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The Basics of Life
Early this morning, my wife and I were talking about the unpredictability of life, and how we could never have imagined the twists and turns our lives have taken. This is a fact I’ve meditated upon quite a bit lately, and it has ushered in a phase — who knows for how long? — in which I am saturated with a sense of anticipation, a feeling of “What’s in store for me today?” And not in a feeling of dread or doom, but open curiosity. I welcome it, for however brief it may be. A few miles from work, I passed a wooded area next to a gas station/convenience store.…
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You Cannot Be Sirius…
When I was a boy, the space program was in full vigor, and I was wild about NASA and the astronauts and the magnificent crafts in which they flew through the black heavens. I was particularly intrigued by how the astronauts were strapped into their capsules. For takeoff, they were on their backs, looking directly up to the sky above, so that after liftoff, they would be facing the mysterious and star-clogged skies into which they were rocketing. This morning it all came back to me. It’s not uncommon for Mrs. Orr and/or me to fall asleep in our recliners, and when this happens, we stay put until morning. Last…
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Farm Life
For the past week, we’ve enjoyed some of the most glorious weather I can recall. Crisp lows in the 40s at night, yielding to low 70s during the day, as dry as Peter O’Toole’s wit and as gorgeous as a granddaughter’s eyes. We made the most of the weekend. Jinx and I took several walks each day, and he roamed farther and freer that usual, stopping to look back at me just as he would disappear over a ridge or down into a hollow. He wore himself slap-dab out every day and slept like a pharaoh each night Mrs. Orr and I ventured down to a nearby city to visit…
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Long Walk Home
The day started with the usual routine: Jinx awakened me by sticking his nose into my ear and snorfeling and snarfeling around like a Texas javelina, we made coffee, fed the dogs, got showered and dressed. Off to work, and everything was calm until a few miles from my office. That’s when the car started vibrating, pitching and yawing. Oh, man, I thought. Flat tire. But I happened to glance down at the dashboard and saw the Check Engine light flashing on and off like a strobe light at Studio54 in 1978. I’m no mechanic, but I know enough to realize that when that particular light is blinking, it’s bad…
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In the Lenten Season
Yesterday on Ash Wednesday, while Catholics were filing into churches (the few that are open, that is) to assist at Mass and to receive the ashes upon their foreheads. While this ancient ritual was going on, I was sitting in a podiatrist’s office, describing my symptoms and listening to the proposed treatment. The joint of my great right toe has been very stiff and painful for some time, and has been increasingly difficult to flex. It has begun to affect my gait, and I figured I’d better have it looked at before the warm weather arrives and my activity level increases with the arrival of grass and weeds and so…
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No Such Things
All across this country, animal shelters are full to bursting. In the region in which I live, I’ve noticed that the majority of dogs in shelters are some variety of the notorious pit bull. The dogs themselves do make warning lights go off in my head when I see them. I have been around a few pit bulls that seemed friendly enough, but their very appearance puts me in mind of monsters like the uruk-hai: creatures bred specifically for a malign purpose. Yes, yes, I know, I know. There are no such things as bad dogs…only bad owners. Every time I have expressed my unease with this breed of dog,…
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One Warm Day
Ice is forecast for Thursday, but for now, the pleasant respite of warm air has settled upon these mountains. Snow is a memory, the birds are a painted and scurrying mob, the clouds have fled, the honeysuckle almost looks green, the waterfall sounds like artillery, Jinx resents every minute spent indoors, the crape myrtle and the snowball bush keep pestering me to prune them, and the furnace has enjoyed a small rest. One warm day is a luxurious stretch of the limbs of the soul. But it will be spring soon enough, and the noisy, insectified summer will follow, and who will stretch whom then? I am forever tugged between…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Movies, Quotations, Reflections
Blue Skies, Hidden Lives, Unvisited Tombs
The day dawned under a sheet of gray, with the clouds in the east giving way to the sun, as if a long florescent tube had been flicked on just beyond the mountains. Jinx cavorted in the snow and carried chunks of ice around as if they were prizes beyond compare. The roosters one farm over called to the brightening sky as I crunched my way past, and the breeze was slight enough that my face was not numb when we reached home. While drinking our coffee, Mrs. Orr and I finished watching a movie we’d started last night. The movie was A Hidden Life, directed by Terence Malick, and…
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The Epiphany of the Lord
While on our daybreak walk this morning, Jinx and I watched two men setting up chairs under the tent at the newly-opened grave in the little country graveyard. The spotted menace seems to take a special interest in the craft of the sexton; I was grateful he didn’t leap onto the tarp covering the grave. This time. The wind was chilly and brisk but not unbearable…about 43F. The clouds moved like a flock of sheep across the sky, low and swift and wooly, and the tang of silage came to me when I turned into the wind. As I walked, watching Jinx gallop in one of the pastures, I engaged…
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The Lawless Blogger
This past March, just before the big coronapanic hit, my wife and I made our annual trek to the local library’s used book sale. Among the treasures I found were a stack of back issues of Magnificat, the Catholic monthly devotional magazine, selling for .25 cents each. I bought every one of them, enough to fill an entire shelf on the bookshelf in our bedroom. The magazine is of very high quality, with writing and artwork to elevate the soul and the thoughts. I’ve been in a bit of a low valley lately, spiritually speaking, and this morning my wife helped my spirits immensely by reminding me of how blessed…