Today is the fourth year anniversary of this blog. It’s also my brother Mark’s birthday. Mark will be 56 today. I’m wishing Mark a happy birthday and thankful that I’ve been able to hang around another four years to share what’s been on my mind.
Prayer request
Yesterday I learned that my sister has cancer. We don’t know much about it at this time, but she will meet with a surgeon Tuesday to determine their course of action. I’m a person who tries to help others but in this case there is not much I can do except pray. I ask you to do the same because I sincerely believe that prayer can move mountains and that our prayers can help my sister to regain her health. Thanks in advance.
Franciscan blessing
In a few days I will be celebrating four years of sharing my thoughts. It’s been quite a journey and like most journeys I have meandered around and at times thought of getting rid of this thing. Sometimes I’m embarrassed when reading my own thoughts. At other times it’s been interesting to see the growth of my writing and to reflect on how much this experience has helped me to become a more reflective person and a better writer. I’m thankful too for the occasional readers who comment on my writing. One of the first pieces I shared was not mine at all but a prayer I read on a card at Mt. Irenaeus on one of my many visits there. The community at Mount Irenaeus continues to animate my life. It has been nearly ten years since I first visited the Mountain and in that time much has happened. I share this prayer that comes from a Franciscan publication because it continues to touch my heart.
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.
From “Troubadour: A Missionary Magazine”, UK Spring 2005
White desert
Today is one of those typical January days that define winter in the western southern tier of New York. It’s 9 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a mist of snow and ice crystals in the air. It’s a good day to be close to the fire. Frigid days and nights are said to produce a good crop of maple syrup in a few months. Maybe that’s just legend but if it’s true then today is filled with sweetness. For most of my life I’ve wished I lived someplace else at this time of year. I’d still prefer the sun’s warmth to days like today, but I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of the white desert. I’ve been privileged to visit the Sonoran desert of Arizona at certain times and a few weeks ago as I made my way in this winter wonderland I came to appreciate the parallel between the Sonoran desert and our countryside in winter.
We all need deserts in our lives to help us better define and appreciate the lushness of creation in our day to day life. I’ve felt a closeness with my creator which I cannot describe when I’m in these deserts and it has been the desert experiences which have blessed me.
I will lead you into the desert; there I will speak to your heart. — Hosea 2:14
The Lord’s Prayer
Since writing this morning’s post I thought of how much my thoughts align with the Lord’s prayer and how attention to this day is what’s implied and expressed in the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
New day
Later tonight we’ll officially ring in the new year, but each day is really new and each minute for that matter no one has ever experienced before because the future and the past are just illusions. The only time is now and it is the only time that ever matters. What I’m doing this minute writing my thoughts are a reflection of my experience and my hope for the future which is a breath from now. New Years is then just an illusion, an artifice by which we demarcate time. Earlier this week I came upon a quote attributed to the Buddha.
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.–Buddha
We create such distinction in time too. The only time that matters is now. A friend of mine once asked me if I could talk to the higher power what time would it be. I thought and thought and finally my friend said, “he’d say it was now.” The wisdom of that thinking makes more sense now. It is always now. It is never not now. I have fond memories of past events but I can’t go back to them nor can I go forward to the future until it happens. My thoughts shape the present and the future. I’ve thought about this a great deal lately. I don’t pay much attention to the news as their thoughts are always anxious. Removing their input has removed a great deal of anxiety from my life. I don’t listen to the weather forecast as that is really only an educated guess of the future. I look outside to see what I should wear and consult the thermometer to see how many layers of clothing I need. I live more or less contemplatively. Happy new day to you and may all of your new days be happy and filled with growth and abundance. Peace be with you and all you love.
A bird in the hand
I forgot to mention that I was able to incorporate the incredible picture of the little bird in my hand into my new theme. Holding that little bird was a moment of grace. Not my grace, but the grace of God who blesses, forms and informs my life. On December 7th when that event occurred it was exactly the kind of reassurance I needed. Earlier in the week I had been part of the funeral of my long time friend Paul and when that little bird landed in my hand it was just as if Paul and God were reassuring me of his contentment in his new life.
