RenaissanceMan
Select Thoughts from a Liberal Artist
vol. 9

Circe for Penelope and Lea for Rachael

I cannot control the tears for, day after day I think only of having her near me to hear my mind and comfort my soul; I long to lay in her fragrance and embrace her down. But, night after night is curious duty; the embrace of strange familiarity and the painful discovery of passionless pleasure. Oh, flee, my soul, to sweet sleep, to the hope of dreams and to the hand of God.

Talking to God

LORD,
Is Lea my woman or my wife only?
She is strange with me.
Where is Rachael and when shall I have her?
I am in agony without her.
My body and soul are restless until I see her.
-Jacob

LORD,
Spare him the pain of a foolish woman.
-Job (2:10)

Proverb

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

[Hope deferred maketh the heart sick When once a good is discovered, want of it felt, strong desire for the possession excited, and the promise of attainment made on grounds unsuspected, so that the reality of the thing and the certainty of the promise are manifest, hope posts forward to realize the blessing. Delay in the gratification pains the mind; the increase of the delay prostrates and sickens the heart; and if delay sickens the heart, ultimate disappointment kills it. But when the thing desired, hoped for, and expected comes, it is a tree of life, ets chaiyim, "the tree of lives;" it comforts and invigorates both body and soul. -Clarke]

How may such longing be fulfilled to know the comfort and invigoration of body and soul?
What damage of death disappointment does!

My Neighbor, Jack

When I was in the bathroom in the night, I heard a jingling sound which confirmed my suspicions. A blasted dog was nosing in my 15 year project: my beloved perennial flower garden! Quickly my imagination raced: tomorrow I will be working in dog pee; or worse. Oh! Trampled Columbine! (doesn't that stupid dog know that it's the state flower, protected by law?) Oh, no! The Lupine are so delicate! And my Gaillardia! Hey! - I raise the blinds in a flash, " Hey, man!Please! Don't let your dog in my flower garden!! "

Oops! It was my next door neighbor. Who knew? And he took offence at my tone. I had no idea he felt this way about me or about his dogs and my flower gardens. I wish we had talked before. Then I might have let him know, when we were still friends, that the garden is that important to me, and even now I can say that in a more civil tone because, I'm sorry that I gave offence, I just want to enjoy my flowers.