The Shepherd Girl
I think of the good shepherd as a girl, old enough to know how to take care of the animals, and dressed in the manner of the land. It may be goats she is watching. It may be mountain country where they graze higher in the summer and lower when it is too cold.
Her heart is pure, and it is peaceful in the mountains. The main quality is peace. She is grateful for the beauty of the land and mountains. All day she sees how beautiful they are. She is grateful to God and it draws her close to him.
In a bad situation she prays as she tries to help here herd. She is grateful and gives thanks when they are alright. She may even teach them to be thankful too. Some may understand. They understand her kindness as all animals do. They follow her voice and understand. They understand her love and care, nurturing her flock. She is a good shepherd, a shepherdess.
There were shepherd girls all throughout history, across Asia, in Africa and in Europe. It is the oldest way people have existed, before they settled down on the land and grew crops. They wandered around with their flocks, whatever kind they had, Nomads. This was for thousands of years, even today. Girls watched the flocks too, even young girls. They were the shepherd girls.
He was always there,
leading the young shepherd girl
and all was in her care.
For he loved them too.
and he was always there.
“Be as little children.”
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The Good Shepherd Lays Down Her Life for the Sheep
We don’t hear much about mothers in history. They seem to have disappeared. In fact we may not know much about our on grandmothers. If we look p family trees, we still may not know much about women.
In fact, the good shepherd has laid down her life for the sheep, and disappeared. This is always the way. The mother lays down her life for her family and children. She nurtures life and brings it into being, in her children. She coaxes them to live and encourages and persuades to lead a good life – not harshly. but gently and persuasively. She is the shepherdess and leads them on. She lives for them.
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Our Family is in our Heart
When a girl goes far away with her husband to live, she carries her family in her heart. She may not be conscious of this. She may not even miss them, for they are really there.
When the girls went out West with their husbands, if they made it, they often never saw their families again. There were no snap shots, maybe brown prints, but their family was with them, clear in their memory. There was no difficulty.
At the high school stadium during the War, when the national anthem was played, the men put their hats over their hearts. What their thoughts were, no one ever asked them.
Not everyone carries photos of their family. In Germany when the Jews were being persecuted, certainly they did not carry pictures of their families. It might have meant death. Other places are the same.
I have come to think that people who are close to their families often do not carry photos. I would rather hear their stories of the different people. They come alive. A photo would only spoil it.
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Let Them Be Young While They're Young
At home when I was young they used to say ---
Let them be young while they’re young. Even the men said it. They liked to see their children young. Maybe it applied more to girls. Life comes soon enough: you are only young once. When it is gone, it is gone. Youth can be lovely. They liked to see it.
How different the young people of today. Some are old when they are only 4 or 5. Maybe it is from watching TV. All the problems of the world have passed before their eyes. They are already old. All happiness and youngness has gone. They are old before they are old. They were never young.
Even the War didn’t keep us from being young. There was a different atmosphere, but we absorbed it. We understood it as we grew. Everything is a race today, and a race to be old.
Life comes to everyone, and when it comes, it is time enough. Let it come in its own time.
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Given in Trust
I think many things in life are given to us in trust. They are not ours directly, but to care for as long as they are with us. The trees of course belong to God. They are not ours. I think they are mostly to leave alone, not only in forests but in our yard. They tree is there for the next person. It is in trust.
Sometimes children don’t seem like ours. They seem different. They too are in trust. They are there to care for someone else, either in this life or in another life, after this.
Dogs are the same way. Some don’t seem like you. They are given in trust to care for, maybe for someone else in another life or for the Heavenly Father.
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Gratefulness
Besides our home and warmth and food, there are still many things to be grateful for.
We can be grateful for beauty, especially out-of doors. Walking along a forest trail we find peace and beauty. We are grateful and feel closer to God.
We can feel grateful for happiness in an uncertain world. In fact we can create it ourselves in our family and children. We can work toward a happy home. Happiness is an art in many ways. We are grateful for it.