I wanted to celebrate that event and the blessings in my life by putting it where it is. It’s a tangible reminder of the grace of God in my life. Peace.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is an African word that means community or the sense of community and community responsibility. It’s a contrast in an age of self absorption. I like Desmond Tutu’s description here:
One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.
Recently I’ve installed Ubuntu for a couple of people and I’ve even been using Ubuntu more myself. Ubuntu is a free Linux operating system that can power a computer very nicely. I’ve recently helped a couple of clients whose Windows computers had been trashed by spyware. Ubuntu the operating system is appropriately named because it provides a low cost yet reasonable way for many folks to have access to a computer and the internet.
Today I’m installing Xubuntu for a person who has an older Dell with a Pentium III processor. Last night I downloaded and installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix for my own Dell Mini-12 which needed an upgrade. Earlier this week I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 Server edition and set up a virtual cloud in a virtual machine on my Ubuntu equipped Dell Inspiron 6400. Wonderful concept and wonderful operating system.
Thankful heart
I’ve got a whole week off and I’m enjoying it. I got a 4.0 at St. Bonaventure last semester too. Going back to graduate school was a lot of fun it turns out and it was a homecoming too. I was scared at first but gradually warmed up to the idea. Christmas was fun too. Devin was home with his girlfriend and Dara’s spending a week with us. It’s almost like life used to be like except we’re older and maybe a bit wiser. I got a lot of nice gifts this week. One of them is a Keurig Coffee maker.
I watched a bit of television tonight, but not enough to really spoil me. I spun around the news, but it’s all pretty negative. I even like Countdown, but it’s just too negative. I don’t even read much of the news blogs anymore. They’re all very negative and once I got weaned from them and discovered that I could live without a newspaper and news programming I became a lot more contented. It’s all very cynical programming.
I’ve become an active Facebook user and a very active Twitter’er. One of the people I met through presenting at NYSCATE the last few years inspired me to create a Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud in a virtual machine. It’s working too and I’m learning more new things. That’s gotten me back to Ubuntu and today I used my Ubuntu machine almost exclusively. I’ve been using the Mac Book Pro a great deal this fall and feeling a bit guilty that I sold out the open source community. Going back to school I thought I ought to be a bit more mainstream. I was a bit wrong as I never really needed anything other than Google Docs and Moodle along with reading books and using Google Scholar to complete the two courses I took at St. Bonaventure.
My experience once again confirms that Linux and Ubuntu in particular is all I really need to be productive. I cannot rave enough about Virtual Box either. That is one fine product and is my favorite desktop virtualization software. I’m darn glad I didn’t retire in June too. I’m looking forward to an active semester in a few weeks. I covet your prayers. Peace!
Fourth Sunday
Today was the Fourth Sunday in Advent. Gosh, The other three Sundays have breezed by. The sun was out today on my trip to Mt. Irenaeus and though it was a chilly 20 degrees Fahrenheit it made for an enjoyable day. Christmas is only five days distant and when I got to the Mountain I climbed out of my car with my bag of groceries. Almost immediately I was surrounded by a small flock of chickadees who welcomed me home. Coming to Mt. Irenaeus always seems like home especially if I’ve been away a week or two. Today, once again the chickadees lit in my hand and I’ve embedded a video that I took with my Flip Camera. I feel so blessed to have these little fellows land in my hand. It’s very inviting and true to the Mountain’s mission they have a way of making all things new in Jesus Christ.
Fr. Lou McCormick, OFM today’s celebrant, asked me to read the Second Reading today and I also got to bring up the gifts along with fellow Secular Franciscan, John Dutcher. Today’s attendance was small due to the end of the semester at St. Bonaventure University, but these smaller gatherings are always a bit more intimate and that is very enjoyable for me. After brunch was complete I drove down to Olean, New York for a bit of shopping and then stopped by St. Elizabeth Motherhouse, the home of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany. They have a lovely creche that I like to visit during the holidays. I also spent sometime in their chapel. I arrived in time for Eucharistic adoration. Thank you very much to the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany who were my teachers from Kindergarten through some of high school.
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