Reflections
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Wraith
My wife drew my attention last night to the signs in front of a house near our place. The local funeral homes place these little signs, reading “Slow — Funeral” on either side of homes where someone has died, presumably to encourage an atmosphere of quiet and to discourage solicitors and other annoyances. This morning when I drove past the house, I looked to see if there was a funeral wreath on the door, and there it was, black and somber and silent. The house usually has a rather festive air to it. The owners keep candles and lights in the windows, they decorate lavishly for Christmas, and they keep…
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The Lees Of July
Scuffling down the gravel road, head bowed to the sun-sliver across the ridge as day passes into twilight and draws all the shadows along the grass, I watch Jinx crisscross the road ahead, back and forth. He looks back at me every few moments, then trots on, tail curved over his back, his eyes scanning for something to nuzzle or chase or perhaps nibble. My shoes disturb the dust, and it lifts in small puffs behind me, as if a tiny battery of unseen artillery has a fix on my pos and is about to fire for effect. The dust hangs in the humid air, unwilling to settle back to…
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Coming Apart
“And he said to them: Come apart into a desert place, and rest a little..” — Mark 6:31a (Douay-Rheims Version) Time has come for me to step away from blogging for a while, my friends. I would like to put a good, stoic face on things and say that I’m just taking a summer break. But the truth is that I am increasingly weary… physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. The cares of this world have gotten me in a pretty good headlock, and I simply don’t have the force to push back right now. Many years ago, I heard an old Baptist preacher say, “If we don’t come apart for…
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Days Of Laze
Saturday’s weird dust-haze from the Sahara was gone Sunday morning, and in its place was a steady, soft curtain of rain. My wife and I deliberately chose to do nothing except rest. We felt somewhat battered by the week, by information we’re trying to process, by decisions we’re trying to reach, and by the time the first day of the week came around, we were more than ready to call “Time out!” and shrug the packs from our shoulders. I spent a large portion of the day with Jinx. Just wandering around, walking the road, exploring the woods and fields, sitting quietly, playing fetch. Jinx, for all his fine qualities,…
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Can Anything Good….
….come out of Africa? Here I am — behold me, a Southern man in whom there is considerable guile. I spent the day walking beneath a haze, a film of wind-blown filth from the dark continent. The normally sparkling mountain air was impure, casting a mosquito net of dark, obscuring Saharan dust across my green mountains and valleys. When the spattering, sporadic showers came, they left muddy smudges on the sleek surfaces they coated. My eyes and nose seemed to sting a bit, and the world felt…hidden. What are those words with similar meanings? Occult. Apocalypse. Jinx and I walked by a neighbor’s fields, and three horses gamboled in the…
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Twinkling Of An Eye
Yesterday morning, I did something I rarely do. I stopped for breakfast on the way to work. I’ve been feeling less-than-stellar lately, mostly because of work-related stress. I try to heed my body’s promptings, and yesterday was one of the times I sensed a clear prompting. I usually don’t eat breakfast during the week, and then I enjoy my wife’s breakfast-brunch feasts on the weekends — I just function better this way. But when I awake feeling puny, I do eat a bite in the mornings in order to fuel myself for the day. So I went through the drive-thru at a locally-owned joint that serves first-rate sausage biscuits. Got…
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Unseen Enemies
Yesterday Jinx cornered two black snakes. Like all of his kind, he has a special hostility for the legless, undulating creatures that appear in our nightmares and in certain gardens. I’m sure Jinx would join me in my disdain and mistrust of anyone who keeps a snake as a pet. Such herpatalogical husbandry is certainly a type of virtue signaling. A very bad type. The bark Jinx used to alert me to the snakes was an interesting cross between his “Hey, there’s a cow coming up the driveway and I think I’ll go herd her out of here!” rhorf and his “There’s a rabbit! I think I’ll see if I…
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Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.…
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Gray Matters
Perhaps it’s the weather. The humidity holds everything close to the ground, makes everything sit on the skin and hang in the senses. My thoughts are that way these days. I’ve been thinking about patterns in my life, especially my perception of myself and my strengths and weaknesses through the years. It’s not very pleasant to honestly face certain truths about myself, and one of those truths is that I spent most of my life believing that I was a lot smarter than I really am. Encountering a few really brilliant men in person didn’t show me the contrast right away, but the perspective provided by the passing years has…
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Count, O Man
The morning light was odd, just a bit more muted than usual, the greens and silvers magnified, the air still and mostly dampened except for a lone Carolina wren with her martial piping from the fence. Jinx slept under the car last night, no doubt enjoying the soft breeze and lack of rain. The frogs were hopping all about when I went outside with Dixee. They always make me jump when I am still soggy with sleep, their sudden motion so low to the ground awakening some ancient fear of things that hop and slither and coil, the things that are blinkless and slick-skinned. Leaving the farm for the day,…