Good Words: Full Flower Moon

“The Art of Remembering.” Remembering has taken on new importance for me over my life. First watching my grandfathers lose their memories. Then having my own streak of health issues. I don’t remember months and months. Vague, flitting memories. At one point I couldn’t even remember the road I was driving on while I was driving on it. No idea what landmark I was looking for, not even sure I was on the right road, hoping I was in the right state since I didn’t remember leaving it.

But we are called to remember, a lot. Remember the works of the Lord. Remember what He has done. Nowadays I am trying to relearn how to remember. Every day I try to recall from the previous day one thing about the weather or nature (where am I in time?), one thing about a person around me (does anything/anyone exist besides me?) and one thing about myself (what is evening happening to me?). Some days it’s really hard, and that reminds me to keep going. So on that backdrop, I appreciated thoughts on the need to remember.

“Hot Chocolate Hospitality.” Lately I have been thinking a lot about hospitality and generosity. Interesting to see how someone else’s thoughts are approaching the topic, especially as they compare their pre- and post- Christ-seeking responses and how radically different they are.

A few poems. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the post. They are just short little poems, but poetry is a topic I have been exploring lately. At one point in my life I had this overwhelming idea that something wasn’t a “real” poem unless every word and line was full of double and triple meaning, and the whole idea just seemed exhausting. Some of the reading on poetry I am doing right now just talks about the joy of language and things that are just delightful to our ear like music, as well as capturing more of the essence of a thing than prose could. It has made poetry in general more accessible to me, but also I notice myself nodding along with what people describe as elements of poetry because I find they are the same things that I often find myself striving for in prose. The joy of language is the common thread, I think.

“A.C.T.S” Not my normal reading, but I was struck by the structure here. Again, I am not a big structure person, but how many times have I prayed, “I’m just too tired to even be able to figure out what I’m trying to say.” This framework has been helpful for me when I am too tired to think straight to walk through some of the things I mean to communicate. Sometimes a framework is all there is to keep you from wandering off into the ether or staring blankly at the wall, slack-jawed.