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Two Thousand Twenty-Four
I wanted to wish a Happy New Year to each of my dear readers. May this year be a healthy, prosperous one, and may it bring about the destruction of those who hate us and those like us. May we receive answers to some of the questions that trouble us. May we stop wasting time on things and thoughts and people who dissipate our energies and disrupt the harmony we crave. May we notice and laugh at the absurdities swarming around us in this life. May we abandon the idea that we’re going to solve that particular problem or set that certain thing right. Most of all, may we open…
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Blessings Of The Day
The day began with the spotted twins catching a possum in the backyard. When Mrs. Orr summoned me, the poor critter was doing his award-winning act, lying on his side, teeth exposed, still as a stone. I saw his mouth flinch slightly when I picked him up by the tail, so I was pretty sure he was all right. I tossed him over the fence into the next pasture. Sure enough, when I checked on him after daybreak, he was gone. And we caught another mouse last night, this one a clean kill. The weather is getting ready to change, so the little things are seeking shelter in a warm…
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Gratitudinal
We’ve all experienced those days when we’re keenly aware of the blessings bestowed upon us. The old admonition, “Count Your Blessings” is a very wise one, because when we start numbering the ways in which God had shown His favor to us, we find ourselves freefalling into example after example after example, and we realize how churlish and petulant and ungrateful we can be, and these are good days, because we are brought up short and we turn to Him and the unfeigned gratitude pours out of us like tears or belly-laughs or dream-sighs. I sat in the backseat today at noon as is my custom, and I opened the…
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Supping On Beauty
Down the gravel road to home this evening, the dust hanging in the air from a hurrying tractor, and then into the tunnel of shade created new each day by the tall poplars lining the driveway. Walk in the house and see the old dog waiting for me on the steps, her tail thump-thump-thumping as she grins her “Oh, you came back!” grin. Kiss my wife and listen to her etude of a Southern voice run the scales and describe something someone did and said. Shed the work clothes and put on my soft home clothes, the t-shirt gleaming white as a saint’s robe, the scent of bleach and detergent…