Browsing Category: Journal Pages
NERO
“What if Nero wasn’t a monster? What if he was not an abomination, the destroyer of a once great civilization, but the epitome of what its culture sought to make? Maybe there is a point of declension from which a culture may never return or rise again. All movements need scapegoats, but what if […]
DANGEROUS MEN
“Read the eyes,” he spoke. “Trust the eyes. They say what words cannot. In them, you see depth in soul and, in some, only an empty vessel. Exploiters of the world raise high empty vessels. Empty vessels are not a threat to those who help them rise, and, in their emptiness, such vessels drain […]
THE LITTLE THINGS
THE LITTLE THINGS: They go a long way—affirmations, encouragements, recognition, simple kindness… Want a better world? Begin with the little things.
1 JOHN: LOVE
I missed Mass this week. For a few days, I’ve failed to rise and begin my day reading and reflecting; and I felt the difference in my mood. Last night, a friend referenced the First Letter of John, which I went and read this morning: “God is love, and those who abide in love […]
HOW DO I ASK?
How greatly do we change in the passage of time between encounters with another? The answer is as infinite as span of time, spread of life experience and course. Sometimes, we change not at all; others—we are completely different. Where in the spectrum do we, ourselves, fall; and how do we ever […]
THE SELF
Where do we stand? What do we own by acts and will? What do we expropriate to the decisions of others as equal, human, and fallible as ourselves? Does our ownership, or deference, bring us peace?
HINDRANCE
“What is the greatest hindrance to good?” “Reticence and the idea that—for it to be good—it must be reciprocated. Good is the reward in and of itself, not recognition nor reciprocation. Should it be returned to us, it is only further blessing. How often to we wait and watch for it to […]
AMAZING GRACE
I began rereading Les Miserables this week. I ended last night with the moment of Jean Valjean’s change in soul, when he sees himself and and life for what he is, and in the illumination of Bishop Bienvenu’s mercy, he wills himself to change. The words he cried, on knees, in the moment of […]
PASSION SKY
He watched the world awake: magenta sky with violet streaks that glowed before muting into daylight’s blue. Sky painted, then, in passion hues—ephemeral spirit—conveying wonder that cannot, forever, hold; and when it dies, a golden light breaks low in sky as line into rising orb that burns through low-veil clouds, before, cast as violet […]