Reflections
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Shine On
The redbuds and dogwoods have been especially vibrant this spring in the Appalachian mountains, and on the drive home this evening I was tempted to sight-see, a temptation my wife strongly warns me against, having been in the passenger seat too many times during my heedless reveries over the years, asking me through tight teeth and compressed lips to please steer the vehicle off the shoulder and back into the lane. The waterfall near our home is now completely obscured by the oaks and poplars along its shoulders, and it rages on unseen until autumn pulls the leafy comforter away. I have to do better with my eating habits. How…
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Content
When I stepped out onto the damp boards of the back deck before dawn, I could hear the spring frogs down in the holler, calling from the natural marsh of the stock pond. Dixee brushed past me out the door, pattering down the steps to relieve herself in the grass, and a cardinal in the pines warmed up, his chips and clicks crescendoing into a song of dark morning color. I saw the wisp of light in the eastern sky and longed to stay at the farm, longed to stay away from town, away from chattering voices and intrusive opinions and the moldy crumbs of civility that pass for conversation…
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A Spiritual Movie Recommendation
Mrs. Orr and I watched a movie last night and I’ve been thinking about it all day. The movie is A Ghost Story, starring Casey Affleck. Mr. Affleck’s presence in the film was what made me want to watch it, as I have enjoyed his subtle, naturalistic performances in several movies over the years, including Manchester By The Sea and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It’s tricky to write about this sort of movie, because it’s one of those that I would likely not be inclined to watch if someone attempted to describe it to me. It was a find, simple as that. A Ghost…
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Pugilistic-19
During the past two weeks of the current, ah, crisis, I’ve been able to work from home quite a bit, and am grateful that I haven’t been laid off. One of the fringe benefits of working at home has been getting to spend a lot of time with our dog Jinx. I can take a break any time I want, and usually my breaks include going outside to romp or walk with the spotted menace. Even though Jinx is mostly red heeler, I enjoy telling him regularly that his spots can be traced to disreputable Dalmatian genes. I also like advising him that it’s only an act of deliberate magnanimity…
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Such Will Not Be Found In A Church
One of the first signs of a saint may well be the fact that other people do not know what to make of him. In fact, they are not sure whether he is crazy or only proud; but it must at least be pride to be haunted by some individual ideal which nobody but God really comprehends. And he has inescapable difficulties in applying all the abstract norms of ‘perfection’ to his own life. He cannot seem to make his life fit in with the books. Sometimes his case is so bad that no monastery will keep him. He has to be dismissed, sent back to the world like Benedict…
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A Bleak Time
Our son in Texas advised us this morning that he’s being laid off from his company. He and our daughter-in-law have two small sons and things have been lean even before all this mess started. If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for Josh and his family. The fact that he asked us to pray for them is very telling, as he is a very stoic gent. Thank you, my friends. ~ S.K. Orr
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Consummatum Est
In the last few years before her death, my mother talked to herself. Or rather, she talked to someone. Throughout my life, during her years on this earth, the kitchen was Mother’s place of abiding. She spent most of her waking hours within its warm, productive walls. In those last years before she passed from this life, whenever I was home with her, if I came into the kitchen quietly, I would often find her talking quietly as she worked. It seemed that she was talking to herself, but perhaps she was having a dialogue with God, or with an angel, or with a long-dead loved one. I do not…
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Under A Pink Moon
Have you ever noticed it? The way an approaching change in weather can be detected by all creatures beneath the gaze of heaven? Birds will skim the sweet grass, seeking insects before a drenching rain, and cows will lie down in the fields, resting the joints that the coming showers foretell in them, just as the stooped farmer feels the same ground-glass ache in his knotted knuckles. The very trees seem to face the wind and cross their arms, wondering if this will be the toppling day, or if tomorrow will see them still stretching above the quilt of still things, the soil and dirt that listen, that are aware,…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Reflections
Lourdes, Lourdes
I’ve avoided writing about the current health scare for the same reason that I’ve avoided talking about it at length. There are too many sources of disparate, conflicting information, almost none of whom I trust, and I lack both the intellectual rigor and the sort of personality that delights in wading through all this dismal stuff. I suppose my stance on this situation is akin to my grandmother’s. I remember one day in the Seventies when a young plumber tried to engage her in a conversation about diet and heart disease. He presented all sorts of facts and figures in an evangelist’s voice, his eyes shining in his earnest face.…
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A Deep Failure
“I am more and more impressed by the fact that it is largely futile to get up and make statements about current problems. At the same time, I know that silent acquiescence in evil is also out of the question. I know too that there are times when protest is inescapable, even when it seems as useless as beating your head up against a brick wall. At the same time, when protest simply becomes an act of desperation, it loses its power to communicate anything to anyone who does not share the same feelings of despair. There is of course no need to comment on the uselessness of false optimism,…