Moments

  Was I Heroic? Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend, I planned on a three hour bike on the interstate feeder road. There is not a lot of traffic there other than the few off ramps from freeway. You just have to watch out for those vehicles coming off the freeway. I went through an industrial park complex-about a mile and a half loop-figuring to do it 2 or 3 times before heading north on the feeder road. For some reason I did only 2 loops. Out on the feeder I thought about turning right at the next crossover and pick up a few miles on the southbound feeder before heading north again. At the last moment, I decided to just go straight; keep going north. About a half mile from that intersection was a freeway off ramp and I got across ahead of a vehicle which seemed to coming really fast. Then suddenly, right me, I heard the crash, bang, scraping sound that only an automobile accident sounds like. The off ramp has a quick turn to it and the vehicle had failed to negotiate t

  By the fire on this frosty morning, there is a quiet peace of Spirit - a knowing, a sensing, a loving that now permeates my being and washes over me like a gentle warm wave, tingling my soul with a delight that is not fully comprehended.    Peace and joy glow within and without as yesterday’s failures and successes softly drift away into the silent swirling fog.   Distant times are fading into hazy reflection.   The past and future are now.   All that is felt, and all that remains is this one moment, this warmth, and a love that only intimacy with God can create.     Thank you, God, for this moment in which one truly lives in life eternal, living life in You.  

  The Mystery of a Turn Not Taken The Power of a Mother’s Prayer     She always prayed for me prior to these events.   But this would be my first Half-Ironman distance triathlon, and the distances concerned her.   My mother was in her nineties and had never been real sure about triathlons.   However, having accumulated some extensive experience with me, she had always been aware that me and my activities could sometimes be a little off dead center.     The distances concerned me too, and I was more than a little nervous.   Early the next day, on the edge of a large lake, just before the start, I prayed too.     The wind wasn’t bad yet, thank God.   There was an eerie quietness to it all, like in the eye of a storm.   The long line of buoys that marked the swim course out into the open lake had given my prerace jitters a serious booster shot.   Will this ever start?   The starting gun sounded and we raced into the water for the long swim.   Once I was out in the open

  The Lady No One Could Stand   She wasn’t pretty. In fact, she had a somewhat disheveled look to her.   Who knows what her job was   where   I worked at, but she came around to transact some sort of business in my department now and then. Everyone avoided her as much as possible.   “She’s mean and hateful,” they would say.   “She’ll bite your head off. Better to leave her alone.” Indeed, she looked the part. Her furrowed brow, her large eyebrows, the narrow hollow eyes, the set jaw, all gave her the look of someone you better leave alone.   She never had much to   say, and what she did say was short and curt, in a “better leave me alone” tone.   No one could stand her.    But Something wouldn’t let me stop wondering why someone would want to be such a mean and disagreeable person.    Every time she would come around that thought would peak my curiosity.   Besides curiosity, I also felt pity that someone could choose to live   life so full of bitterness.   On my own I am not