Wes Roberts

...thanks, Pooh:

...one of my mentors, a deep-hearted and brilliant man who lives up in Idaho, often begins one of his missives with a quote from Winnie the Pooh, before taking us deeper into what is stirring in his soul

......such as this quote, which leads me to ponder

Who are you following?  Who am I?

"When going around a spinney of larch trees Tracking Something, be sure it isn't your own footprints you are following."

...indeed...........

...thank you, Pierre:

"What we are all more or less lacking

                 at this moment

     is a new definition of holiness."

                ...Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

...worth chewing on:

...indeed...!

...have been living this out.......

...with a young, pregnant homeless couple

...who have been dropped into our lives

...by divine appointment

...have walked into a whole new world of the disenfranchised

...like I've never experienced before

...can no longer ignore, even in a polite-good-Christian-gentle-yes-the-poor-will-always-be-with-us-so-I'll-buy-an-extra-turkey-at-Thanksgiving-for-those-poor-souls-who-just-can't-help-themselves sort of way

...the plight of the poor, even here in Denver, is beyond belief

...what's "this"

...thanks Mike T....!

...a poem by Wendell Berry:

The Real Work...

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *

...found on Alan Creech's blog

...thanks Thomas!

Precisely Who You Are...

Humility consists

            in being precisely the person

                        you actually are before God.

...from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

...by Thomas Merton

HHHhhmmmmmmm...

...what do you really think this means for today?

If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor,

he too will cry out and not be answered  (NIV)

...or.......

Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor

Will also cry himself and not be heard.  (New KJV)

.......or...

Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor

will be ignored in their own time of need.  (New Living Translation)

...........or.......

If you stop your ears to the cries of the poor,

your cries will go unheard, unanswered.  (The Message)

...the suggestion for looking at these potent words came from a good Skype time with my friend, Mike Todd...always stimulating and enriching conversations!

...who do you not trust?

...beginning with yourself...........who do you not trust?

...again, from Inward/Outward...a profound thought

Afraid of Being Hurt.......
We may need most to pity persons who have had no problems too big for themselves.  Such persons have no remembrance of pain and loss and a crying in the night which will let them hear this in the life of another. Perhaps of all people they are the most lost---lost to self and to a world acquainted with grief.

Somehow we keep our lives so well hidden from one another that we do not guess that we are not alone.  Distrust is among our subtle illnesses.  We were given hearts for "reciprocal trust," but fear has built high walls.  We are afraid of being hurt, and when we talk, we make ourselves vulnerable.  What we say can be used against us or betray our loyalty to another, and so we add isolation to our own burden and the burden of others.

...from--Journey Inward, Journey Outward...by--Elizabeth O'Connor

...why?...and...why?

...spent the afternoon with Andy Braner, one of the amazing developing leaders I get to hang with as soul friend and mentor, and he's coming back in the morning for some of my famous pancakes and more mentoring time together

...a recent blog post of his, viewed here, needs to be read and watched (watch all the way through on both videos...amazing!)

...and you are sincerely encouraged (...as in really encouraged...) to keep up with him on his blog

...it is grace-filled, vibrant, radical, creative, willing-to-take-sacred-risks men like Andy that give me hope, as few do these days

...but then I seem to be ultra blessed to have the sacred privilege of hanging with a fair number of this kind of person

...easily, I'm in his corner, have his back and am for him in every way possible

...plus I like the fact he's just a little bit nuts

...has the remarkable gift of a splendid wife and family

...and now they call Durango, CO home as they work well with expandiing the influence of Camp Kivu throughout our world, literally

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

...the picture of Andy and me was taken during the Summer of '8 when Judy and I were given the gracious privilege of a week in the guest cabin at what is now known as Camp Kivu, formerly Kanakuk Colorado

...thanks Bonnie!

...great quote from one of the "kids" from our former church youth group at Calvary Baptist Church in Whittier, California (circa, 1967-73)

...those "kids" are now in their 40-50s, and will always be "THE kids!" to us  :-)

"I read in Sue Monk Kidd's "First Light" that the difference between "Now Here" and "Nowhere" is just a matter of deliberately creating some space."

...she was responding to a recent blog post, and I'm glad she did!