This Morning

I set out early with a list of errands to run and odd jobs to do. It was hard not to notice the sun as it came over the horizon glistening with its orangey-yellow hues that lit the pale blue sky…a sky without a single cloud. The only mark was a thin white “con-trail” (condensed moisture from a jet engine) that stretched across the blue from southwest to northeast cutting the heavens in half. The austere beauty reinforced the notion that there is someone out there…someone very intelligent…some designer of the universe that makes this all work. Then, I get the overwhelming feeling that I could reach out and touch the face of God.
Thanks for mornings, I like so much.
Thanks for the face, I love to touch.
Thanks for the sky of awesome blue.
Thanks for the knowledge…I know it’s YOU.
Amen

I Chose You

I stood and listened to today’s gospel, John 15:12-17. 

Jesus said to his disciples: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you… …This I command you: love one another."
It was as if He was talking to me and that hit me right between the eyes. The fact that God did chose me and pursued me until I relented, gave in to his wishes and accepted his friendship. Now…for the “love one another” part. Well, I’m still working on that.

Vegetarian?

I think I might be a vegetarian and just didn’t know it. Yesterday I was craving some okra and corn. So, I stopped at that Bar-B-Q place named for an uncle’s stray dog…ordered a large fried okra and fried sweat corn, then washed it all down with a soda pop. Delicious! This morning I continued with my vegetable diet and had potatoes and tomatoes. I went to that place with the orange and white striped roof and ordered large fries with extra catsup. Delicious! For lunch I decided to go across the tracks to a place most would not consider an up-scale restaurant. It’s a very busy place…the kinda place you order at the drive-in window then drive to the back door to pick up. I personally prefer to go inside and enjoy the ambiance. I sit at the table that has one leg shorter than the others and watch the locals while they dine on chicken gizzard and burgers. It’s the type place you don’t have to worry about some snobbish waiter trying to place a linen napkin in your lap. This place should be featured on the “Food Channel” they make best onions-rings in the world. A light golden brown crispy batter and the onions are perfectly translucent from being cooked at just the right temperature. The large order makes an entire meal. And that’s what I had. Onions smothered in a red tomato sauce…the kind in the squirt bottle with the name that ends with the letter “Z”. Delicious!!!!!
Vegetables are wonderful when deep fat fried in animal fat. Eat healthy!

Thank you, Lord God, for giving us all the plants to eat.
And thank you for the animal fat to fry them in.
Amen.

Barn Find

I have two vivid memories of lusting or coveting after something. As a child…one was a Red Rider B-B gun, but after several Christmases passing I gave up on that dream. The other, at a bit older age, was a motorcycle. My argument was you can’t shoot your eye out with a motorcycle…motorcycles are inherently safe.

I would spend hours daydreaming of riding off into the sunset just like in the show “Easy Rider”. So, you can call me middle age crazy but that’s not correct…I am closer to seventy than sixty. I guess it’s just old age crazy or just crazy.

The last few days I have felt like a kid at Christmas. I had no idea something could be so exciting. I haven’t been this excited about anything for a long time…and it’s all over a thirty two year old motorcycle. An antique that was forgotten…left in a barn for the last 29 years collecting dust and wasting away. The story goes…It was purchase new by this “Uncle Tio” in 1980. But parked upon his death 3 years later with only 9000 miles on it.

It is known to motorcycle aficionados as an “Airhead”, an R series BMW, the touring model with all the “stuff”…bags and trunks and fairings etc. And it’s all original, it’s all there…it has potential. Ok…so it will take a little work to get it going. Well, maybe a lot of work.

This is the bike of my dreams I hope the dream does not turn into a nightmare.

June Bug

May 24th
I saw my first June bug of the season…one full week ahead of schedule…crawling along the driveway in the early morning darkness, illuminated only by the light that hangs above the garage. I suppressed the notion to squash it, just because I could. Perhaps God has some plan for that little bug that I am unaware of. I decided to save the capital punishment for those more pesky insects like spiders, mosquitoes and cockroaches. Surely they don’t fit into God’s plan. Like the first snowfall points to the coming of winter, the first June bug must mean summer is almost here.

Thank you, Lord, for the change of seasons
I know that you must have your reasons.
If it was up to me, I would leave out summer
With all the heat I think it’s a bummer.
Amen.

Clueless Cleopas

Sunday's May 8th gospel (Luke 24: 13-35) was great. I can identify with clueless Cleopas when he asks Jesus “are you the only one that doesn’t know?” It is hard to imagine that Cleopas did not recognize Jesus. But…it is me…totally me…totally clueless…because, I look back on my journey though life…my “walk to Emmaus”…and realize that I had no idea that Jesus was right there with me. The irony of it all is such a stinging reality. When I was at the lowest, most down cast point in my life, that is when my eyes were opened. It was sort of a breaking of my pride that opened my eyes. So when I hear this gospel reading and the words “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke"…and …“he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.”
I have a hard time containing my feelings and emotions.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you did.
You are better than the wizard of Id.
You cure the eyes that cannot see.
Thanks for the patience you have with me.
Amen.

Humility

Dear Diary,
Today was the most humiliating day of my life…OK, Ok…it was just another day of doing something stupid and humiliating. It all started when I pulled up to the pump to fill my gas-guzzler, inserted the credit card and began answering the litany of questions…debit or credit…Carwash…yes or no…etc, etc. Then comes the biggie…zip code? Well…in a senior moment…I inadvertently transposed the numbers. After several failed tries with the transposed number I canceled the transaction to retrieve my card before the machine ate it. Oh! No! My card…it’s gone. I marched into the store and confronted the manager with my problem. With a puzzled look he immediately accompanied me to the pump unlocked and opened it. Examining every nook and cranny he explaining that these machines unlike an ATM do not take cards but are only card readers. With a sinking feeling I felt in my pocket… there it was…the missing card. Who put that there?
After filling up I drove away crouched low in the seat with my hat pulled down low over my eyes in a funk of disgust and humiliation.

Thank you Lord of these lessons in humility.
It’s just what I need in my age of senility.
Amen.