Where the enemy cannot follow

When we humble ourselves before God we go downwards, and this is the one
direction in which the enemy cannot follow us, and consequently we are freed
from his influence.

--Fr. Zacharias Zacharou, Remember Thy First Love (p. 176)

Space

Three-Word Wednesday prompt was tough this week. Went ahead and threw something together anyway. Three words were conniption, janky, scooch. Slinging slang on this one.



Space

This janky world.
A growing cosmic
conniption fit
of hatred and violence:
words offered
programs engaged
money funneled
armies deployed
have failed to fix
our fractures.

What if we
just scooch over,
make room for
everyone,
every creature,
welcome all?

Of course it will
never work. So
we continue
to build the tombs
of the prophets
and martyrs
stone upon stone:
shake our heads
deafen our ears
adorn our homes
capitalize
our personal
space.

Abyss

Messing with a Three-Word Wednesday prompt from last week. Ended up with this. Only used two words though. Oh well.

Abyss

It doesn’t seem surreal to me,
this kenotic journey
beyond hair, skin,
vessels and organs
into the heartself.

I go. And it is enough
simply to descend, lower
still, past desire for power,
to meet the small voice
wooing me into the expanse,

the kingdom within. The path
tending toward life through death
follows close-eyed watchfulness
and empty fullness.
World above worlds,

Word above words
entered by the silent
startled traveler. Love-spent,
in the gentle healing Light
where all is quiet.

Dino from Flirtatious Era

This is the year I get it going on.

Resolutions for the Year of Our Lord 2011

1. Start forming resolutions earlier in the year, so as to have them ready to go on Jan. 1.

2.

Heaney. One of the greats. Of all time.

The Skylight

You were the one for skylights. I opposed

Cutting into the seasoned tongue-and-groove

Of pitch pine. I liked it low and closed,

Its claustrophobic, nest-up-in-the-roof

Effect. I liked the snuff-dry feeling,

The perfect, trunk-lid fit of the old ceiling.

Under there, it was all hutch and hatch.

The blue slates kept the heat like midnight thatch.

But when the slates came off, extravagant

Sky entered and held surprise wide open.

For days I felt like an inhabitant

Of that house where the man sick of the palsy

Was lowered through the roof, had his sins forgiven,

Was healed, took up his bed and walked away.

--Seamus Heaney

Call of the Wild

One of the boys just informed me that Robin Hood does NOT call his followers by shouting, "Oh merrrry meeee-en!" Instead, he blows his horn three times, "Poot. Poot. Poooooot!" Thought you'd like to know.

The Lord hath tempted me sorely

Just moments after submitting my last blog post about non-judgment, someone sent me this video to watch. So I ask--how can one say what needs to be said about such a "minister" (he calls himself a "co-prophet") without judging? It's wrong on so many levels . . .

Non-judgment: or, Where do you want to throw him?

One day Abba Isaac went to a monastery. He saw a brother committing a sin and he condemned him. When he returned to the desert, an angel of the Lord came and stood in front of the door of his cell, and said, “I will not let you enter.” But he persisted saying, “What is the matter?” and the angel replied, “God has sent me to ask you where you want to throw the guilty brother whom you have condemned.” Immediately he repented and said, “I have sinned, forgive me.” Then the angel said, “Get up, God has forgiven you. But from now on, be careful not to judge someone before God has done so.”

--The Sayings of the Desert Fathers--

Baby Jesus?

My 2 yr. old son brought this book to me, pointed to the creature in the backpack-looking thing and said, "That's baby Jesus!" I don't rightly know where that idea came from. We're teaching our kids better than this. Really.

2010

I found this on the packing of a front door we set the other day--thought it was a fair visual representation of last year.

Just a suggestion

I thought I'd pay to have the wife get one of these for her birthday. She was not amused.

Happy Birthday

Wife: "You know, you haven't written anything on your blog for a year."

Me: "Really?"

So there. And Happy Birthday.