"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."  (The Apostle Paul speeking to the Greeks on Mars Hill in Acts 17:24-25).   

Visitors right on my front lawn recently:  a crippled young doe ambling somewhat aimlessly, looking at me with liquid eyes; likewise, a fully grown wild turkey hen, strutting slowly about the neighborhood as if to wonder what has happened to this neighborhood since American Indians long ago scouted these woods.  Both gave me pause to give thanks that my lot has been to live these last few years amidst woods and mountains that are friendly habitat for all creatures great and small.  I’ve discovered a warm security living in the shadow of these hills sandwiched between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies. They remind me often of how ephemeral my days -- that living here I am still just a transient, however long my pilgrimage might be. Meanwhile, I have a charge to care for this little plot of Eden, keep it tidy, and encourage to grow whatever my hand finds beautiful to plant, to savor the wild flowers, even dandelions.  As the years add up, I treasure and harness what energy that remains to think, reason, plan, do, pray about and worship, recognizing still that the whole universe is under His supervision.

True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true Fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow-   Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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“Let this be my only consolation, that wherever I am You, my Lord, are loved and praised.  The trees indeed love You without knowing You. The tiger lilies and corn flowers are there, proclaiming that they love You, without being aware of Your presence.  The beautiful dark clouds ride slowly across the sky musing on You like children who do not know what they are dreaming of, as they play.  But in the midst of them all, I know You, and I know of Your presence.  In them and in me I know of the love which they do not know…O kind and terrible love, which You have given me, and which could never be in my heart if You did not love me!…. Remembering that I  have been a sinner, I will love You in spite of what I have been, knowing that my love is precious because it is Yours, rather than my own.  Precious to You because it comes from Your own Son, but precious even more because it makes me Your son.“  Thomas Merton, from Thoughts in Solitude.

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