The hard working man is thoughtful, and all is gain.
Too much haste and all that comes of it is want.
Nothing honestly tried is in vain.
Nor need anything us daunt.

As usual I was using the night to worry.
Than I concentrated on the concept of loving people.
The whole thought kept me steady.
As if I looking at a beautiful restored steeple.

Perhaps start with a grandchild.
Or spouse or son or daughter.
And let the thought be filed.
For resentment it’s a kind of blotter.

Love can be everywhere.
We just have to stare.

……

Love does conquer all
We have to ponder on it
And something happens

…..

See Proverbs 21

Lord who shall dwell on your holy mountain.
He who walks without fault.
There she shall walk, for on her was no stain.
Coming into her life’s work  only by default.

Yet she was the one who was  the faithful.
Her only thought that of service.
We who remember her are so grateful.
Truly she never did anyone any disservice.

Her guiding star , her Christianity.
Duty, everything stemmed from that.
Here was no vanity , only humanity.
To all that was required of her , she gave her fiat.

She kept her pledge, come what may.
Who can that gainsay.

….

Queen Elizabeth
Her guiding star was duty
To the very end

…..

See Psalm 14

The thing that you sow.
Is not what is going to come.
We may now be ever so low.
But now sound the drum.

The thing that is sown is perishable.
What is raised is imperishable.
It is truly spiritual.
No mere ritual,  but lyrical.

The thing that is sown is contemptible.
But what is raised is glorious.
All this is truly credible.
And ultimately victorious.

The soul has its own embodiment.
And so does the spirit have its own embodiment.

…..

The thing that you sow
Is not then the thing to come
It is glorious

…..

See 1 Corinthians 15 : 35-37, 42-49

Your brother here was dead .
He was lost and is found.
Our past is lost, we can barely look ahead.
The truth is hidden and too profound.

At Walsingham, reading the Litany of Humility.
Attributed to Cardinal Merry del Val.
It leads to a strange sense of tranquility.
In any setback, it’s good for morale.

From the desire to be esteemed deliver me Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled deliver me Jesus.
From desire of being preferred to others deliver me Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted deliver me Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated deliver me Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me Jesus.

….

From esteem’d desire
Please deliver us Jesus
From extolled desire

……

See Luke 15 : 1-32

All the runners at the stadium are trying to win.
But only one of them gets the prize.
And how can we free ourselves from sin.
Even with our our lows and highs.

All the fighters in the stadium go into strict training.
They do this to win a wreath that will wither away.
our wreath will never start withering.
We can only hope that’s true, we just have to pray.

I treat my body hard and make it obey me.
I should not want to be disqualified.
This is my only plea.
I only have one guide.

I am the slave of no one.
Just everyone.

…….

I am no one’s slave
But I’m slave to everyone
That must be the way

…….

See 1 Corinthians 9

I trust in your merciful love.

Happy are you when people abuse you.
Denounce your name as criminal.
All this is nothing new.
And it is pivotal.

As I listened to these words.
My mood brightened.
We may not be able to fly like birds.
But there  is no need to be frightened.

Things may go wrong all the time.
Our life of career has not turned out as we hoped.
We are no longer in our prime.
But to this life we are not for ever roped.
Things will get better next time.

So our difficulties will be rewarded.
And they will be recorded.

…….

We may be abused
We may be called criminal
But it’s to the best

……..

See Luke 6 : 20-26

The reasonings of mortals are unsure.
And our intentions unstable.
The restless ego is the lure.
And we wonder if all this is mere fable.

This tent of clay weighs down the teeming mind.
It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth.
We see,  yet we are spiritually blind.
We cannot even work out our true worth.

It is laborious  to know what lies within our reach.
Who then can discover what is in the heavens.
We may preach.
But truly we are at sixes and sevens.

How can we ever know the intentions of God.
We are just too flawed.

…….

Unsure reasonings

unstable intentions

Are surely our lot

See Wisdom 9: 13-18

 
Never have our speeches been simply flattery.

Nor have we looked for any special honours.

What could be more unspiritual.
Than your slogans , I am for Paul, I am for Apollos.
It all counts for so little.
What is important is what follows.

I , Paul, did the planting.
Apollos did the watering.
And God did the growing.
Neither waterer nor planter mattered in the making.

What difference did jealousy or wrangling make.
It is all one, who does the watering or the planting.
What matters is doing it for his sake.
Not all this ranting.

Delight not in the action but in the pause.
To ponder what we are doing in his cause.

……

Can we pause awhile
And take stock in the present
Not past and future

….

See 1 Corinthians 3 : 1-9

We teach spiritual things spiritually.
An unspiritual person sees it all as nonsense.
Nothing spiritual can be proven physically.
All this makes to us perfect sense.

The truth is we ca prove nothing.
We just have this insistent calling.
A distant mental buzzing.
Enthralling if sometimes stalling.

We teach not in the way philosophy is taught.
A spiritual man is able to judge the value of everything.
Science can be proved , ours is only thought.
And thus unexplained,  joy takes wing.

We seek the mind of Christ.
Is anything more highly priced.

…..

It’s philosophy
That has to be established
Not things of spirit

……

See 1 Corinthians 2 : 10-16

In the sermons that I gave.
There were none that belong to philosophy.
How much can we learn before the grave.
Is there something in theosophy.

Free the mind .
Concentrate on the moment.
Exactly as it is, it is all we can find.
Our personal endowment.

No arguments.
Just the power of the spirit.
We are the innocents.
Eternal life to inherit.

Follow the thought with recognition.
And compassion.

….

Follow the thought with
compassionate presence
And recognition

……

See 1 Corinthians 2 : 1-5

The greater you are .
The more you should behave humbly.
Ambition and pride are like a scar.
They prevent us behaving reasonably.

What now is the most important thing to me.
Where now the hopes of high office.
It’s my grandchildren and being with them, I now see.
That is what’s important, not profits.

The patter of little feet.
Gives more joy than resounding debate.
And who cares about some tweet.
And anyway all comes round with fate.

Where would I rather be .
Now more plainly can I see.

……

It’s the grandchildren
That give me the greatest joy
Now I can see it

……

See Ecclesiasticus 3

God chose what is foolish in human reckoning.
And to shame the strong, what is weak .
And what is not at all threatening.
So that we may all the better seek.

All suffering or dissatisfaction.
Arises from a mistaken understanding .
That we are a separate aberration.
Or distinct self, just existing.

Such was the Buddha’s teaching .
And I feel this too, this sense of selfness.
That imprisons us in aversion and craving.
And  in never ending rounds of selfishness.

We forget  the awareness  loving essence.
Connecting us to all life and acquiescence.

…..

Are we our selfness
Or are :we part of all life
Not confined this way

……

See 1 Corinthians 1 and “Radical Acceptance” by Tara Brach