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Hope

Heavy clouds, heavy skies, heavy hearts. We know them all here in the land of fallen dreams. In the still of the morning, before the day is much started, there is time to reflect. A life reflected upon gives a taste of what’s past, what is, and what is to come. Were it not for the promise of brighter days, life could be a drudge. And yet … brighter days promise. Radiant rays promise hope. Hope is the anticipation of what is promised, though yet some days distant. Clouds, skies, hearts. Things are looking up.

But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day; the saints triumphant rise in bright array; the King of Glory passes on His way. Alleluia!

Contrail

The dock. A place of fraternity. A place of conversation. A place of laughter. An energetic place.

It is also a reflective place. A contemplative place. In an inverse world it is an equivalent place, a place where things can be seen aright, where life is normalized. Here all is as it should be. Sit in the chair, breathe the silence, sense the calm. Think.

Come now, you who say ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ – James 4.13-15

The smoke-addled sun presents a water-borne contrail … a rosy path forward toward the horizon, ever westward … toward tomorrow.

Weathered

Greyed, sun-checked, porous and thirsty, protection against the elements compromised – these are the characteristics of worn-out wood. Once it proudly served its purpose against time, sun, and rain – but those very things have taken their toll. Effectiveness is a dim memory.

It happens with age to everything. It happens with age to everyone. None is immune. Eventually what is left is to gaze wistfully at what had been. Existing with diminished purpose.

To prompt self-reflection … perhaps that is now its purpose.