Hurry ruins saints as well as artists.
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
H is for Hurry
Tag: atozchallenge
G is for Glory
A tree gives glory to God by being a tree.
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
In the spring of 2012, my father’s home insurance company sent an inspector. As a result, the insurance company required two changes: part of the roof needed to be replaced and two trees needed to come down, one of them being the tree shown above.
“I am sorry,” sighed the tree.
I wish that I could
give you something…
But I have nothing left.
I am just an old stump.
I am sorry…”Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree
Well, an old stump is good for a garden.
Come, plant flowers and enjoy.
A purple coneflower gives glory to God by being a purple coneflower and a petunia gives glory to God by being a petunia.
F is for Fear
Fear narrows the little entrance of our heart.
It shrinks up our capacity to love.
It freezes up our power to give ourselves.
Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration
At the root of all war is fear.
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
… and fear is a color. As soon as it touches our liberty, it stains it and renders it unlike to itself.
Thomas Merton, quoting St. Bernard in The Silent Life
E is for Extraordinary
… to fly into the desert in order to be extraordinary is only to carry the world with you as an implicit standard of comparison.
Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert
D is for Desert
Meanwhile, we are passing through the desert on our way to the promised land.
Bread in the Wilderness, by Thomas Merton
Photo taken by Owen during his travels in Morocco (2006)
C is for Community
There is a world of difference between a community and a crowd.
Thomas Merton, The Silent Life
People often comment on the size of our family — “That’s a crowd!” But the truth is that family can be the very best of community, united in love.
A common purpose and working together create community, even when languages and religions are different.
The small town of Greene, NY, is community. When the village flooded some years back, we watched neighbors tirelessly helping neighbors and it struck me that this is a special community.
And then there’s Cooperstown, whose population swells from 2,000 to 50-, 60-, 70-thousand on Baseball Hall of Fame Induction weekend. Of course not everyone is like this, but an awful lot of make-a-buck people, get-that-autograph people, and swoon-at-celebrity people take over the village.
Along the lines of community, on Monday, I was reading a post from one of my favorite sites: The Rabbit Room.
It began with these words:
Recently, there have been a lot of conversations about how the Rabbit Room can best bring people together and support the work of creative communities across the world. We’re happy to tell you we’ve been listening, and today we are excited to lift the veil on the next frontier of the Rabbit Room experience.
How exciting, I thought.
As I read the next line, though, I became troubled.
We believe social media is the key to shaping the world into a better place.
Oh, golly, I thought. I guess we’re moving in different directions.
As they laid out their vision, I became more and more sure that this was a parting of the ways — until, that is, I came to the Grammar Police.
Our Grammar Police™ filter will automatically correct abbreviated textspeak and fill in you’re every missed Oxford comma, incorrect apostrophe and dangling modifier.
I looked at the “you’re” and the date, and started laughing. I had been April Fooled.
Well done, Rabbit Room.
To read the full post (and learn about the Chabbit), click here: Announcing the Next Evolution of the Rabbit Room
B is for Breathe
Abbot Pastor said:
A man must breathe humility and the fear of God
just as ceaselessly as he inhales and exhales air.
from The Wisdom of the Desert (collected sayings of 4th century ascetics, compiled and translated by Thomas Merton)
A swimming picture because it’s in swimming that we learn to be intentional about our breathing until it becomes so natural that we no longer have to think about it.
A is for Advent
In Seasons of Celebration, Thomas Merton reflects on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Saint Bernard spoke of three advents of Christ.
The first advent is “that in which He comes to seek and to save the lost.”
The third advent is “that in which He comes to takes us to Himself.”
The second advent, the one which I’ve been thinking on ever since reading about it, is the present advent which “is taking place at every moment of our own earthly life as wayfarers.”
Thomas Merton said, referring to the second advent, the one between the first and third,
To meditate on these two Advents
is to sleep between the arms of God
with His left hand under our head
and His right hand embracing us.
It is also to sleep ‘between the lots’ —
that is to say to
‘live at peace in the midst of our inheritance’.
Blogging from A to Z 2019
I’m taking one more go at the April A to Z Challenge — this time using quotes from Thomas Merton and photographs from my stash.
What is the A to Z Challenge? Basically, it’s a challenge to post every day except Sundays during the month of April, and, since it usually comes out to 26 posts, using the alphabet as inspiration for each day.
I’m loving my year of reading Thomas Merton, so I’m going to let him speak for me.
Tune in April 1 for the first Merton quote, based on the letter A.
Z is for Zaengle
Recently I found this photograph from 1982 of three of my sisters-in-law standing in front of my parents’ house.
Judging by their attire, the girls must have stopped by the house after a soccer game. Bud and I were in Syracuse, so they stopped by to see my family. My family and the Zaengle family are intertwined in so many ways.
A few years later, Mary, the one in the middle, lived with my parents for a while. I can remember my father telling me how much he liked to see the wild outfits that Mary wore. She was (and is) much more fashion-forward than I will ever be.
I asked Mary if she had any stories to tell about my father from when she lived there. She said,
The picture of a gentleman. Steady and calm.
I always appreciated being able to live with your family. I loved that DP was always still awake when I got home from work, even if I worked later than normal. He said that he liked to see what crazy outfit I was wearing but it felt to me like he wanted to be sure I was safe and sound. I never felt like an inconvenience but more an instant part of the family.
Whenever we were just talking, about nothing in particular, he was always attentive. He had time to talk and never made you feel like he had to get going. Little things like that stuck out to me.
Classy, cool dude.
My parents were role-models for hospitality. They welcomed so many people into their home.
Monti, my brother Peter’s friend, also stayed with my parents for a few years. He sent this to us before my father’s birthday party.
When I was attending graduate school at SUNY Oneonta, Don and Elinor invited me to live at their home. They provided me with a welcoming home, and a second family while I went to school. I feel like I became their fourth son. I attended family events, church, art show openings, Hall of Fame dinners, ran in two triathlons, and paddled the General Clinton canoe regatta with Jimmy. I took Natalie (the sheep dog) for walks, and watched her chase chickens and steal corn off our roadside stand. …
Monti’s wife Jennie added this:
I remember how much I loved coming to visit, and how welcome Dr. and Mrs. P always made me feel. There were so many fun things to do, like taking Natalie for walks, helping in the kitchen, listening to the Kingston Trio on the reel-to-reel, and double dating with Dr. & Mrs. P to get ice cream at the brand-new Stewart’s…
When we had our first baby, we stopped to visit on the way home from the hospital, so they were the first to see Alyson. Monti and Alyson stayed with Dr. and Mrs. P when Justin was born, as well.
As I’ve worked this month to write stories about my father, I’ve been struck again and again by how very blessed I’ve been by my parents. My father was a mentor to many, generous with his time, kind, and compassionate. He served his country and his community well.
He is very loved by so many people.
Plus, he’s a cool dude.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 