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Shakespeare in Love, for Romeo and Juliet,

But this is just a play.

For there is nothing more amazing in life than love, outstanding overwhelming love, that holds all of the hope and grace of the universe.

And there is nothing like hell more than the promise and betrayal, that will

For recovery is profoundly impossible, for there is nothing else that God would have one encounter, than to reach across the tragedy of family feuds.

And thereafter the power of love invites one to death, accidental and then intentional as if there were nothing else,

For there is nothing,

Nothing else,

Yet Grace.

For this life after death brings hope and joy.

But what of this life.

It is all that would be, that could be, that must be, that can be, of all that has brought us to bear in life and hope for centuries.

As love guides the hope of each day, beauty invades our eyes, our hearts, our minds, our dreams … and these will not disappoint or betray, as courts, and people, and church …

Where children play.

Alone to sit in the light, on bench upon bench anchored deep. Alone.

In the dark that cannot last, for the light will come to also these sands, and smooth across the water, and the light will reveal the depths of sin. Where will we be found, in dark or light?

Light brings beauty, golden whole. Alone and empty.

And the meal shall be shared, the Eucharist that sends free the soul lost and captive.

And there is light, also across even the darkest paths, the light that brings us life.

Through the darkest woods the light will shine, and trees white stand clear, full of hope.

And then it is just a day, a day that has light, and love, so much gained and so much lost … but for all this it is, says Shakespeare, it was all worth, what is worth to be had.

Romeo, Shakespeare: you will not age for me, Juliet, Lady Sussex: as you for me.

And what will we write?

A voyage on a wild sea … Twelfth night. All drown save one, a lady.

And so we start anew. And hope for all. That the profundity of love will be known without loss.

 

There are times when people steal from you, with lies and deception, with manipulations and friendly smiles.

And there is little to be done to counter these grave sins,

But one not only smiles and turns the other cheek, one loves ones enemy.

And to forgive, one gives to the one who sins against you.

There is a little bit of beauty in all that.

And I have no photo to demonstrate this, but I did at 4 am wake and by 5 and sunrise stand in place to watch the sun rise, and captured this photo of a place of grace and love.

They has requested a photo without power lines or extraneous items of the neighborhood, like hay bales and machinery (we are after all rural here!)

So this was the small beauty of result.

There is a simple beauty of knowing

That one is blessed

Dark or Light, all is well.

Beyond all belief

And beyond all hope.

Simple. Embrace Life without killing off others with lies.

Ducks Afloat
What will it look like to be able to be with the children and not have to worry about criminal charges based on lies and recalcitrant court processes that deliver on lies more than on truths?
Is there a peace that God offers beyond the torture delivered by God’s own people to their own?
Is there a calm, cool place of hope and productivity that gives life?

I do not know for sure but I know the children will live with joy. And the hemlock is as likely as peace and freedom, or even more so.

This is God’s world. Calmly about the day’s tasks, staying afloat, doing well.

Kathie,

God created a good world: the image is of a garden where all the necessities of life are available without labour: but we know labour is an essential part of life. So we need a different image.

And then we humans broke it by seeking to be like God, to know good and evil; which then brings us forever to struggle with the realities of life that are so complex no one in all of time has solved the riddle of life. But we know that it is a gift to know of good and evil, to struggle with the riddles and paradoxes of life and hope, despair and conscience, of delight and death. So we need a different image.

And then we humans received a story that Jesus came as God to be one of us both at the same time to take upon himself all the sins of the world, the results of knowing good and evil, paying the price of death for all these sins, and then conquering even death by rising to new life. It is a powerful life giving story that transforms history even before it is lived and known. But we know that the story has been twisted in so many ways until it is almost always perverted. So we need a different image.

Today, which image will be your model, your pathway through the maze of challenges and roadblocks.

Do you have a new image?

Or

Do we …

Simply need a new and fresh re-look at the old images, a photo retouch back to the original, yet still with all the cracks so that the light not only gets in but also gets taken apart into the rainbow of life before our ears and fingers. Will our eyes hear the sunrise today, and set tonight.

Have we received the gift of forgiveness and new life, which is Christ’s gift to us.

How will you live this day?

Towards what texture will you focus your sense of smell today, to discover again, the wonder that God created the world with everything at hand that we need for life and gave us the gift of knowledge of God and Good and Evil?

