'tween myself and MY SELF

i stand staring toward the horizon

in wonderment how i arrived here 

to this edge on the trail of time

has been no smooth trekking

the wars of the world are wedged in between

witness and model to my own

bearing peace's tattered flag

the buried dead have risen from their tombs

blown the trumpet lest Gabriel blows too late

revealing the rotting of their carriage

on their path to the Promised Land

here Satan snakes through the deep sea grass

while Hope churns eternal within the wasted life

life, squished 'tween the halves of self

pondering the blessings God loosed upon the earth

the Sun rises westward when one least expects

and is promise that life will meld

*Thoughts of Alan Jones:

  -You should grieve for the sake of the God who grieves for you.

    .St. Ephrem

  -Over a dead body you weep, but over a soul dead and separated from God you do not weep!  Tears falling on a corpse cannot restore it, but if they fall on a soul they will bring it back to life...Give God weeping, and increase the tears in your eyes; through your tears and his goodness the soul which has been dead will be restored.  Behold, Mercy awaits for your eyes to shed tears, to purify and renew the image of the disfigured soul.

  .St. Ephrem

 -Compunction is the means by which we begin to love our neighbor.

 -...the pursuit of our own perfection is as ludicrous as it is impossible.  In the heart of God is our hearts' desire, and nothing less than God will satisfy us.

 -There is humor and gentleness in the desert as well as rigor and discipline.  These believers know that they have not made it as perfected beings.  More important, they know they don't have to make it.

 -...we are incurably forgetful and need a jolt from time to time to wake us up.