Mary's Heartbeats

Aftermath After the rain has stopped, After the snow has fallen, After the leaves have dropped face down, After the colored lights have dimmed, After the carols have all been sung, After the bows untied, the packages unwrapped, After all the Christmas cookies are gone,  After it's all over, What remains?    Aftermath, The pause between now and then, The break between past and future,  The mystery of the known and unknown, The New Year unfamiliar, the Old Year much too recognizable, What now? Where do I go from here?   Aftermath, Picking up the pieces of the undone, the unfinished, Put simply, living in the same manner, Pursuing peace and goodness, Practicing love for God, myself and others. Praying for greater faith to believe that even in my aftermath, Emmanuel is with me, Even if I don't recognize his Faithful Presence.   Aftermath,    An interrupted night,   A flock of sheep left unattended,   A chorus of angelic beings proclaiming th...

Christmas Eve awakens me at my usual 5 AM, but without the clock radio going off.  It's actually the sound of heavy rain drops that have persisted throughout the night that nudge me out of bed.  How wonderful to be blessed with rain, real rain, not just a light dusting of water.  The trees, the grasses, the mountains all seem to be rejoicing with each drop.  And the promise of snow for our mountains and foothills is on its way this coming week.  I always think that God graces this time of year with the best decorations, the golden crimson leaves, that dance in the windy breeze, the spotless crystal skies, and the orange harvest moon wrapped in silky clouds at night.    As I drive home each night from my new job, I weave in and out of side streets in small local towns that make up the suburbs of our Inland Empire.  I have enjoyed the festive Christmas lights that fill the main streets of each one and of their shopping centers, as well as the houses...

Sweat seems to appear with even the slightest exertion.  California is no longer the place for dry heat.  This summer with the monsoon weather backing up to the mountains, has brought a Midwest humidity.  The kind of humidity that requires at least 2 showers a day to get a bit of comfort.  Yes, times have definitely changed since I first came to live here 40 some years ago.   Just another reminder, that time moves on,  with all of the changes it brings.  New homes and shopping centers are built in former quarry pits, dry fields, and old golf courses.  I feel myself mimicking my Father's words when we would drive through his old hometown, and he'd remark on "the baseball field that used to be there before that new building."  Time never stops, just like our earth never stops its spinning. . .  I think the Apostle Paul felt that kind of sentimental yearning, especially when he had to bid farewell to his dear friends from the city of Ephesu...

I don't know why it has taken me so long to write again, you would think with a pandemic and so much time at home that I would be back to writing daily.  But not, and I feel very out of practice.  Sometimes I am not sure why I am not better at accomplishing tasks, I would much rather go for a walk or a hike, or enjoy a swim, anything but doing a "to do list."  So perhaps that is why I have even discovered with Gypsy Rose, that the best way to get her to walk with me, instead of me walking with her, is to let her leash loose, let go. . .  Gypsy Rose is now 13 months plus and has become a joyful doggy girl.  She gets along great with other dogs, runs like a gazelle at the doggy park, swims like a fish, and is great with playing ball, with tennis balls or a frisbee.  She has learned to sit, stay, come, and would probably be excellent if I was a more consistent leader.  But in spite of me, she has been able to accomplish those things.  The hardest and...

Staying put is a message we don't usually want to hear.  We are accustomed to getting up and going as we please.  We call it freedom in that we don't have to answer to anyone about our whereabouts.  We are free to be.  We take our freedom as a God given right, something that our ancestors died for.  Free to defy laws and mandates, especially if it infringes on our rights.  But I wonder do we really know what our ancestors died for?  Perhaps it wasn't quite the freedom that we imagine today. Jeremiah was asked to pray for the remnant of people left behind from the Babylonian conquerors.  These were the poorest of people, not worthy of being taken captive to Babylon.  They were survivors of horrors, their city ransacked and destroyed, their recently appointed leader murdered, along with 80 other men.  Those corpses just cast aside into a cistern to further contaminate any drinking water.  These people  had nothing to claim for th...