Lenten Reflection Day 18 (Mar 11): TIME (from Psalm 121).
SONG: Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper: https://youtu.be/VdQY7BusJNU
POEM: John Milton: On Time (excerpt): Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race, Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours, Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace; And glut thy self with what thy womb devours, Which is no more then what is false and vain, And meerly mortal dross; So little is our loss,So little is thy gain. For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d, And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d, Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss With an individual kiss …
QUOTE: J.R.R. Tolkien: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Lenten Reflection Day 17 (Mar 10): GOING OUT and COMING IN (from Psalm 121).
SONG: Come and Go by Juice WRLD & Marshmello (caution: some explicit lyrics): https://youtu.be/Dxm3cHrKcbA
POEM: Dana Levin: You Will Never Get Death / Out of your System (excerpt): How old is the earth? I asked my machine, and it said: Five great extinctions, one in process, four and a half billion years. It has always been very busy on Earth: so much coming and going! The terror and the hope ribboning through that.
QUOTE: Neil Gaiman: I like the stars. It’s the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they’re always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend … I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don’t last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust.
Lenten Reflection Day 16 (Mar 9): HEAVEN and EARTH (from Psalm 121).
SONG: Heaven on Earth by Stars Go Dim: https://youtu.be/YhCzzQQNnLA
POEM: May Swenson: Earth Your Dancing Place (excerpt): Take earth for your own large room and the floor of the earth carpeted with sunlight and hung round with silver wind for your dancing place.
QUOTE: William K Purkey: You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth.
Lenten Reflection Day 15 (Mar 8): LIFE (from Psalm 121).
SONG: Good Life by OneRepublic: https://youtu.be/fuI0bEdoF30
POEM: Carrie Law Morgan Figgs: Life (excerpt): 1. A moment of pleasure, An hour of pain, A day of sunshine, A week of rain, A fortnight of peace, A month of strife, These taken together Make up life. 2. One real friend To a dozen foes, Two open gates, ’Gainst twenty that’s closed, Prosperity’s chair, Then adversity’s knife; These my friends Make up life.
QUOTE: Nicholas Sparks: I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.
Lenten Reflection Day 11 (Mar 4): HEAVY UPON ME (from Psalm 32).
SONG: Heavy On Me by Whiskey Myers: https://youtu.be/82hlHPy4Oc8
POEM: William Shakespeare: Sonnet 50 (excerpt): How heavy do I journey on the way, When what I seek, my weary travel’s end …
QUOTE: W.B. Yeats: And heavy mortal hopes that toil and pass …