Our sons will as always receive the gift of your words and courage, knowing that the future is secured with love; love more powerful than even death.

I will walk with a spring in my step, for the gift of voice that you have helped me regain. With eyes to the a future so uncertain it ought to drive me under; yet you give me your love more powerful than death; and how can I not see the sunrise and sunset as specular gifts from God?

And you, in all your comings and goings, your calls and planning; how will you touch the infinite this day, as you dance to the music of hope?

Today let God find you, with your fingers in the snow, your eyes beyond the horizon and your heart steadfast in labour that brings life to others:

Have a spectacular day.

 

Light, Learning, and Playing in the Mountains

But first an addition to the previous post of perspective:

There is light even in the Dark

And it is BEAUTIFUL

Here the air in the mountains is just

Clear and contaminated with nature to give life

As we breathe

And move

And rest

And imagine

Against all the words that condemn and box one in as a caged animal in other’s demons and defenses against their own tragic actions

A simple Doch is the mountain air for so many

And also for me.

The clouds dance through the valleys and the mountain tops.

 

It is in playing though in the mountain air that one encounters the gift of Grace, of life and hope.

Last evening Christian played and practiced with my camera and produced this photo of Tim Wray, Pastor and down to earth man, who is returning to farm parttime and open his congregation to be a teaching site for intern pastors!

An acquaintance of many years.

 

And then the next morning the light shines on the mountains …

Full of clouds and light and

Hope.

Doch … the world is not to stay broken, Doch Grace will flow.

The Light, the Hope, the Doch come clear in the morning.

Truth and Perspective

And Lies

Lately I’ve had to listen to my life described by another person which was certainly not complimentary, and certainly not close to truth, okay let’s be clear: It was mostly lies, malicious lies.

This person has said that everything is just a different perspective. I have my truth and he has his truth.

Yes, there are different perspectives that colour what we see; but the basic reality is at least approximately discernible, knowable. There are limits to which one can go in describing something out of the past where it is not just a matter of a different perspective; it is a lie. It is not what happened.

That is not who did what; and sadly it is often the truth with this person that terrible things that he attributed to me, are actually the terrible things that belong to him.

If you enter a dark room and there is an elephant in the room, and one person says there is a rough round item (the leg) he is right in a way. Another may say there is a long wet item (the truck), and another large flat area that flaps (the ear.) They are right, but without enough perspective or wisdom to know the whole that they have encountered. A fourth person may enter and feeling a bit of this and that may well say there is an elephant in the room. And he would be right.

But if another person comes in and says there is a nice sand beach to run ones toes through the sand and feel the sun on ones nose: Well that’s just not true.

And if the person threatens you because you see a large flat area, that’s not just not true; it’s a malicious lie.

I’ve never before run into a person who so consistently cannot accept responsibility for what he does, and must always assign responsibility for his own mistakes and sins to someone else.

It is scary that so much of what he said is so far beyond what one would be able to discern reality from that it is … scary (for him, how can he not know reality) and sad (is this what he lives with, a nearly total inability to know what is and is not happening around him?!

But

Perspective is important. One can take the broad view and not see far.

Or a bit closer and notice the content of Bread and Wine poured forth.

To as close a view as possible.

And then to change the focus to see, instead of the foreground of Wine and Bread, to see beyond to the world God created.

And I did it again and it’s fun to see the differences:

 

Broad

Closer

Yet Closer

As Close as Possible

Closest with a change of focus to see,

Well, all along we have seen

the wonders of creation and our place in it.

On my way to Edmonton, not restricted by the boss’ superior attitude, and refinding my roots, I stopped to pick up a hitchhiker.

It turned out to be a retired geologist needing to get home to Edmonton. And we talked for the whole trip. Lots of old haunts and issues came back to the fore. Uranium found in northern Saskatchewan and it’ll be mined, destroying lots of land and ecosystem, but providing a needed source of energy. And it’s disposal is more realistic as a method to speed up half-life decay is available!

Red was animated the whole trip and volunteered to have me take his picture. I’d loved to have been able to get out the camera and trip pod, and have the lights I used to have and all that jazz to get a fabulous portrait, but that’s all in the past, so I used my phone, with delightful results!

When Frank “Red” MacDonald talks, his hands lead the way if he is engaged, as he always was.

His smile was infectious and delightful. Smiles bring peace!