People are grateful for children. A farmer is often grateful for rain. Countries are grateful for armies that pass them by. People pray for the end of a drought or famine. If they are still alive, they are grateful.
A person who is grateful appreciates things, whether they are large or small. If it is his home, or a leaf, it is all the same. It is a natural grace.
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Any Man
Every hut however small
has an outlook on the stars.
Thru the doorway they do see
another land, eternity.
Any man may have the stars,
pauper or a queen,
and in the night he may possess,
wherever he may be.
As They Pass By
Only so many suns, so many moons
and they will set for thee –
embroiled, ensnarled, entangled
in life as it may be.
Moments that have fled,
moments that do flee
and without the beautiful
leave uneventfully.
One by one the suns pass
and the stars the same.
One by one the raindrops
and the gentle rain.
Where in all creation
is a place for thee.
Sun and moon and stars do slip
and pass by endlessly.
And so a many may vanish
and leave behind his cares
and tho we do not see him
may live on somewhere.
And in our hearts we feel
his life was not in vain
and he lives in memory
of all the good he gave.
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Civilized
To be civilized or cultured
is not at all the same
as having mighty buildings
putting other folks to shame.
Indeed the most uncivilized
of people often come
from a post of power and might
and snobbery and guns.
The lowest of the lowly
would often put to shame
such an outright person
of power or of name.
In ancient times the people too
as civilized as we
It was in their person
and not accessories.
A person who is civilized
is one who always cares,
and is at ease with people
any time and anywhere.
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A Glimpse of Beauty
Reaching for the beautiful
the way it’s always been.
Striving to be like it
and beautiful within.
Fascinating is the search:
we see her here and there
but with the greatest longing
our lives do least compare.
For tho we love her with our heart
we cannot keep her there:
she slips between our fingers
and we feel despair.
We know that she’s within our reach.
We know that she is there,
but life’s relentless march
does ugliness unbare.
But in a quiet moment
or even in life’s play
she shines in greatest beauty
as a priceless ray.
To live unto that moment
when beauty shining clear
reveals before our eyes
a loveliness appeared.
To live unto that moment
we saw her come alive,
appearing once again
as gems in paradise.
And glimpse a moment glowing
to last us all life thru,
a life alive with beauty
as we ever knew.
A dabbler on the sands of time
that came on scenic views
appearing most miraculously
from pathways little used.
A wonder mixed with judgment
that knew if it were new
and added to the thoughts of man
as ever as he knew.
A treasure on the sands of time
that added insight brings
into the realm of thought
and all our wandering.
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Unfolding
In beauty, peace and quietness
qualities unfold
that never have a chance at life
when all around is woe.
Gentleness and softness
oft may find their way
to living in the present,
if only for a day.
As the time progresses
there sometimes comes a space
where loveliness begins to grow,
revealing inward grace.
An idyllic setting
may cause us to become
as lovely as the heroes
of which we’ve heard it sung.
And in this gift of life it seems
express the inward soul
where everything is lovely
and grace we do behold.
When suffering does cease
we find a moment’s peace,
sit quietly and see
and hardly dare to breathe.
Released unto our rightful mind
we find something to do.
We never thought that it would stop
but here’s a moment, two.
And life seems good again,
as if it never would
and just the way it was,
a miracle of good.
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Mingled Souls
In eternity of time
strange as it may seem
our souls came together
and joined into a stream.
As far as life or consciousness
and what is hid beneath,
as light shone into water
our latent souls did meet.
Mingled waters are as one
and never separate
into the different parts again
or one to one relate.
If water spills out on the shore
as water often can
whose it is cannot be told
and can’t be found again.
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Low Gear
Sometimes in life it happens
that life is very hard,
the load is huge and heavy
and weighty to the heart.
It takes a man to carry it
and slowly move ahead
over many years
in slow but steady steps.
Climbing on a mountain road
is very much the same,
in the lowest gear
pulling all the weight.
