Thank you

I must remember to say thank you to each of you who has kept encouraging me via Substack comment, emails, texts, and notes, and reminding me that I’m still on your prayer lists. A thousand pardons to each of you whom I’ve left unacknowledged--unfortunately, you’re in good company. Please don’t take the silence personally. I promise I read and reread every kind touch. And the issues with being able to comment seem to have cleared up. Thank you again for letting me know and trying again!

I have lots of ideas to write about, and I faithfully make useful (and legible) notes. Good ideas, and enough outline to run with. But it occurs to me that I might have to rearrange my spare time schedule so I can write when I feel it, ‘cause I sure don’t feel it when I get home from work. ... I just remembered I used to start my weekly ramble first thing of a Monday morning, when I’m feeling hopeful for the week. Another life, a long time ago… Monday morning is dedicated to something else these days, but I have other mornings, and now that it’s three minutes door to office door, I have that much more time...

Hmmm. I shall have to try something new. In the meantime, here’s a visual invitation to a lovely, long walk with a treasured companion, and a couple poems.

Toward the promise,

Lana

P.S. One of those tooth-gnashing issues I mentioned last week might be clearing itself up, upon a casual request for contact information for my lawyer. It’s gratifying what will galvanize the cowards. We’ll see if it really got mailed.

#405

O God in Heaven

Whom I am told

I might love so much

  that I forget to

  love myself

Which seems quite impossible

Inextricably bound up

  as I am

In this lump of flesh

Sparked alive by

  Your Spirit

Which seems many days too fragile

  for the task

Of holding the twain together

Of cementing the vital attachment

In this very loud and shiny

  and darkly heavy world

What might it be like

  to love You that much

  to remain otherwise continually

  dissatisfied

How can I love you

O God in Heaven

Teach me that

For I am entranced

But I have already forgotten

  yesterday’s lesson

5-4-23

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#409

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4

I have taken the

  begging bowl of my

  of my broken heart

Door to door

Hour by hour

Shore to shore

See what has been put

  into it

By the beautiful mad thoughtful

  heavy and

  equally broken world

The hatchet with which to

  break down my walls

The eyes with which to see

  beyond the shell

Kindred spirits with whom to

  hoist the remnants and the

  new materials into place

And the love with which to

  hold it all together

Come sojourn with me

Do not fear the shattering

For it will come

And until you are truly undone

Wholeness is only a dream

5-8-2023

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Here’s the link to last week’s issue Field notes

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#towardthepromise

All Bible verses are from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

© Lana Wildman Image © Michelle Schwartz