NOT ALONE...LENTEN MEDITATION

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:27
And be assured, I am with you always, even to the end of time.
Matthew 28:20

The first quarter of a new year is a busy time for us, a time of reflection and rededication, of list making and determining what has been accomplished and what needs to be accomplished in the coming months. It can be a delicate time.

The 40 days of Lent stand between us and the joys of Easter. Advent and the Christmas Season are long gone and we look forward to weeks of a late midwinter, that season Christina Rossetti called bleak and hard as iron.

Bills and taxes a wait our attention. Another year has slipped by and not every goal has been achieved.

We’re another year older and, as Tennessee Ernie used to intone, possibly deeper in debt. What should we give up? What should we take on? How can we make our lives most beneficial for ourselves and for others?

We can choose to look to the future positively, confident that challenges will be met, that all will be done that needs to be done. Or, wrongfully feeling overwhelmed and alone, mindful that some problems resist our choice of solution, we can expect defeat and failure.

A popular song lyric says it well: Some days are diamonds, Some days are coal.

When my coal days hit, I recall prayers from two very different men, men who faced trials and tribulations every bit as serious as any I am likely to face.
And they faced those trials with full confidence and faith that they were by no means alone and that they had every reason to expect success.

The first prayer is that of Sir Jacob Astley, a Royalist Officer in the English Civil War:
O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day.
If I forget Thee, do not forget me.

The second is that fabulous prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next. Amen.

Lent truly is a time of reflection and dedication for all of us. We are not alone.
Easter is at hand. Be of good cheer.
Thanks be to God.

W/O COMMENT

'Tis late already...

We of The Study went off in two directions today.

Dear Wife in early morn was off to East Lansing, MSU, soccer clinic, with Dear Daughter and Dear Granddaughters.

I was off to Church in AM and then home and then to Romeo with Dear Sophie for an imoportant four week review on how her arthritis is coming along after a series of injections.
And then home after dark for cocktails and catchup with Dear Wife who leaves for Fla Tuesday.

Two weeks in Fla.

I remain at The Study,  holding the fort.

National and international affairs continue on w/o our comments.

SUCH WILL MAKE GOOD FODDER

Visited a superb Faberge exhibit which came to town. Four hours was not too long to spend viewing and attending lecture.

Read a journal [with pictures] documenting hiking along Hadrian’s Wall in the north high country of England.
Came across a collection of pictures of 1930’s foggy London.
Awoke this morning to a winter day of thick fog and rain.

Wrote the above a few weeks ago...disappointments over recent events in our world and country loomed large...
A month and some more have passed....
Some accommodation is in order. 
Time sometimes does diminish passionate feelings.
Perhaps such as the above and not the futilities happening in diplomacy and national politics should occupy a few lines now and then.