but be you blithe and bonny....

Well, it's been awhile, I'm quite aware - I've just been in that "non-bloggish" place. Of course that leaves me with this trunk of thoughts in my head that overflow,but don't really connect; yet I am quite capable of putting them all down and creating QUITE a head-scratching sense of "what the...?"

For starters, this morning was the first morning in two years that I wasn't woken up by the sound of two paws clawing at my dust ruffle for a good three minutes, followed by intrusive 27 pound "pay attention to me kitty" leaping up on the bed. Dear Bailey, as Stacie moves to Virginia tomorrow, she found him a new home. (see, how's that for pointless rambling?)

I could go into chemo-chronicling, but really, twice is quite enough, I know I'VE got the point, I'm sure you do too!

But actually, there were some moments of not-feeling-quite-well-curled-up-in-bed, this weekend that got me to thinking. How Sir John Fortescue, Cervantes, Kit Marlowe and John Donne were extremely on the money when they said that "Comparisons are Odious." And yet, it is in the art of comparison that much of our western culture feeds and thrives. From paychecks to houses to outer appearances to skills to health to various material items, we are programmed to compare and accumulate that which doesn't matter at all. I got in a momentary bluesy place of comparing myself to all those fun people that got to do things like play outside and travel and go to work. (I said this was a momentary thing, so NO NO NO NO NO "awww" moments for me!!!) Fortunately, a door in my memory opened and I thought of my dear cousin Angel, who's had a lifetime of where she COULD succumb to such thoughts, but chooses strength and to see the can, not the cannot. I thought of walking through Auschwitz and Birkenau and how hope and glory did and have arisen from the ashes of SUCH imaginable hell and horror. And, for that moment, I had a different understanding and interpretation of when Paul says, "...Therefore we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses..." It's amazing how we, ok, I can get so pre-occupied with "self" leaving no room for anything else. And while,right now, I'm not reveling in the architectural wonderment of Wawel Castle, or saddling up horses for campers,(there shall be NO singing of THAT song!!) there is a journey for me, an internal one. Much like the seashell that travels the ocean floor. Sir Thomas Browne put it well:

If thou could empty all thy self of self,
Like to a shell disinhabited.
Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf,
And say, "This is not dead,"
And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou
And has such shrewd activity,
That when He comes He says,"This is enow
Unto itself - 'twere better let it be,
It is so small and full,there is no room for me."
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Alright, that is a great deal of lofty and deep for the day. Going to find a bowl of cereal and see what's on E or Style.