Breath returns

There have been few blogs the last few weeks. I misplaced my journal, which captures three pages of internal process each day. For that amount of time, writing elsewhere (and even leaving the house) has been an effort.

When you are a writer, words on paper or screen are compulsory not optional. Your fingers miss the grip on a pen or the tap on the keyboard: life plateaus in shallow breaths. You're afraid to think too deeply without somewhere to go if you hit a wall. The best ladders up and over the day or out of the night are words on paper.

I found my journal tonight. Mind you, I was desperate enough to grab the three empties from a shelf upstairs and bring them down to the apartment with me. If I hadn't discovered my heart's written hiding place, I would have had to start on a blank book. I was that anxious to write.

With ballpoint pen in hand, I spread the lined pages. Waiting, I begin.

Breathe. 

In. Out. 

Relief.

Internal quiet 

and singing.

Words on pages.

Grip that pen.

Joyful spilling

of a hurting heart.

What helps you breathe?

Read more:

*God does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number. Job 9:10 NEV

*Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Psalm 119:18 NEV

*Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. 2 Corinthians 1:3 NEV

Moravian Prayer: Great Architect, often in our busy lives we tend to forget the marvels of life around us that you have provided. There is no better time than now for us to stop and appreciate all you have done for us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Amen.

CS Lewis in Mere Christianity: Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it. Nowadays most people hardly think of Prudence as one of the ‘virtues’. In fact, because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are ‘good’, it does not matter being a fool.

But that is a misunderstanding. In the first place, most children show plenty of ‘prudence’ about doing the things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly. In the second place, as St Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only ‘as harmless as doves’, but also ‘as wise as serpents’.

He wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim. The fact that you are giving money to a charity does not mean that you need not try to find out whether that charity is a fraud or not. The fact that what you are thinking about is God Himself (for example, when you are praying) does not mean that you can be content with the same babyish ideas which you had when you were a five-year-old. It is, of course, quite true that God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have.