WORDS LIKE LIGHT 

Monday, September 6, 2021

HELPFUL

         Today, I hope I can keep in mind how helpful every present moment always is. Somehow, our very considerate universe has designed reality so that each and every present moment is friendly and eager to please. Strange as it sounds, even those moments that make me afraid or forlorn are useful, though usually in veiled ways.  All I have to do is get quiet (which is not easy for me to do!) and remove the veil, and the neighborliness of even a seemingly luckless moment will be revealed, helping me to see the hidden value in such moments. Each waking moment today – each of the approximately 57,000 of them – will be a thoughtful and supportive friend, eager to help in any way. When I hear or read the word ‘God’, I think of the always beneficent present – or perhaps I should use the upper-case – Present – because, to me, the boundless, user-friendly present moment is the only truly super-power – the only God – in the universe, and it is by my side at all times! Jesus told his followers that ‘the day of salvation’ that they were waiting for was right here and now, in the thoughtful and friendly present – and today I hope to be watchful – and grateful – for its neighborly help.  

AN UNUSUAL DISPLAY
(Bill M., 87, Blessings, CT)

The night gave him a lingering hug
and then helped him see the daylight coming, 
and soon there was an unusual display 
of comfort and everlastingness,
as though it was the start of spring
in everything, as though even 
the radio beside the bed was fresh and new
and had just seen him for the first time, 
how lovely he looked beside it,
and how fortunate it felt 
to be his radio. 
The only thing he knew, though,
was the thoroughness of his life just then, 
and he wove his thoughts 
in and out of the sunlight and the sounds of birds 
and the big life he had just been given. 
It felt like freedom had no end, 
and his radio hoped he would lean in 
and touch it and turn on music
to make its soul and his be helpful
to this revolutionizing new world
whose hands brushed his and it
and was transforming everything
moment after moment after moment.