And so while we would like
to always sail thru life
we find it slows us down
sitting on the ground
and we must climb the mountain
without a car around
in those steady steps
hour by hour we found.
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Tracing
How seldom can we trace the flow
of a person’s life,
back into the recesses
of a prior time.
The currents and the eddies
we would never know
or what prevented progress
or let the waters flow.
If they be but muddy
or if they be yet clear,
how they seemed to someone else
or how they did appear.
We only see the present
which is the last in time
and cannot see from whence it came
or current in it find.
The person may not be aware
of forces over time
and even he himself
would never realize.
Thus it does seem very good
not to criticize
or make a judgment on a soul
when we ourselves are blind.
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Adrift
A candle floating in a stream
on a paper boat
seemingly most tenuous
but yet this custom’s old.
They float a moment in a line
in the deepest night
but only brief their journey
and awkward is their light.
Perhaps it’s to remind us
of brevity of life,
how tenuous our journey,
uncertain is our light.
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Thy World
Take me up to the stars,
take me up to the spheres
where I can see God’s world
and know that he is near.
And look into the distance
as far as I can see
the handiwork of God
wrought fantastically.
And clouds that float and pass me by
on an errand in the sky.
Changing, parting, drift anew
into a form that’s changing too.
And trees are set where I can see
they have a life apart from me.
And held within the hand of God
their life continues on and on.
And trees and moon do fascinate
and change and dim without abate
and clouds move past thy muted light
in a world where yet we find
in every distant reach that be
however far be found
they works untouched by man
that satisfy somehow.
I could never leave without the trees,
or leave without the clouds all floating free.
Or leave without the tempest of the sea.
For those are heaven to me.
And don’t forget the rain,
or wind upon the trees,
or sunlight falling gracefully
for these are heaven to me.
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The Blessed Rain
Unconscious in our memory
is a tiny change
of mist that does surround
and wake us to the rain.
From deepest, dark beginning
always was the rain.
From slumbering of life itself
in a bygone age.
The stirring of a leaf
or reaching for the sun
surrounded by the water
as if their life were one.
A lullaby unconscious
as life does unfold,
soothing and sustaining
as it moves and grows.
And the moss is softened
and generous the dew
and earth is filled with life again
as it ever knew.
And rain upon our face
in darkest history
affected us the same
as water in the sea.
The tiny little drops
of mist almost like dew
remind of exultation
that we all once knew.
Everything of water
that we once did know
comes back to us in joy
as the raindrops flew.
Blessed is the water
and blessed is the rain,
cradle of all life
and of ours the same.
The world does seem to stop
and wait upon the rain
and listen to the message
that to life it gave.
Yes the rain is blessed
as far back as we knew
and to this day a miracle
that life itself renews.
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The Smallness of Man in the Universe
It is always good that we
should ever know our place
in the reaches of the world
and vastness of all space.
The Chinese showed it best I think
in mountains that were high
and little dots upon them
of people out of sight.
Man is hardly seen on them
thru all pervading mist,
just an occasional traveler
climbing over it.
So we should remember
in all philosophy,
the place of man is small
in all eternity.
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Byways
In many different countries
we have often seen
the mosques and tombs and temples
of emperors and queens.
They look just like the picture
that we see in books,
not as vast, impressive
as if we’d never looked.
So I leave them to others
who may like to say
they saw the rich and famous
and fabulous and great.
But I love the byways,
more natural it may be,
stretching in the country
that we rarely see.
And just the size to comprehend
whatever it may be
that leads us to go on and on
and seek a mystery.
Roads meander here and there
with grace, simplicity,
delightful expectation
of hidden things to see.
We feel much at home
and very much at ease
as we wander thru the fields
stopping as we please.
There may be a temple
small and quite unknown
sitting by the wayside
in its natural home.
But is seems more wonderful
as you have found it there,
hidden by the road
as a jewel rare.
And we stand and wonder
how long it has been there
quiet and unassuming,
unnoticed anywhere.
A part of all the life around
and yet just it alone
stands for all the people’s dreams,
their value and their hope.
