…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. … And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4: 8 -9
What is my only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
~Heidelberg Catechism
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
~Mary Oliver
To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.
~ T.S. Eliot
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To live is so startling, it leaves little room for other occupations.
~Emily Dickinson
I believe in God as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
~ C. S. Lewis
Remember this. When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.
~ Augustine
Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
~ Mary Oliver
The seed is in the ground. Now may we rest in hope while darkness does its work.
~ Wendell Berry
Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine the true poetry of life.~ Sir William Osler
But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
~George Eliot’s final sentence in Middlemarch
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
~ E.B. White
Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear, in the ancient faith: what we need is here. And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear. What we need is here.~~ “The Wild Geese” Wendell Berry
Let it come, as it will, and don’t be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come.
~ Jane Kenyon from “Let Evening Come”
You can only come to the morning through the shadows.~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Look for what you notice but no one else sees. ~Rick Rubin
If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. ~ Thomas Merton
This life therefore is not righteousness,
but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet
what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it.
The process is not finished
but it is going on.
This is not the end
but it is the road.
~Martin Luther
Ten times a day something happens to me like this – some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.
~ Mary Oliver
It is not your love that sustains the marriage —
but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
She has done what she could…
~Mark 14:8
What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?~ J. R. R. Tolkien from The Hobbit
The first time I saw him last year was just a flash of gray ringed tail
Barnstorming 
Ah, Emily, between the ages of twelve and fifteen for me, my family lived on a property that had been, a few years earlier, a working farm; not a big commercial farm but it is easy to conceive that some earlier owner had raised a few cows, sold a few strawberries, and pretty well sustained himself by raising pigeons, as testified by the presence of a rather sophisticated pigeon house. For my purposes, it was THE ultimate chicken house!!!
It seems the first thing to go were the cows. A pasture that separated much of the property from the US Highway 25 just east of us had not been grazed in at least fifteen years, judging from the sapling sizes and the saw briar growth. I went into the pasture a few times to set rabbit boxes (usually collecting a possum), but it was pretty rough going. One hot sultry day, however, I had gone down our road and then down the highway to a small store on an errand for Mama; leaving the store, I looked across that pasture and decided to take the short cut.
What an experience. There were grasshoppers the size of chickadees flying around with ground support from the saw briars and all sorts of nettles; looked peaceful enough from the highway, but it was a war zone, what with all these creatures protecting their turf from me, the invader. Those bugs bombarded me and sweat got in my eyes. Wow. What an experience, indeed. What a relief when I reached the far fence and climbed over, headed to the house on “civil” ground.
Your stray cat brought that experience to mind. Ah, my lesson that there is a world of nature that goes on it’s way regardless of human activity. Eagles and bobcats WILL attack small animals and some of those small animals escape. Their subsequent lives might not be what we consider “normal” but they get by. Some of them, at least THIS one, are lucky enough to find a compassionate soul to encourage from whatever distance is necessary. I know people who would have shot the cat. I’m glad I know one who didn’t.
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Wow Bill, I have heard of huge grasshoppers but have never seen them. I can imagine that was a vivid reminder that we are not in control, no matter how much we may think so. Also makes me realize a grasshopper plague is not what I’d care to experience! As always, thanks so much for your wonderful stories and comments on my posts. Happy Easter week to you and your wife!
Emily
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Sometimes it takes a while for a cat to learn to trust. We had one show up in the yard and hang out with our cat, and dogs. We left food out for it, but could not get within ten feet. When we went on vacation it moved in, following our animals in through the doggy door. The pet sitter reported the two cats were now lounging on the couch.
The breakthrough came when it (now named Kat) sat in the hallway every evening watching me snuggle with the other cat, Buttercup, on the bed. It was a nightly ritual at 8 pm, and you could set your watch by it. One night he quietly got up on the bed behind us, reached out his paw, and touched me on my hand. Aw, he wants to be family.
I still cannot pick him up, although my wife can for a few minutes at a time, but he loves a snuggle on the bed, or when I’m having breakfast. The area by my chair in the dining room is apparently designated safe territory, and he is willing to show his belly there.
I sometimes say to him, “All you really wanted was someone to love you,” as he purrs away, belly up, thoroughly contented. It took seven years to reach this point, but we have a happy Kat.
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