All Posts By: Byron McCoy
CRADLE OF THE WORLD
They were young and poor and much in love, and what they lacked in material things, they accounted for in dreams and lived affections so that—in their poverty of things—they lived perhaps more richly than those that seem to have it all. To escape into dreams—to travel as they called it—they walked together […]
THROUGH A DISTANCE
There was rejuvenation in the sun; in the songs of birds on wind, and, too, in breeze through woods; in the miles underfoot, breath finding and settling into rhythm, in the strain of beginning run and the loosening and settling in of body the longer that you kept; how mind matched with flesh and […]
TRANSFIGURATION
“And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: and he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow…and as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud […]
SHAME
“For thy soul be not ashamed to say the truth. For there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a shame that bringeth glory.”—Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 6: 24-25 I was young and foolish; vain in the chase and ways of the world who, when things went wrong, perceived great tragedy; and of […]
IMPERFECTLY
“The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”—Vincent van Gogh “Are you good at that?” she asked. “Not every day,” he answered, “but, still, I try—even when I fail.” She smiled with compassion in countenance, an empathy for […]
PHIAL OF LIGHT
I was in darkness, alone with thought I’d rather not hold, feeling its shadow close. I sought to divert my mind and came upon a passage. In it, Frodo is in an undesirable place, tempted again to wear the Ring. His hands clutch to the chain where the ring is kept, but he […]
SERPENT’S TONGUE
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that […]
DESIRE
“Don’t you want more in life?” she asked, an irritation in her tone. She paused, looking at him stern, “What do you even want?” “I don’t know,” he answered. “I’m back to a beginning.” “Isn’t it a little late for that?” He was thirty-three. “No clue, but why waste effort […]
VOCATIONS
A vocation is not always a profession. Our purpose and life passion may not be what pays bills or puts food on our table, and that’s alright. Purpose and vocation are not a focus for immanent needs but on something more that stirs our souls and raises sense and connection to a Higher. […]