And tho the suface faded worn
it’s cherished all the more
for age has lent a timelessness
unconscious anymore.
Thru the generations
centuries of dreams
quietly at rest
contentedly it seems.
And peace and rest pervade the air
as centuries stretching long
unknown to them the blessing
that you see belong.
We like the older qualities
but don’t know what they are
in a world of turmoil
where souls torn apart.
And yearning for an older time
this image new to you
will never leave your mind and heart
nor would you want it to.
Grateful for the blessing
you leave another land
endued with many qualities
you didn’t know it had,
or anywhere existed
remaining from the past.
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Markers
I think I laid down markers
as life went along
and sunk them very deep
in places they belonged.
When the weight of thought
fell upon a spot
the marker marked the point at which
revolving thoughts did stop.
And so it seemed the center
in time fell here and there
where thought it seemed was gathered
about the earth or air.
And as these landmarks grew
they marked the places where
the weight of time and value
left deep impressions there.
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Did Religion Come from Nature
and gazing at the trees
in wonder at their strength
and great variety.
Did it come from mountains
towering high above
like the Himalayas
and others we know of.
Did it come from rivers
and tiny rivulets
flowing to the ocean
with ower and restlessness.
Did it come with night
and gazing up in awe
at the vast expanse of space
of the coming dawn.
And did they revel in the light
amazed at what God wrought
and worship at his doorstep
as they felt they ought.
And wonder at creation
in all that he had wrought
in giantness of size
and marvelous unsought.
In life and in creation
drawn to worship God
in their natural feelings
and life he was part of.
This might have been the source
and still alive today
as we marvel at his works
and life he did create.
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Natural
I always liked the simple things
as rain washed down on leaves
or carried in another world
by the lofty trees.
But often something comes between
ourselves and all these things
even if a simple love
and natural offering.
It’s hard to understand this loss
or yet to see it end,
why things so simple in themselves
are yet without our ken.
It seems within the reach of all
and all abundance there
by yet sometimes they’re sealed out
because of other cares.
Life becomes a burden
which never does take wing
and daily chores replace the loves
that made our soul sing.
Our life is full of all things
we wish that it were not
and of the things we love the most
it seems there’s not a jot.
To live among this type of thing
is called maturity,
devoid of all the natural gifts
that God did give so freely.
And modern life with neon lights
and mixed-up nights and days
replaces all God’s blessings
that he so freely gave.
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Modern Life
People are not made for
a city of life.
They never get adjusted
even tho they try.
They never seem to match up
to its raucous pace.
Uprooted from the country
they never are the same.
From early 1900’s
to the great world war
we went from plowing horses
to planes and tanks and more.
Deluged with swift inventions
from plane to atom bomb
how were just plain folks
to get along.
And yet the older people
with roots deep in the past
took it better than the young
who were without firm grasp.
Families shifted all the time
and often split apart.
Children had weak roots
which yielded from the start.
And many maladjusted
or shiftless on the street
wasted lives on dope and sex
who would be hoeing weeds.
Headaches, ulcers, nervousness
from a city life,
rushing here and rushing there
busy all the time.
And so we see a populace
not made for this age
and indeed are men
suited to this pace.
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Tempo of Life
It has come to seem to me
that speed destroys eternity
and new and swiftly fade our ways
destroying timelessness of age.
When customs, habits stay the same
they are timeless in their way
and have a peace that’s all their own
with a quiet, settled tone.
Turmoil, speed and constant change
dislocate values that we had
and what we once did call our own
loosed and fleeing from our hand.
Qualitites we love like grace
have no setting any place.
In a swiftly flowing change
cannot find a home this age.
Young folks are often parted
from the deeper pulse of life,
from farm and country living
in an older way of life.
Life that’s in the city
is always once removed
from the country values
upon which it stood.
The pace was set by nature
in the season’s change
and slow advancement of the time
in the sun and rain.
Progression of the seasons,
life and growth, decay,
nurturing of the soil
was their daily way.
