a prophetic voice-

Good morning, dear ones far and near. Once again, the rains have watered the earth here in Carolina and the birds are joyously reaping the harvest of earthworms in my side yard. Earlier, a little wren sat on the branch just outside the window and serenaded me for precious moments. Now i hear him out on the rear deck, singing for all he's worth. The grass is green, green, green, and the world seems fresh and new, baptized by the refreshing nightime storms. And here i sit, reading, thinking about peace, presently reflected in the immediate world around me. Yet in the greater world, the world of which i am a part, as small as that is, of which we are all a part, peace seems only the glowing and unrealistic dream of Polyannas who refuse to admit how threatening the world really is...who are out of touch with life's realities and fears.  Well, count me among them...only i do not consider myself out of touch but rather only too aware of the fragility of life, of the daring...

Good morning, dear ones. I've been listening to NPR and ruing the news from Japan. More than 10,000 dead so far and the building around the third Fukushima nuclear reactor crumbled this morning. And yet... they're still fighting in Libya, and the former President of the Ivory Coast still refuses to step down,  and the governor of Michigan will sign the bill denying collective bargaining rights to state employees, even as a man who has lost 5 family members wanders around a shelter in Japan, uncertain of who or where or how he is. Makes me wonder about the way we set our priorities as a human race. Of course, the situation in Japan adds only one more piece to the crazy quilt of concerns which spreads across my life this day...and yours, too, i'm sure. I try very hard not to be sucked into discouragement, not to rail against injustice, lest i add yet another portion of violence to the already-overflowing tide which seems determined to envelope all of us, even a...