paravanes:meditations

“Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess: Lord,  you know better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity. Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples' affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But, you know Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends. Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing. I will not ask you for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others. Te...

I have recently completed my three times per year ritual of going to the cemetery where my parents are buried (together, in what is called a "companion" grave site), clearing weeds away from the monument that bears their names and dates, and placing a seasonal floral arrangement. A good friend asked by why I do this. She said, "After all, they're not really there." I agreed with her and explained I do this because I recognize this space as the place where I bid them an earthly farewell, and that's very special to me.  Also, I recognize this space as the place from which they will be resurrected when Jesus calls them from the grave. The call may come next year, one hundred years from now, or a thousand years from now. It doesn't matter. Because I believe in the resurrection, a burial spot is sacred ground. That sacred ground deserves care and maintenance, if at all possible. (Image from Elmwood Cemetery , Detroit, Michigan) "O death, wh...

9/11 Remebrance: Falling & Flying  Buildings falling,  people falling  planes falling.  What turns metal into fluid plasma?  What makes people jump from one hundred story high buildings?  What makes planes crash headfirst into a field and a Pentagon?  Metal flying,  arms and legs and heads and feet flying,  airplanes flying on missions of death.  When I watched "The Bodyguard",  Kevin Costner told Whitney Houston: If someone wants to trade their life for a kill,  you can't stop them.  Where were Kevin and Whitney when we needed them?  Lots of trades happened on 9/11.  A gang of killers un-stop-able.  Falling and flying and dying and crying.  Without warning and without reason,  people died, people cried.  People falling into grief,  into sadness, into madness.  Falling into war and more dying and more crying.  Falling i...