There are many rhythms there
in slow pulsating waves
but loosened from the earth
tangle, out of place.
Sturdy values of the land,
working hard for what they had,
living with the seasons’ change
had a quality of age.
The tempo of the modern times
is faster than we need,
not based on the natural ones
but on a manmade speed.
I’d rather hear the clip clop
of horses on the dirt
coming in for watering
than any sound on earth.
In the changing seasons
a comfort felt by man
living in a way of life
here since time began.
A pulse of life more suitable
to our inner life
in its deep and long drawn waves
comforting and quiet.
The turning days searched out each place
of inner life to add, erase
and fundamental truths were felt
of work and rest and life itself.
And as the seasons turned their way,
variations day by day
and in the slow progression of
was a pace of natural love.
The weight of time was slowly set
and values deep in weight impressed.
Considered thoughts in time that gelled
and were their own with weight as well.
If a thing remains the same
it seems eternal in its way
but if it changes constantly
it seems fleeting momently.
In the quiet of a prayer
we are quiet and God is there.
All the world is stilled and we
then may sense eternity.
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Footprints
Did you leave your footprints
on the sands of time…
Were you ever written
on someone’s heart and mind…
For sand it does blow over
and only God is there
but in the bends of time
we cherish ever there.
Value
Meaning is the value
of anything in life
if it be yet tangible
or an idea’s light.
What it means to us
or value over time,
the weight of thoughts or objects
that in our life do find.
Meaning has a message
of thought all sifted in
and sorted thru the weighed
till meaning did begin.
A process over time
and settling thru with age
till everything does have a place
and meaning does display.
Everything is relative
and what will be its place
in values that eternal
the centuries don’t efface.
And then a life of living
the values interplayed,
rise and fall from view
in life’s constant change.
For meaning has impression
that can influence life
and pass along as outlook
to carry thru the night.
Essence is the residue
of value settled in
when life and time have washed it down
and timelessness begins.
The gems of thought and wisdom
are always of this kind
the essence of our life and thought
that stand the test of time.
In the sacred literature
written thru thru the age
we will find these gems of truth
on almost every page.
We can choose the ones we like
and live our life by these
and walk by words of wisdom
upright accordingly.
For in the many ages
have come enlightened men
inspiring us to live our lives
in godliness like them.
They teach us of the love of God
that is all around,
encourage us to worship him
in ways that they have found.
Fr me I think that beauty
is the most like God
and lifts us to a higher realm
that we are dreaming of.
When we see the beautiful
of feel it in our heart
we always feel a lightness
and happiness does start.
It always has a lightness
that seems to draw us on
and it seems like heaven,
the beauty of a dawn.
Life without the beautiful
would be dull and grey,
monotonous in its passing
and lifeless in its way.
Beauty is in light,
in darkness or in rest,
an atmosphere pervading
our latent consciousness.
Beauty is in joy,
expanding of the soul,
and in play and lightness
exciting to behold.
Play is in the raindrops,
relaxing earthly cares,
and only heaven all around
in reassurance there.
As a dream they come,
moments unexpected
and God is in your soul,
clear and light and blessed.
And to love the beautiful
is to really live
for it is heaven on earth
that only God can give.
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Modern Ideals vs The Bible
In our land we often learn
many, many things
not found in the Bible
or its many teachings.
Stand up for your rights
is not there at all.
Exactly just the opposite
is easy to recall.
‘Give your coat and cloak.’
‘Turn the other cheek.’
‘Submit unto your rulers
and to authority.’
Agree with adversaries
quickly so it says.
Do not put up a great big fight
destroying them instead.
‘For thou in nowise will come out
of prison if be cast
until hast paid the uttermost
farthing that thou hast.’
All the many lawsuits
never would be made
if we listened unto God
and the things he said.
So different from the way we think
inour modern land.
So different frm our way of life
with fighting on all hand ---
We say to fight for all our rights
and fight for freedom too.
Stand up and be counted
in everything you do.
