Playing the Piano ~

I am beginning to feel something new going on with my hands when playing. It seems as if they are no longer two separate instruments. I can feel them as one, giving the feeling I am gently throwing balls, like a juggler, from one to the another.

St. Benedict ~

He was a genius to have made a rule under which men could live together in community and thrive. His key was the virtue of humility that he insisted on instilling in his members. A perfect Benedictine, following the Gospel dictate should always "take the last place".

An Offhand Remark ~

I heard someone say: "Fingers have memory." Ever since hearing that my piano playing has improved noticeably.

Local Beauty ~

The neighbors next-door cut down this stately red beech tree this morning. 

Leaf-raking was too much of a chore. . .

Just lost a friend.

Thomas Merton ~ Spiritual Mentor for a Young Seminarian ~

 

Choice of Words ~

"Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!"

                                              ~ President of the United States

Was Ist Los? ~

80-90 seats in the German Bundestag will now be filled by the new extreme right AfD party that won yesterday in the elections.

Cavalier's Delict ~

Here in Germany no one is really upset about VW and Audi cheating. No rage, no protests, no demonstrations. Cheating is all part of the game.

Seasons Don't Wait ~

Sadly, I see the first tinge of autumn today on the maple trees along my path.

Boy Scouts of America ~

It was reported that the chief executive of the Boy Scouts had apologized for the President's speech held at a national gathering of Boy Scouts because of his rousing political statements. The White House spokeswoman deftly sidestepped saying: "I saw nothing but roughly 40,000 to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks and I think they were pretty excited that he was there."

Protectors ~

Two stately San Bernardino dogs out in front of a lady with their unneeded leashes would turn every thirty paces to see if she were coming along.

Newfound Energy ~

Five new windmills on a hill in the distance rotating day and night, counterclockwise.

 

Remembering with Gratitude ~

Today is VE-Day. 

I look out my window and think what it would be like had Hitler not been stopped.

Breaking the Heart ~

What happens when a child realizes this loss?

Yevgeny Yevtushenko ~

† April 1, 2017

BABI YAR

by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

No monument stands over Babi Yar.

A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.

I am afraid.

Today, I am as old

As the entire Jewish race itself . . .

At 7:45 in the Morning ~

The highway is buzzing with cars heading off at high speed to make it to the place of work with all the people who are helping to hold this world together.

Cosmic Reverberations ~

Today at a funeral while they played Mozart's Clarinet Concerto K 622 Adagio and the world stood still . . .

Seeing in Darkness ~

To look up into the sky late at night and see the radiant stars . . . and then orient myself in the deep cosmos.

Beacon Light ~

Americans, the President said: "make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things we want more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong as element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. That is the only motive to which they ever give any strong and lasting reaction."

                                            President Calvin Coolidge 1923-29

Farewell Address ~

He made me feel proud to be an American and taught me, more than any other, what it meant.

Progressing ~

Went back to my old seminary where four teenage years of intense living took place. There I found only a bare hill with grass going on it. The building has been torn down, deemed useless.

New Experience ~

It was a happy dream . . . I was standing in front of a grade-school class and a boy didn't know the German word for "page". "Oh, that was the very first word we leaned in Chapter One of our German book last year," I said. And all those little girls and boys lit up and smiled with such glowing faces, the likes of which I had never seen before.

God's Will Works ~

It is in silence, the old monk said, like when the sun rises, or in the silent chamber of the heart that God's will works.

Crucial Decisions ~

All the really important decisions in life-- I had no real knowledge what it was all about: Priesthood, Marriage, Children. All a blind leap.

Grief in Our Town ~

Not enough room in the church for all his friends, many stood outside. Lukas was 18 years old, had just acquired his driver's licence. He was driving to the train station to pick up a friend when he lost control . . .

Autumn Yearning ~

I see little birds flying south in clusters. It is raining and cold. How will they ever make it over the Alps?

Classroom ~

I taught her in the fifth grade. She wrote saying I made a great impression on her for the rest of her life, for I had told her once to brush her teeth every day. She had done that and has a set of teeth to this day that everyone admires.

Goings-on ~

I heard someone comparing the catastrophic political atmosphere with John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul. He saw it positively, as laying the ground for a spiritual recovery, once everything has been reduced to nothing . . .

De Diligendo Deo ~

God is Great— What do you do if your notion of God and Jesus conflict? The former seems for the most part confined by the latter.

 

Coming into Focus ~

With 80-plus finally coming to understand what a momentous, catastrophic event the First World War was.

Memory Fading ~

. . . Now I know why mother was irritated every time I wanted to play our do-you-remember game . . .

You are what you will ~

. . . I discover that it was my desires that regulated my advancement/lack of advancement in life. I never got beyond what I desired.

With 80 Plus ~

The liberating awareness that there is really nothing we have to believe in . . . once we have learned to trust.

Mother ~

Came across this obituary in the newspaper this morning:


"For the world she was a nobody, for me she was the world. I had to let my mother go. My love and gratitude for her will only die when I die."

Disappointment ~

Drove 250 miles to Schwaebisch Hall just to see this painting. But, just five days before, it had been sent to Berlin on loan.

Bounty ~

The lilacs are so profuse this year that, 

when I open my window near the bush, 

their sweet scent comes flooding in.

With 80 Plus ~

On seeing people over 60 I feel a strong sympathetic tie with them, a felt respect, just because they have made it so far through life. They too, have been "through the mill" . . . 

Flying Time ~

The fastest hour of the day is the one I spend at the piano after breakfast.

Encouragement ~

Last night In a dream I was trying to convince a down-and-out parish priest how good his work had been and how I admired him for his steady, sincere apostleship. I called him a Man of God, but he wouldn't hear it.

 

With 80 plus ~

With 80 plus it isn't so much the surfaces of things that interests you, but rather what under-girds them.

Spring ~

I watch the spring miracle happening at our window.

Urology Verdict~

There was an eerie, absolute silence in the waiting room at the doctor's office this morning, broken only by the nurse almost inaudibly requesting the next patients.

 

Contentment ~

The grandchildren kept begging us to play with them—and when we did they were perfectly satisfied if we would just sit and watch.

With 80 plus ~

. . . You realize that at 70 you started to see things as they really were.

Sunrise ~

Another day, another gift, given me.

With 80 plus ~

Why so hard to just put one foot out in front of the other and walk, erect. I used to be so secretly proud of my gait.

With 80 plus

You hear little children yelling at the the playground and hear their voices echoing fifty years into the future . . .

Reading ~

Too heartbreaking to read—that final chapter. I keep putting it off.

With 80 plus

When you look out through your eyes you see things differently: You see a fifty-year-old and he or she becomes an innocent little first grader.

Articles of Faith ~

And what if there is no afterlife in heaven, or the other places we are supposed to go to? Should that make me love You less? I cannot love You just to make sure I get into heaven.