve become convinced that the Catholic church needs orators in the pulpit and they seem to be few and far between.

Casting Off

Had lunch with a friend of mine who, with his wife Patty, has spent most summer weekends of his adult life sailing Lake Superior. "Casting Off" was written for them ...

Casting off, they’d loosed the lines

And turned to face the breeze

Twenty seven years they’ve sailed the lake

Companions, mates at ease

And tacked across expanse of blue

At knots at times deemed high

To push themselves beyond the known

At times, the wind a sigh

Explored the shores, the coves and tors

Perched high upon the hills

Of islands set upon the waves

The view from which gives thrills

To look out on the placid seas

And know from where they’ve been

In truth it matters not one whit

Should becalmed remain the wind

The sailing has enthralled them since

They first became as one

To stand upon their deck and peer

At rise or setting sun

And times the storms have roiled

Their craft o’er waves blown rough and high

And made them better sailors

As on life’s seas they ply

Their long experience, intimate

Of themselves and of their mate

See through the deepening troughs of life

And so the seas placate

Someday, becalmed, they’ll come to peace

With one last sail to make

And off into the glorious eve

Together they’ll partake.

Diamond or Prism - continued

Part two:

I’ve thought of that glass, that small little thing
Quite often the past many years
As I stew in my mind the problems at hand
And bounce things around with my peers

Here is the thought that occurs to me
See if you think it makes sense
Our God given gifts we use as the light
Through a prism or diamond and hence

There are those who when challenged to think
Go quickly to blue or to green
With thoughts like a prism, they break it apart
And decide which color is seen.

The opposite trait is the thinker who sees
Like diamonds which capture the light
It bounces around its faceted walls
And fires out bursts left and right

Both types are good, they come from the source
Of life, from heaven above
There isn’t a good or better or worse
We all receive it in love

This brings me to ponder the question
Of which one am I and are you?
For if we’re to love each completely
The way we see light will construe

The way we see love and affection
The way we see others and self
The way we treat dogs or a hamster
The way we see riches and wealth

The answer to me is the bauble
That which I found long ago
To look out at life as the diamond
Is the way we just happen to glow.

Diamond or Prism

Part One:

Once as a child, a bauble was found
A treasure of glass at my toes
In hindsight a piece of an old chandelier
But what does a boy know of those?

From where it had come or what it had been
There wasn’t a clue in the dirt
But O what a treasure it turned out to be
As I polished it off on my shirt

The tricks that it played as it came to see light
Were wonderously amazing to see
Not knowing the how, the why or the what
Made it magic to us – and to me.

It still is, this trick of God’s crystal clear world
But the structure of light is well known
Although we now know the why and the what
It’s the how that He keeps quite unshown.

As we held up our treasure to consider its source
We noticed the colors come through
The light we were using to examine our find
Was first red, then yellow, then blue.