I Had a Little Extra Time

Tonight for our Supper Fellowship,
I made pot roast (pre-shredded for easy eating)
With a vegetable gravy,
And homemade gnocchi with
Garlic butter cheese sauce,
With fresh homemade bread and good butter,
And green beans.

One said, “This is stupid good,
Which is the highest praise I can say about anything.”

And, really, I think she was right.

The Stacks

I decided to read a book a day
For the next year. I figured
It wouldn’t finish my stacks of unread works,
But it would make a dent.

Four weeks in, I have read forty.

I realize now that I didn’t necessarily need
To read them all, but rather needed some feeling of order
Among my hundreds of unreads.
And I achieved that.

I have one book that I look forward to reading for fun. One.

Most of the rest of my books are not escapist pleasantry.
They are classics, with death and despair,
Or historical fiction, set during war and deprivation.
I have a goodly number of self-help,
More aptly titled, “How you’re doing it wrong,”
And a goodly number of Christian books (more of the same).

So I started to separate those that I intend to read
From those that I am not sure I ever want to get to.
And this was incredibly freeing.

I have shelves now, where I can pull one at will
And read it through.
And a single shelf with books that I am not committed to,
But will look at briefly and decide: be rid of? Or read?

But they are divided: the somedays from the maybe nots.

They have been organized.
All boys who entered the storage space
Were amazed at the difference.

And I am simply
Grateful.

The Ambulance and the Fence

There was a precipice.
People kept falling over,
Needing ambulances.

The city counsel proposed
An ambulance service. All voted
Yea, except one man. He suggested a fence.

“I have asked every one of the fall victims,
And all have wanted an ambulance.”
And so the ambulance service commenced.

We have both fence and ambulance.
The fence is the power, in Christ,
To be free from sin.

But should you skirt the fence and fall,
There is an ambulance available:
Repentance.

If we sin, our loving father still loves,
And so he disciplines. That is unpleasant.
So repent, and return to joy.

Preservative

I once sat in a lecture by a believer,
Who encouraged his hearers
Not to hold back unbelievers from
The slippery slope.
Instead, maybe give them a little push.

This was long ago, and I hope
His hope was that they would reach the bottom
And turn to Christ.

How different, though, from Christ,
Who called his followers to be the salt of the earth.

We live in an age of refrigeration.
In a hot climate without ice or electricity,
Salt would have been a preservative.
(And a flavor enhancement.
And a substance needed for survival.
If you sweat too much with salt, you die.)

This world is decaying.
So preserve what you can.

I suspect that love
Goes further towards winning souls
Than a push.

Bach

After months of painstaking practice,
I can play “Moonlight Sonata,” mostly.

Full stop.
That one piece was so challenging,
And took so long, I had no direction next.

I thought recently about Bach.
He, perchance, had some simple piano exercises.

And so arrived a book, and I started the first one.
Immediately recognizable,
“Minuet in G.”

So lilting and lovely it makes me cry
Even to play it imperfectly,
Or when I hear it in a tinny YouTube video.

I know this is not a difficult piece,
And that I will be able to play it well at some point
Somewhat soon,
But until then, I get to enjoy
The glory of Bach.

Such a gift.

Advent I

A candle for hope.

Not only a remembrance that Christ came,
But a reminder that, to this world of woe,
Christ will come again.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Knives

I once bought a set of inexpensive,
Sharp knives for travelling.
I could cook on the road without risking anything expensive.

A friend saw this and was impressed,
But she later mentioned that she went to the store
And they were gone.

Months later, I was shopping and noticed the set.
And so I bought them, hesitantly,
Because who knows if her family had them in mind.

But seeing her joy and overwhelming gratitude
Reminded me:
Do not delay being kind.