The Bible is so different,
it tells us to concede.
It tells us to give in
and to quickly yield.
‘If any man will sue thee
and take away thy coat
let him also have
and give to him thy cloak.’
It seems it’s just the opposite
of all that we have learned
and very strange indeed
for we these values spurn.
In Peter’s 2 small books
Submit his hue and cry
and he of fiery nature
obeyed this till he died.
He had learned this lesson
from his Lord first hand
and in his final summing up
he did take his stand.
‘Wives submit to husbands’
and both of them submit
to the state and rulers
and to government.
‘Do it unto God’
were the words he said
and learned by hard experience
where the spirit led.
Do it unto God
for it is his will
tho it may be difficult
and puzzling to you still.
But when you do it unto God
it takes a different course
and channels in his hand,
going to its source.
Altho the monks do take
obedience in their vow
we think it very childlike,
superfluous somehow.
But it has deeper meaning
and on a different course
than all our modern slogans
that we give our life for.
Indeed requires strength
and a different turn of mind
than all inoculation
of ‘mine and mine and mine.’
In beatitudes
we do also see
that the meek in nature
are most praiseworthy.
“Blessed are the meek
and poor in spirit too
and those who are peacemakers
for his will they do.”
It says “Resist not evil”
in sermon on the mount
and even if against our will
we must give account.
Christ did not resist
when they came for him
but yielded to authority
and his life submit.
He was mocked and beaten
but said not a word
and he suffered meekly
all these things endured.
And when put upon the cross
he said he could have called
legions of the angels
but went thru it all.
He said it was his Father’s will
and he did obey
and endured the torment
of that final day.
And prayed for his tormentors
for he said that they
“knew not what they did”
and for forgiveness prayed.
Following God’s will
is surely not in vain
if his kingdom come on earth
as we daily pray.
Overwhelming lesson
and difficult to do
in a land where freedom’s cry
has every sound and hue.
It may seem twisted to us
fr we are far away
from how he said to live
in our modern day.
Put on the new man
is his advice to you
even tho it may take long
and difficult to do.
It says that love does suffer long
and also not in vain
if we try to follow him
tho unclear the way.
Altho justice was not done
the world bows at his feet.
He showed that godly qualities
have a life that’s real
and last for all eternity
and none break thru and steal.
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Ever Young
Love is ever young. It has a light heart. In the happiness of loving nature, beauty, people. it stays young. The radiance of love makes them young. In it is happiness.
In spite of suffering it rises again and loves. It reaches the surface with love. God himself is live and they are in his world again. Even tho they have endured many things they come to love again. This is because they want to. They achieve it. They find a way.
Play and happiness are light, and lightness keeps them young. I Corinthians 13 discusses the difficult aspects of love, but love itself is happy. It may be weighted down, but its nature is happy.
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A Free Heart
A free heart is one which loves, or finds something to love – many things in fact. It is positive and loving – the sun, the day, the night, and anything happy. They take the opportunity to love. They have a free heart.
It is also a happy heart, cheerful, being happy at the sunshine or any little thing. They find something to be happy about. They like to be happy and they find it in lovely things. They don’t feed on crime on TV but rather the things that are lovely.
Also they mean no harm to anyone. They have good intentions. These people may suffer but they seek the good and lovely things. They recover without hatred. They seek this way.
A free heart is a loving heart. We are always free to love.
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Play is Light, Floating, Happy
It’s not heavy like football or a serious face all day. It has no ulterior motive than play and happiness. It is not harmful. There is no hatred or resentment. It comes with a smile. It is play.
Baby animals play, as young puppies and kittens. It is the same thing. Even insects may play. It is happy and it is free. It comes from the inside. It has love, free play. It is well meant and taken as such. Play is for anyone. It comes from happiness and a light spirit.
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Simplicity
When something is simple it enters our mind unspoken, as a leaf. Something simple may be beautiful. We can’t say why. It is more elemental. It may be profound. You cannot say what it is but you understand it. It is unsaid.
