From The Vine

Still a few cherry tomatoes left on the vine. I wonder this morning when the last one will be picked for the season. This has been a year of rough roads, and answered prayers. We do not always get to choose the best of the crop, yet we keep watering, and pruning until Autumn takes us into a season of falling leaves, and bountiful harvests. Death, and dying seem to be a fate we want to run from, but yet no matter how we try we still must ripen for the harvest of our souls to heaven. "Let not your hearts be troubled says the Lord, for I am with you always." Sounds like a promising reassurance we can hold steady through faith; though men may offer, their words often fail in vain. 

I look out this morning, and I gather my thoughts like tiny fruit on outstretched branches. I see the morning dew like droplets of hope upon a new day dawning! 

Amen

God bless you all on this Sunday morning!

The Passing of Time and the Nickel Nine

Thoughts on a Saturday morning. The Passing of time, and the Nickle Nine:

 Well, I guess it is the last year of my middle years. The "Nickle Nine" does not feel much different than any other year with a few exceptions. I survived Covid this year which means I still have a little "Bad Ass" in me! We made it through a cancer scare with Lisa this year as well. Now is the time to make sure it does not come back; that is for sure!

Still in love with my best friend, confidant, counselor, and lover means everything. She knows when to jump my case, straighten me out when the going gets rough, and knows when to leave me be to get my attitude back on track. 

There is nothing like having a deck with a view to watch a blazing sunset, or a glowing moon on the rise while two furry friends play out in the yard. 

And what have I learned thus far? 

-Living simply is the key to contentment. 

- Doing your best every day does not always bring the ultimate outcome, or produce a feeling of satisfaction, but you still have to drive on in spite of the machine!

- Friends, family, and good times come, and go, but faith never leaves you; it is a daily choice you must make all on your own.

- Words are just words until they have meaning. You have every right to take them the right way, or the wrong way. Never read into things spoken in haste, or anger. 

- Self expression in whatever form is your connection to a higher power. Sing, dance, create, care, and always give thanks for the opportunity to grow deeper in your understanding of what it means to be a human being.

- Compassion is a rare, and beautiful thing. Make it a mission to spread the word by your example so that others may believe, and follow.

I could go on, but I will leave you with a bit of advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson of whom I share this birthing day:

 "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Love, and best wishes to all!

Good day!

If only Time

I take from Albert Einstein who wrote:

People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

In other words;

Time: A stubbornly persistent illusion.

"If Only We Could Be Strangers Again."

(From the film: Collateral Beauty)

When we were lonely

Longing for love

Time passed slowly

And death found reality

We saw little opportunity

Like sand 

Sifting in an hourglass

Of illusion.

Then we met

When we were strangers

Never again

And the world turned quickly

Death merely sand 

In an empty hourglass 

of illusion.

If only we could be strangers again

Feeling warmth, and a tremble

As two hearts learning to love once more

While time passed so quickly

Death merely sand

In empty hourglass

Of illusion.

But today is a new day

A gift that time provides

Love abides 

In collateral beauty

As death recedes

Like sand

Sifting through an hourglass

Of illusion.

D.A. Wittler 6/3/21

The Siege

A Few Thoughts: The Siege.

Perhaps it is time to come out again.

The gates were locked. The drawbridge chains wound. To the ramparts archers gathered, and knights rallied for the siege ahead.

That's my analogy for the fight against the covid virus. It creeps in unannounced like a Trojan horse. It masks itself as innocently as the common cold, and then jumps you like a thief in the night. 

The Siege begins, and all your energy is somehow drawn out of you. The fires are lit, and your lungs begin to fail. It is all you can do to focus on one breath at a time through your nose, and out through your mouth. In... out.... In... out. 

With great care nurses, and doctors rush in. They are the reinforcements who sure up the castle walls, and plan a counter attack. In their hands you trust, but it takes the fighter in you to help them with their task. 

And so they gather tools of siege warfare. Boiling oil in vials of blood. Gauntlets of steroids, and probing the enemy outside to find the weakest point to counter the blow within.

You hope you have enough reserves to outlast the long haul. Each day you fight, pray, and survive; that's all you can do as hour upon hour passes.

And finally the enemy weakens. Your body gains the advantage, and you have the virus on the run. Fires are extinguished, towers toppled; time to heal wounds of war. Rebuilding weakend walls takes time, but you can claim victory for today, and tomorrow is another day. I cannot say why some survive while others answer the final call, all I know is that there is no such thing as luck as long as you believe, pray, and are reassured that an army is behind you all the way!  

God bless you all.

D.A. Wittler 4/25/21

Reflections From A Hospital Bed

A few thoughts: Reflections from a hospital bed.

Moved To Mercy

As I lay here struggling

Just to breath

Nurses attending my every need

Doctors providing their opinions

I stare out the window

Wondering in isolation

"When will it end?"

While an insidious foe

Rages through my body

Like a wildfire out of control.

I have compared thee

To a siege from dark ages

When knights clashed

Protecting their reputations

But battle was not their only weapon

And only as a last resort

As they pledged to help the hopeless

The hungry, and oppressed

And so I call upon you

Oh noble knight within

To prepare for battle

As this foe rages on

And I scarce 

Can take another breath.

Oh Lord

Almighty Father

By whose benevolence I beckon

Not only for myself

But for all who suffer

From whatever cause

Physical, emotional or situational

Be comforted by your compassion

And through the saving grace

Of your son Jesus

Be forgiven of sin

Lifted up by your Holy Spirit

Brought to healing, peace of mind

And restful sanctuary.

May all who bring evil

Oppression, and suffering

Into this world

Upon the innocent

Be moved to mercy

So that healing can begin.

Amen

D.A. Wittler 5/16/21

A Work In Progress

I wonder 

if that poetic road less traveled 

is still there before me 

as I stand at a crossroad once again

Appearing 

as a festering meat sack

of human emotional baggage.

My past behind me

No future ahead

Just today

And all that it brings to table.

Regrets emerge

submerge themselves

In "If only" 

Then prayer comes forth

And silence listens.

A deafening roar

In a sanctuary of dim belief

Where marble walls, and staues stare

Into an abys of nothingness

Where candles glare

 from red, and blue stained vases

And I whisper into darkest spaces

"Where is God if faith is endless?"

When forced to fight

A man fights

But he always has the option

To turn the other cheek.

When forced to follow

A person follows

But has the choice

To take another path.

I may choose to fight

And lose

I may follow

And lose myself, and my convictions

But I will never be a sycophant to philosophy

Someone else's policy, or the idea that I must always just suck it up, and carry on because that's what human drones do to survive in a world not of their own making.

D.A. Wittler

2/09/21

Tennyson Transcends Time

A Few Thoughts: Tennyson Transcends Time.

 Through his epic poem, Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson speaks to me in these troubled times. For the pacifists among us, no harm be done, but for the patriots who writhe at this current chain of events in our nations history; take heart!

God bless!

Come, my friends,

’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.