May the Thirty-First

KEEP watch over us, night and day. Provide us with what we need ... and remind us to be thankful for it.
Be with us in the dark of night and the light of day.
When we are growing tired, when we are discouraged, when we feel pity for ourselves, give us hope.
Be the love we see in a mother's gaze, the purity we feel in the afternoon's breeze, the cool sweetness we taste in the mountain water.
Be our protector, our courage, our charity, our innocence and our knowledge.
Love us always, even when it is difficult - please.
- BY THE BLOG AUTHOR

May the Thirtieth

GRACIOUS GOD, on this Memorial Day weekend, we remember and give thanks for those who have given their lives in the service of our country. When the need was greatest, they stepped forward and did their duty to defend the freedoms that we enjoy, and to win the same for others.
O God, you yourself have taught us that no love is greater than that which gives itself for another. These honored dead gave the most precious gift they had, life itself, for loved ones and neighbors, for comrades and country – and for us. Help us to honor their memory by caring for the family members they have left behind, by ensuring that their wounded comrades are properly cared for, by being watchful caretakers of the freedoms for which they gave their lives, and by demanding that no other young men and women follow them to a soldier’s grave unless the reason is worthy and the cause is just.
Holy One, help us to remember that freedom is not free. There are times when its cost is, indeed, dear. Never let us forget those who paid so terrible a price to ensure that freedom would be our legacy. Though their names may fade with the passing of generations, may we never forget what they have done. Help us to be worthy of their sacrifice, O God, help us to be worthy. Amen.- THE REVEREND CHUCK CURRIE

May the Twenty-Ninth

AND GOD spake all thee words, saying
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me,
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth, beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. for the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor they son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
And they said unto Moses, Speak th0u with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, less we die.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
- EXODUS, Chapter 20

May the Twenty-Eighth

AND THEY CALLED Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.
And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man; and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
AND Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide; and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master; therefore she took a veil, and covered herself.
And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
- from Genesis, 25, Isaac meets Rebekah

May the Twenty-Seventh

LIVING BEINGS are without number;
I vow to row them to the other shore.

Defilements are without number;
I vow to remove them from myself.

The teachings are immeasurable;
I vow to study and practice them.

The way is very long;
I vow to arrive at the end.

- four vows of the bodhisattva

May the Twenty-Sixth

TO BECOME truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.

- GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

May the Twenty-Fifth

WATCH your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
- ARISTOTLE

May the Twenty-Fourth

EXPECT your every need to be met, expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level, expect to grow spiritually.

- EILEEN CADDY

May Twenty-Third 2011

FOR now I'll enjoy what I can.
A cigar, a musical serenade, friends, memories ... .
Right now it's enough.
I'm not fighting the end.
It will come in its own time.
I always thought I might
Wait it out and still be standing at the end.
That's not how it turned out
But this is good enough.
Why did I never think death
Would come for me?
And those men outside the window:
You don't think a one of them
Considers death might come for them, do you?
No, not the living. Even if we always
Expected it, the shock of it actually
Arriving is a total surprise.
- by the Author
@Life magazine photo by Thomas D. Mcavoy, April 1959.

Serenaded by Horston American Legion oldest Civil War Veteran Walter Williams lying in bed w. cigar.

May Twenty-Second 2011

O SPIRIT, we are still here. Standing, sitting, laying - weighted down by the glorious gravity created by the earth's spin. The world is fresh, with new leaves, new grass, new flowers. New us, every day: cells leaving, cells growing.
Break off a flower stem and you will see the sap of life. Water, blue water. And where would we be without it?
Take my offering today, my offering of joy and adoration for this world. My feet will travel bare through green grass. My hands will smooth the wild fern and caress the herbs, causing it to release the smell of the wild world, as it has been since the beginning.
My eyes will feast upon my own small view of heaven.
- By the Author