The yogis may be used in this case. They make religion very difficult and complex, very mental. Krishna, on the other hand, the oldest incarnation of God, in the oldest of religions, lured the people to be good by playing on his flute. By beauty he lured them to goodness. It is the happy way, the way of the Krishna makes it happy. He appeals to the heart. He bypasses all the difficult philosophy of the yogis.
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Acceptance
This is mostly an idea of the East, not to fight the evil that acomes your way. It is a way of life. It is non-resistance.
In India the householder is supposed to fight evil, but not the yogis. It is very close to Christ’s statement in the Sermon on the Mount – Resist not evil. He makes no exceptions for householders however. It is a method of bending with a blow, like a tree bends in a storm.
Westerners do not do this – they fight everything. They fight for their rights and sue at the least thing. All the suing at court illustrates how far we are from acceptance. Acceptance is more a way of peace, even if something happens to you. It is to stand in a place and take the good and bad as they come.
There is much rebellion in this country. Children rebel against their parents and adults rebel sometimes too. Other people see us as a violent country. Of course there is much corruption in government, making it difficult to accept. In I Peter it tells much about obedience. It says to obey the laws of the landl, not to rebel against authority. God is on the side of the peacemakers.
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Distance
We have to gain some distance from life to see it better, to see it whole or to see trends. This is for our own life or life in general.
Some people go to retreats but if you stay at home you have to gain distance in your mind till you can see your life in front of you, ahead of you, small and somewhat in the distance. When it is smaller you can look at it and see what you think. Distance is valuable for an over all point of view.
Older people have more distance not only from life but from their own life when they were younger or the years behind them. They can see it better. They can see what they were. This is valuable in changing.
You can’t see something in front of your face or when you are on top of it or too close. You need to step back. This is distance. It gives perspective. It also helps in judgment of a situation or person.
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A Quiet Understanding
We need more of this in the modern world. Talking is ceased, only understanding remains.
This may be best illustrated by when we lie down at night, close to someone and there is no talking, only closeness. It is a feeling of peace and content, oneness. It may be heightened by rain, intensifying the closeness. We are contented and life seems as it ought to be. Nothing breaks the mood.
We may be quiet by ourselves, too. We may have understanding of ourselves and our life or another person. In the quietness it grows. It is a valuable experience and may carry over into more of our life, understanding without words. Words may destroy as well as be useful. They may break fundamental experiences of life, but quietness heals.
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It is Better to Suffer than to cause Suffering
I always believed this. It is my nature. Maybe women are suited to this more than men. They don’t like to hurt something and can stand a lot of suffering. They are able to do it.
When we suffer our inner self is still intact, but when we cause suffering, it tears us. We have hurt what we are.
I think it is a more Eastern point of view. The beatitudes verify it however. God blesses the poor in spirit, the meek and those who mourn. He blesses those who have been walked on or run over. The beatitudes tell us what is beautiful to God. He blesses the underdog or submissive, innocent.
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Krishna
Krishna is the most ancient of the gods. Altho much of it lies in mythology, it is so far back in time, he was a real erson and lived on earth. This is according to the Hindus.
There are many similarities between the life of Krishna and the life of Christ. However I want to point out that Krishna sounds very like Christmas, in the Christian religion. Also Christ in Greek is Kristus, which sounds very like it too and is written with a “K”.
I do not believe that Christ was an incarnation of Krishna because they were very different people. However these relationships must have some meaning.
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Buddha
Buddha sounds very much like beauty. It is a word I love. He was a beautiful person –tender, gentle –especially as he grew older. It is beautiful to read about him. His philosophy is beautiful too, far more than the West’s. It is graceful and non-violent. It is passive and compassionate and religious. It lives thru time.
God is Not a Christian
God is not a Christian
a Muslim or a Jew
but waits for all his children
whichever path they choose.
God is only Spirit
and power & delight
and he loves his children
whichever way they climb.
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Desires
Is it possible that some of the saints are the same people, resurrected in another lifetime.
