A Time for Change

Don't we all hate change. Daylight savings time, falling back and springing forward, creates a major disruption in our lives. And it is just adjusting the clock one hour! Our family is going through some big changes.

Michael and Neil have moved into their own apartment. Liberation day! -for them and us. Yet it is also a time for reflection, the passing of the years, boys growing into men. Teresa and I growing into senior citizens (I am 55 now and can get the Sr. menu at Bob Evan's). The river of time moves on and no one can slow it down or make it reverse. One can become sad or melancholy with such thoughts.  The past year has been exhausting-moving south, getting DBS surgery, moving back to Terre Haute. So now it is time for a change.

Some New year's resolutions early:

1. Pray more.  If there were but one thing I could do better, it would be this. "For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God." by Saint Teresa of Avila

2. Exercise more. Daily walks, running, lifting weights. All are good for the soul as well as the body. “Saying is one thing and doing is another” ― Michel de Montaigne 

3. Minimize my life. Throw away, give away, or sell all that I have not used in the past year. I live with too much baggage.

"He who will not economize will have to agonize." by Confucius

4. Read more. Read everything, especially books printed before 1900. 

"Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book..."by Dwight D. Eisenhower

5. Be of good cheer. There is something about an optimistic, upbeat person that the world can not defeat. We are made in God's own image and likeness, so act like it. 

“The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.” ― Michel de Montaigne

Finally, I will try to write more, so here goes.

A Love Story

A little girl, one of many to be sure,
whose green eyes glowed, filled by the light
of a lovely love, precious and pure,
desiring his presence, to be in his sight.

Unseen, she waited night and day.
Unbid, she polished his shoes with care.
Unnoticed, time spent with him is her pay.
The daughter gives wholly with nothing to spare.

His demons called louder than the cry
of the child; his attention diverted and consumed.
And deeply hurt, the little girl wonders why?
I must be bad or worthless, she presumed.

Family life was life without rule
except for the law of the jumgle, survival of the fittest,
pitted brother, sister, and mother, neighbors and school.
The green-eyed girl didn't realize Dad was the sickest.

A woman now with the passage of time
and her Dad's rehab fresh on her mind,
forgets the pit from which the family had to climb,
sees her Dad now as giving and kind.

Name it, call it what it is, "Be not afraid".
She can't heal it without knowing its name.
Broken and "hole-y", she needs more than first aid.
Ask the Great Physician, he heals and loves all the same.

The green-eyed girl is a child of God and worthy,
A unique individual; with gifts and talents, made to love 
and to be loved. A vocation for all God's family 
In surrender and acceptance, she comes to see that it all fits like a hand in a glove.