A Heartfelt Blessing
Kate Nowak
A child on a swing gets scared whenever he swings too far forward or backward. So does torment attack the mind when it needlessly swings into the past or the future. When the swing halts at its natural position, we rest quietly.
~Vernon Howard
If you stop for a moment and think about it, you will realize that whenever you are unhappy or fearful it is because your thoughts are connected to something that has already happened or you believe will happen. When we keep our minds focused on those blessings in our lives we can count right now in this very moment unhappiness and fear dissolve into the nothingness of an imagined time. There is only now and it is a very good place to be.
In every "now" moment between here and tomorrow...
The Pinetree Crosses
Author Unknown
Last April, on a Sunday, we took one of our "nowhere" drives. My husband was quietly driving on a back road. I was occupied in the front passenger seat watching the scenery.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my husband was straining to look out my window. This startled me, since his eyes should be on the road in front of him. I asked him what he was looking at out the windows, and he quietly replied, "Nothing." His eyes went back to the road in front of him.
After a few minutes, I looked over at my husband and noticed a tear running down his cheek. I asked him what was wrong. This time he told me, "I was just thinking about Pop and a story he had once told me." Of course, because it had to do with his Pop I wanted to know the story, so I asked him to share it with me.
said, "When I was about 8 years old, Pop and I were out fishing and that's when he told me that the Pine trees know when it is Easter."
I had no idea what he meant by that, so I pressed him for more information.
He continued on..."The Pine trees start their new growth in the weeks before Easter—if you look at the tops of the Pine trees two weeks before, you will see the yellow shoots. As the days get closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday comes around, you will see that most of the Pine trees will have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest shoots."
I turned to look out the window and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a week before Easter, and you could see all of the trees with the tall yellow shoots stretching to Heaven. The tallest ones shone in the sunlight like rows of tiny golden crosses.
The Buzzard, The Bat, The Bumblebee, and People
Author Unknown
The Buzzard—If you put a buzzard in a pen 6 feet by 8 feet entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.
The Bat—The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly, and no doubt painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.
The Bumblebee—A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
People—In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up.
Clay Balls
Author Unknown
A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!!!
Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, BUT he had just thrown it away!!!
It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling. So we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish, or well known or wealthy, BUT we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person. There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us the person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away, and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendship because the gems were hidden in a bit of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.
One Fine Day
©Dame Nita Barrow
One fine day I shall walk with my head held high
My back ever so straight
My strides long and purposeful
As I take my walk
My hips will swing from left to right
With absolutely no thought about cellulite
My breasts will have a dose of sanity
And disobey the laws of gravity
I will carry a large bag
Full of everything I need
For work, for play and for looking good
Everything, that is,
Except money
But who cares?
For on this fine day
I will not be alone
I will be walking with those who do not care
About being a size four, fourteen, or forty
About being eighteen, eighty or eighty-nine,
With those who are not bothered
About the difference between Somalia and Somaliland
Nor the distance between Cape Verde and Cape Town
Yet they know about dreams and visions
They know about hopes and aspirations
They know that if you work hard enough
Think big enough
Dream large enough
And live long enough
Dreams do come true
And visions do come to life
And that we don't have to die
Before we go to heaven
On this fine day I will walk
Bag full of this and that
My body responding to the warm caress of the sun
And even if it is cold
I will walk free of all the symbols and signifiers that tell me
I am less than who I am
Those I am walking with will know how I feel
We are walking a road we have all paved together
And it is finally taking us to the places we want to go
together
Oh, how I will enjoy my walk
On this fine day
With all my sisters
And the brothers who would like to join us
Home • Table of Contents