Why do we linger?

This one is personal.

It should also be short. I am asking a question that I can't answer.

We tend to lose perspective when certain things befall us. We start with, "why me?" But when we look around a bit, the question becomes, "why not?"

HEAT...

I hate the heat. Always have. Don't know why tourists pick Cancun this time of year. It's miserable. Most of my adult life in this climate, and my body is still wired for northern Wisconsin subzero winters. After a walk, even the sweat-drenched shoes go in the wash.

Heat irritates me, oppresses, exhausts, incites… makes me impatient, impulsive. Reminds me of Albert Camus's, "The Stranger".

The sun was starting to burn my cheeks, and I could feel drops of sweat gathering in my eyebrows. That sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the sun. It was this burning, which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward. I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward. (1.6.24)

So he blamed the heat, too. It was one of the factors in the inevitability of the killing. And of course, "stepping forward" with it brought no relief.

God's avant-garde…

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.” (Php 4:8)

This was intended to be an "Early Morning Thought" on things to think on in Php 4:8, stemming from a superb read over summer vacation. In spite of the painful process of redaction, it is still too long for that. Often, when reading Jonathan Edwards, I have to re-read paragraphs a few times to sort of get a handle on them, but it has always been worth the effort. Such is the case with the second, longer quote below.

Tales from the abyss...

It is a short walk to psychopathy. The potential for it might be there in all of us.

Did I just have a conversation with someone? I think not. I felt it in what was left unsaid, by the chasm between the facade and the inner reality... thoughts that assume a given or beg a conclusion left hanging, unexplained... surface noise that is not connecting with the person inside... chatter from across the abyss... a monologue from a deserted soul... covering fire laid down to mask real behavior.

By the same rule...

This entry is about finishing a thought begun in a devotion from last week: THE FUTURE... 

“Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” (Php 3:16)

We are blessed with a variety of trees in our yard: alamos, gum trees, avocado, lemon, orange, palms; and things like guano (what they thatch roofs with), bananas, habanero peppers, coconuts, aloe vera, guanabana and more. It is just a smattering of what the surrounding jungle holds. (We can talk about poisonous snakes another time.)

With a little help from my friends...

My limited Alexandr Solzhenitsyn collection. The Gulag Trilogy on the left, followed by "The Oak and the Calf" and "Invisible Allies". These two books could be labelled as "The Rest of the Story". They deal with the unsung heroes, the unnamed allies who sacrificed as much or more than Solzhenitsyn himself so that his works could be published.

A Clarification...

Why we ask for prayer...

11:40 pm, Thursday, Feb. 06, 2014, the second of Linda's three-night hospital stay.

About 48 hours ago, Linda was in a dangerous place with a severe bronchitis event, never good for someone who suffers from pulmonary hypertension and a weak heart. The deep, unstoppable coughing left her exhausted, her heart rate was rapid and unstable.