Memory Alone?

Today I felt more alone than I ever have in a long time....it may be because of all the undue stress I am placing on myself and feeling at the moment.

Whatever the cause all I know is that I have felt much more alone in returning from Korea than I ever did while I was in Korea.

Then today, I remembered so vivid something my high school guidance counselor said when I came back after graduation to get some advice. She had said that she had been doing her job for many years, yet had never seen someone as popular as I was, yet more alone walking through the halls than anyone else she had ever seen. She said it always perplexed her.

That is the way I feel today....popular, known by many....yet, feeling so alone. As if I am journeying through this life by myself with only GOD as my guide. And I do know that HE is all I want and all I need. But I am suppose to be journeying down the path in community with others.

Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

This was in "Living the Message" yesterday:

A beech tree in winter, white
Intricacies unconcealed
Against sky blue and billowed
Clouds, carries in his emptiness
Ripeness; sap ready to rise
On signal, buds alert to burst
To leaf. And then after a season
Of summer a lean ring to remember
The lush fulfilled promises.
Empty again in wise poverty
That lets the reaching branches stretch
A millimeter more towards heaven,
The bole expands ever so slightly
And push roots into the firm
Foundation, lucky to be leafless:
Deciduous reminder to let it go.

[Jesus said,]"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule." Matthew 5:3

And this one was in "Living the Message" today:

Flash floods of tears, torrents of them,
Erode cruel canyons, exposing
Long forgotten strata of live
Laid down in the peaceful decades:
A badlands beauty. The same sun
That decorates each day with colors
From arroyos and mesas, also shows
Every old scar and cut of lament.
Weeping washes the wounds clean
And leaves them to heal, which always
Takes an age or two. No pain
Is ugly in past tense. Under
The Mercy every hurt is a fossil
Link in the great chain of becoming.
Pick and shovel prayers often
Turn them up in valleys of death.

[Jesus said,]"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you." Matthew 5:4