For example St. Joan of Arc may have wanted to be a nun, and come back again as St. Bernadette.
St. Bernadette in turn, who was a nun, may have wanted a home and come back as somebody else.
Even the saints may recycle and come back. This is because they still have desires. They are still on the wheel of reincarnation. Every desire has not vanished.
On the other hand, they may have been sent back by the heavenly Father, even in the first place. They may have been sent back to do a service. In this case they were already perfect.
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The Quest
I will seek him lifetime after lifetime
till the rivers run dry.
Such was her vow…
such was her cry
when her lover died.
Centuries passed, centuries fled
and she lived and died many times.
Sometimes it came back to her,
her vow, and she remembered why.
She kept on her long journey thru many centuries,
from her Russian home.
The power and strength of Russia were with her, going on.
Always she went on.
Nothing in the many centuries reminded her of him.
Never did she imagine she had found him.
From beggars to kings, she wondered,
but it wasn’t there.
Usually she didn’t wonder, for this memory wasn’t there.
Only in some lifetime was there a hazy recollection.
She went forward like a soldier, walking on,
world after world.
One time she was a nun,
and she understood war too, and battlefields.
She went on, lifetime after lifetime,
ever closer to God, but he gave him to her
so she wouldn’t have to go to heaven without him.
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We are Travelers in Time
We are travelers in time who touch in passing. In the flow of life we see someone now and then. One, and then another, as we go on. Sometimes we never meet again. We have no hold on the other as we briefly pass. Only a smile, an impression, never knowing the life underneath.
We meet face to face but do not know the other, what their life has been, or as been in worlds before. There is an impression, but nothing else. As a river flows on, passing one thing and then another, so do we glimpse and pass.
We are travelers in time as long as we live, or live in time, on and on, past whatever is there. There is beauty in this flow, in this brief passing.
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My Lady
It was a cold Dec. day before Xmas. I walked home to ask my husband if he would get me something. He agreed to go back to the store and look at her.
There she was, a gold statue of a young girl. He agreed to get her. She was $20. This was in 1968. When we walked out of the store he had only some change in his pocket.
When we got home we put her on top of the organ on the right hand side. There she was. She was here. She was a gold statue of a young girl, about 2’ high. She had wheat in her skirt & there was also wheat at her feet. Her head was bowed and her hands were clasped in prayer. She is still praying today. The gold enhances here. She is beautiful. I like her just as much today as I did at first. She has a message and it is lasting. I called her My Lady.
She reminds me of Rachel or Ruth. Also of Millet and his paintings of peasant people, especially the Lark, where a young girl looks up from the fields at the sound of the lark. The statue was like these, lasting. You never got tired of looking at her.
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The Travelers
You passed by my palace
and didn’t come within:
I saw you in the distance
small and disappearing,
entering the forest
where it would swallow you
deep inside its bounty
as you ever knew.
You didn’t tarry at the gate
for water or for shade
but in those steady steps
passed beyond the gate.
My soul is going with you
for in truth I long
to wander in the forest
and to its ways belong.
I envy your ability
able to survive
in the leaves and forest
or desert if you like.
And where the soul had a will
the effort was alike
so you could journey onward
in life and soul alike.
And hardened in the one way
yet you do go on
or is the soul gentle
as in the great beyond.
Or are you hardened past the point
where soul yet does show
and never glance around
but steady onward go.
Have you mastered life
but the soul has fled
and onward go in hardness
like a stone as yet.
I see that by my musings
you are deep inside
the forest on your way
wherever you decide.
But now I wonder if your soul
responded rapturously
surrounded by the forest
so undauntedly.
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Tagore
Tagore wrote in Bengali
that the people see
how beautiful their language
in prose and poetry.
Tagore said,
“Oh Lord just let me sit in a little corner of thy world.”
Tagore also said,
“The darker the night the brighter the stars shine.”
Let the time pass swiftly my Lord
till I am with thee.
Let it hasten on
without renewal.
…after Tagore
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